The best way to get to know Sicilian and Palermo culture is through food, or rather street food. Throughout Sicily, but especially in Palermo, street food is part of the cultural heritage, an ancient and still living tradition. It is no coincidence that Palermo is one of the world capitals of Street Food.
In this article we take a journey through strong and inviting, acrid and delicate smells through the streets of Palermo to discover the city's best street food.
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Street Food Palermo
Thinking of street food in Palermo brings to mind the narrow, noisy alleyways or the squares where steaming stalls are laid out, preparing sandwiches and fried food. Palermo's street food has very ancient origins, to be found in popular traditions. The filling of the arancina, for example, dates back to the period of Arab domination, while fried chickpeas and potatoes are an ancient popular legacy.
In the past, food was prepared from the leftovers of the rich on the ground floor of old houses. In ancient times it was the buffittieri who ran the street kitchen in Palermo, selling popular, poor food on shelves and counters set up in the street.
The best cheap food in Palermo is to be found in the alleyways and in the historic district markets where you will find numerous equipped lapini serving the best street food in the city. But what to eat? Here's the list of things you absolutely must eat in Palermo.
Arancina
The great pride of Palermo cuisine, the arancine. Saffron rice timbales with peas, minced meat and caciocavallo cheese. In the original version, arancine are made with minced salami rather than meat (or with the addition of both). In Piazza Don Bosco go to Bar Alba where they are exceptional.
Always hot and fragrant. One last recommendation, to request them use the female form!
Panelle
Chickpea flour fritters that can be eaten either seasoned with salt and lemon or served inside a sesame bun together with rice croquettes. This simple and delicious dish is a tasty legacy Panelle, like so many other traditional Sicilian dishes, are also a legacy of Arab domination. Where to taste the best? At the Antica friggitoria (Via Palmeri 4) or at Franco ù Vastiddaru (Piazza Marina)
Rascatura
This dish is the forerunner of street food and the skill of reusing leftovers by panellarians who put together what is left in the corners of the pans in which the potatoes are kneaded for cazzilli or the chickpeas for panelle. These leftovers instead of being thrown away are turned into a tasty fried leftover. Where to eat it? At Zio Nino's (via Generale Giuseppe Arimondi 14)
Pani ca' Muesa
A soft bun stuffed with chunks of spleen, lung, and sometimes calf's trachea, dipped in saimi (lard) and eaten in vastedda (typical round bun sprinkled with sesame seeds).
Order it marinated if you want it with the addition of ricotta and caciocavallo cheese, plain if you prefer it simply drizzled with lemon drops. The best pani ca'meusa is made by the Focacceria di San Francesco, since 1843. Franco 'U Vastiddaru is another wizard of the spleen sandwich and specialises in fried food of all kinds.
Cazzilli
Palermo's cazzilli are typical potato croquettes that take this name because of their elongated shape. You can find them in any fried food shop, you can eat them alone in a paper cup or in a sandwich together with panelle.
Sfinciuni
We cannot forget to mention the legendary sfinciuni, a tall, soft pizza topped with tomato, onion, anchovies and caciocavallo cheese, and the exquisiteapanella, perhaps the queen of Palermo's street food.
Stigghiole
Stigghiole are lamb entrails cooked on a spit. Where to eat them?
At the Vucciria or at Giovanni lo Stigghiolaro on Via Filippo Pecoraino in the Brancaccio industrial area.
Octopus
Octopus is also one of the must-try dishes in Palermo, served boiled and seasoned with lemon. The best place to taste it? At the Vucciria or the Ballarò Market.
Palermo sweets
Cannoli, cassatine, doughnuts, ice cream and granite. You will lose your head for Palermo's typical sweets. Around the city you will find many good pastry shops, but the ones we recommend are Cappello, Caffè Spinnato, Alba and Accardi.
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Where to eat
In the city's markets, Ballarò, Vucciria and Borgo the buffittieri have not disappeared. Between one purchase and another you can nibble and taste the best of Palermo's street food. Expanses of tempting arancine (fried rice balls) and golden panelle peep out from the vendors' counters.
At the Vucciria go to the purparo: it sells freshly caught octopus. Some he cooks in a pot with salted water and within minutes the octopus is on display on the counter, to be eaten on the spot with lemon and parsley. The purpo together with the cicireddu, fried fish served in frying shops, is the only type of fish that can be eaten on the street.
Other addresses include:
Ballarò Market
La Vucciria
Antica Focacceria S. Francesco, in Via Alessandro Paternostro, 58
Franco U' Vastiddaru, Via Vittorio Emanuele 102
Porta Carbone Kiosk (for Pani Ca' Meusa)
Giovanni lo Stigghiolaro, Via Filippo Pecoraino
I cuochini, Via Ruggero Settimo 68
Via Maqueda
Nino u Ballerino
Street Food Festival in Palermo
For an entire weekend, Palermo is transformed into a huge table that welcomes street fooders from all over the world with competitions and tastings. The European capital of street food hosts the International Street Food Festival every year.
The official website provides information on dates and related events.
Palermo Street Food Map
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