Welcome to Sicily Anywhere

Hi there! Welcome to my fancy new blog, Sicily Anywhere (actually not that fancy).

I’m Joe – I’m Sicilian by ethnicity, Philadelphian by birth, Californian by adoption and I currently live in Germany. I have moved a lot in my life; I will probably move again. I’m married, and I have a dog, Lexi, who is my kitchen sidekick.

Lexi Pupúl
Lexi – you can follow her on Instagram @lexifoxterriersmooth

I’m neither a professional writer nor a professional cook though I have been both. I’ve taught cooking classes and even done a little consulting on Italian food & wine. I travel to Sicily frequently and sometimes I’m lucky enough to be invited to people’s homes to see their food traditions in action.

I had a blog once before, in the internet Stone Age (2004-2007). It was called Omnivorous Fish and it was pretty popular. I wrote about cooking and restaurants and sustainable agriculture and did a lot of musing about adulthood (and my resistance to it).

In other words, I have no real credentials whatsoever.

Guides for “first blog posts” usually advise saying something about my intended audience. But the truth is, I don’t have one.

I write about things that interest me, with Sicily as a center of gravity. I’m as accurate as I can be and I’m honest about the limits of my knowledge. I try to write about Sicily – its cooking, culture and language – as it is today, without the wispy veneer of romance that blankets so much writing about the island. Sicily is not a period drama.

I write about cooking, both the study of it and the act of doing it. I don’t live in Sicily and it’s not likely I ever will, so part of the experience I have to share is adapting Sicilian cooking to other places I’ve lived.

I love to cook and I’m undaunted by a complicated recipe, but I still need to get dinner on the table most nights after working a full day. While I won’t claim to be a quick-and-easy recipes blogger, many of the dishes I cook are simple and fast.

And while I certainly won’t claim to be a healthy cooking blogger, nearly everything I cook is from scratch. I’m not vegetarian but we don’t eat much meat compared to most people and Sicilian cooking is a reflection of its incredible fruits and vegetables and its being surrounded by three distinct seas. Many Sicilian recipes are already vegan and many more are easily adapted.

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Joe – note he never shuts up

So, if you find any of these things interesting, then my target audience is you!

Thanks for taking a step with me on this journey.

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