Dinner with The Godfather ...

Head to head, we tackle the horse on our plates...

Twenty or so of us gather in another of Catania’s many horse meat restaurants, this one located opposite an enormous castle situated behind the ruins of Catania. After exchanging kisses and hugs hello we get down to the nitty gritty, four bottles of local red wine are ordered and we are given plates for the Antipasti buffet. Before the antipasti are finished plates of horse meat are laid in front of us. The plates consist of a horse meat meatball, a horsemeat cut/steak and a Sicilian sausage, seasoned and filled with mozzarella. The girls look at me astonished, ‘This is too much food.’ I tell them to take their time and enjoy the meat. Mmmmm, this is probably one of my favourite Sicilian cuisines and packed with iron, horse meat is advised to eat once a week by Sicilian doctors. Throughout the meal, our Sicilian hosts watch in apprehension as we tuck into our food. ‘I know you can eat,’ The Sicilian’s friend says to me, ‘but what about the rest of you?’ Head to head, we tackle the horse on our plates, both Kimmie and I manage to give some food to some of our fellow diners, Angel Rae loosens her belt as she struggles, Genevieve hides her food with other food on her plate and GiGi slowly but surely manages to finish everything on her plate. She is crowned ‘The Honour of the Table,’ (a title I have earned at The Sicilian’s family home) and applauded her for her achievement. Complimentary of the restaurant we are given a plate of Involtini (a tenderised piece of meat, rolled up, stuffed with mozzarella and bread crumbs) for the table to share and a glass of Limoncello each.
Feeling uncomfortably full, we head to the Sicilian’s sister’s friend’s summer house overlooking the sea for after dinner drinks and ice cream.

The Honour of the Table

Dinner With The Godfather & Family

The Sicilian’s godfather stroke uncle and his wife, The Sicilian’s aunt insists on having all five of us for dinner. Dressed in our most family friendly attire we prepare ourselves for dinner with the family – and I finally christen my red Miu Miu’s. The dinner sitting consists of the girls and myself, The Sicilian, his sister, their mum and dad, the godfather and the Sicilian’s aunt, their three daughters, the youngest who speaks perfect English with an American accent (she learnt while hosting an American girl in Sicily), the daughter’s husbands and partners, the two elder sister’s children; three little boys, the oldest a child Benetton model and the sassiest little seven year old girl I ever met, she was a little madam who spent most of the evening bossing the boys around, showing off and being cheeky to her mum. ‘Remind you of someone, does she?’ Kimmie asked me, sarcastically.

Angel Rae whispers to me, ‘The family aren’t eating the way we are.’

The Sicilian’s aunt is famous for her pan fried Veal Escallops and we are, by now famous for our food consumption – it’s a perfect match. The spread of food is once again overwhelming, salami, Parma ham, pecorino, zuzzo (which looks like jellied spam to me and I’ve never been brave enough to try it), oven baked potatoes covered in rosemary, olive oil and chopped onions with Sicilian seasoned sausage, a huge bowl of rice salad, chicken and veal escallops.

We sit around the table and wait for someone more familiar to begin digging in. ‘Start!’ The Sicilian’s godfather insists – we are told to eat everything, anything left over won’t be taken lightly. So we begin. Kimmie takes potatoes, rice, cheese, salami, escallops all for the taking, the godfather watches, amused – of course in Sicily they eat by first plate and second plate, never mixing meats with the first plate. The godfather offers to give Kimme a pizza plate, ‘That should be big enough for you to fit everything on.’ He jokes.

Myself and Angel Rae both keep an eye on the potatoes and sausages, we really don’t want it to go before we get to it, but both of us are too polite to dive in – of course we have already had our first round, but with the food tasting so good the glutton in you unwillingly shows itself. Half way through the meal Angel Rae whispers to me, ‘The family aren’t eating the way we are.’ To be honest I hadn’t noticed, the escallops are out of this world and I’m just trying to figure out how I can make space for more.

After dinner we sit in the garden, where we talk to The Sicilian’s cousin, she speaks perfect English with an American accent, she learnt by hosting an American girl living in Sicily.
The tray of sweet pastries, cakes, cannoli’s and tarts we collected from the bar on the way were brought out and laid on the table, the food consumption began yet again – the crowd formed around the table. Each to their own!

Kimmie works her charm with the Surfer dude...
For after dinner drinks we head into Catania City Centre for student night, where we meet an old school friend of The Sicilian’s, a surfer who spends half the year surfing in Catania - where he owns a surf school and the other half the year in Costa Rica. He invites us all to surf with him, before I can politely decline, The Sicilian kindly interjects for me, ‘She doesn’t do water, she has a problem with her hair.’ Err – the reason I DON’T have a problem with my hair is my adversity to water – THANK YOU.
Genevieve, GiGi, Angel Rae and myself spend the rest of the night man watching, while Kimmie works her charm with the Surfer dude.

Taormina and La Isola Bella

Angel Rae disgusted, screws her face up at the Sicilian man’s choice of swimming trunk...

We decide to have a day at the beach, although this was not particularly on mine or Genevieve's agenda, the rest of the girls all have tanning on their schedules and with the weather heating up we, head to Taormina.

Taormina is a town that come summer or winter is always brimming – the Sicilian’s, the Italian’s, general tourists, weddings and film festivals are all in Taormina. The Sicilian and I spent our Valentines here this year. Before making our way up to the town we stop off at Taormina’s infamous beach, La Isola Bella (the beautiful beach). We are joined by The Sicilian’s friends, we’ll call them Lothario Roma and Costanzo.

The Sicilian, Lothario and Costanzo strip down to their trunks and head off into the sea, Angel Rae disgusted, screws her face up at the Sicilian man’s choice of swimming trunk or should we call them Speedos. Of course I have forbidden The Sicilian from wearing such a thing, but Lothario and Costanzo and most Sicilian men see no problem with donning these – these – knickers!

‘They’re just hideous!’ Angel Rae goes on, ‘Why should they think they can wear those things?’
Next to join the guys in the sea are Genevieve and Kimmie – Kimmie slips into the water and swims off, only to notice that she has left Genevieve somewhat behind. From the shore myself, GiGi and Angel Rae can hear a loud rip of laughter coming from the sea, this is Kimmie cackling at poor Genevieve as she not only gets bashed against the rocks by the waves, but loses her bikini top in the process. When Genevieve returns her back is red and bruised!

Costanzo gets us some beers and for the first time in ages we talk about something aside from food – relationships. Recently single, Kimmie has concluded that relationships are ‘Rubbish’ and with two single men both once broken hearted as her audience, they can’t help but to agree.
After finishing our beers and enduring the looks of the other Sicilian sunbathers who have barely managed to peel their eyes away from us, we head up to the town.

Kimmie claiming that one of the brides looks like a hippo...

On our brief stay at Toarmina we witness at least five weddings, Kimmie claiming that one of the brides looks like a hippo - Genevieve angrily grunts at Kimmie’s harsh words. Taormina is a beautiful, picturesque romantic town, filled with beautiful churches, an amazing view of Sicily and some absolutely amazing restaurants. Shopping in Taormina is expensive, it’s literally all high fashion. I found myself mentally coaching myself away from all the gleaming shop windows.

Before sitting down for a drink we bump into possibly the best looking Sicilian man the girls get to witness on the holiday – from a very wealthy Catanese family, and the other half of the couple who own the resort we’re staying in – we’ll call him Angiolucci.

Angiolucci introduces himself to my friends and Angel Rae and Kimmie struggle to hold back their winning smiles as they kiss him hello. Angiolucci is dressed in a suit, attending one of the many weddings taking place in Taormina today.

‘Who the hell is that?’ Angel Rae whispers to me. ‘Married with child,’ I answer.

Me and Angel Rae are playing staring games with the Italian and Sicilian passersby ...

We sit in a bar watching the passersby of Taormina with a bottle of local wine. Considering we’re in the heart of the touristy Taormina the local wine is surprisingly cheap – we ching our glasses, ‘Salute!’ The wine tastes absolutely amazing, we all mmm and aah as we drink, this could possibly be the best local wine I’ve had on my Sicilian travels and The Sicilian agrees.

We’re all pretty tired and trying to stay lively, Genevieve looks red from the sun, Kimmie is striking up conversation with Lothario Roma, me and Angel Rae are playing staring games with the Italian and Sicilian passersby and GiGi, just about to take a sip of her wine – PLOP! A seagull decides to locate its toilet right in her glass of beautiful, full bodied, local red wine – of course for GiGi this doesn’t go down too well! But it certainly makes us forget our tiredness and stupid games for a moment.

We get back to our apartment with bottles of wine for us and a crate of beers for The Sicilian. We chill for a few hours, The Sicilian takes a nap and we drink some Fragolino, looking back on the holiday so far...

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