What's that? Granita is Italian ice, but you can find the best in Sicily. If you came to visits Sicilian cities remember to sitting in the café in the morning and having a Granita di Limone and brioche for breakfast. Yes, in the summer in Sicily, granita and gelato are breakfast foods. You can experience lemon taste, or coffee or (probably the best) almond.

Finally, don't forget the “cassata”, a Sicilian dessert which owes its existence to the medieval Arabs of Sicily.

How this occurred is a question of agriculture. The Arabs introduced sugar cane, and this revolutionised Sicilian cooking. Before the ninth century local honey was used to sweeten Sicilian pastries.

Cassata is a tort of plain white cake filled with the same sheep's milk ricotta (cottage cheese), topped with frosting and sugared fruits. It is traditionally a winter and spring dessert served around Easter; in Sicily sheep produce little milk in summer, and frostings would melt under the torrid heat. Its name is believed to derive from the medieval Arabic kas'at in reference either to its circular form (more precisely the pan used to mold it) or the word for cheese products (cascio akin to casein).

Jewels from Sea

The best Sicilian seafood dish made with pasta is finnochio con sarde (fennel with sardines). But don't miss (for no reason!) rolled stuffed slices of swordfish, you can find the best in eastern Sicily.

Strange balls of rice

Like the cuisine of the rest of southern Italy, pasta plays an important part in Sicilian cuisine, as does rice: for example with arancini, glorified deep-fried stuffed rice croquettes, celebrated in a recent best-selling Italian novel (“Montalbano's Arancini”, by Andrea Camilleri). The original recipe takes 2days to cook…

Also important are cheeses, Sicily has spawned some of its own, using both cows and sheeps milk, such as pecorino and caciocavallo. Spices used include saffron, nutmeg, clove, pepper, and cinnamon which were introduced by the Arabs.

Other delights

If you are a vegetarian, don't miss caponata, a tasty salad made with eggplant (aubergines), olives, capers and celery, makes a great appetizer. There is also an artichoke-based version of this traditional dish, though you're less likely to find it in most restaurants.

Sfincione is a local form of pizza made with tomatoes, onions and (sometimes) anchovies, you can find it in Palermo. Prepared on a thick bread and more likely found in a bakery than in a pizzeria, sfincione is good as a snack or appetizer.

Panella is a thin paste made of crushed or powdered ceci (garbanzo) beans and served fried. It's a Palermo specialty. Maccu is a creamy soup made from the same bean.

CamSur was a great place, and Bicol as a whole.

Shopping was also fun especially for souvenir and pasalubong items, however, it was so sad to note that there are merchandisers who take advantage of visitors.

One comment I would like to throw has something to do with the Pili nut products. We were accompanied by an acquaintance to PNR, Legazpi City with the thought of buying cheap but quality pili nut products, however, it was some sort of deceit.

As we were entering the compound, a guy approached us and offered his merch. Our companions started buying and so did we. The person who accompanied us there was very silent....maybe he was ashamed to tell us that that was not supposed to be the person whom we should buy from. An old woman approached one of my companions and told her that she has merch in her house, so she followed. That was where we were supposed to buy. The products were pure Pili Nut.

As we were leaving the compound, we found out that the Pili nuts packed in plastic bottles that we bought from the man who met us are not pure pili nuts. Only the walls of the bottles were lined up with real nuts and the center filled with caramelized sugar.

We were cheated of course. A waste of money. I hope the local government and the provincial DTI office could monitor this matter. We must consider that both domestic and foreign tourists could help promote these products by word of mouth. We were so disappointed about it.

On our way home, we dropped by the fruit stalls along the highway at Laguna to buy Lanzones and Rambutans. While inside the vehicle, we doubted on the weight so upon reaching home, we weighed the fruits only to find out that it is short of one-fourth kilo. How can those people manage to cheat other people who pay fairly and contribute to their livelihood.

I hope that through this blog, it could somehow reach the concerned so that they could do something to correct this. Tourism is livelihood, therefore tourists should be treated fairly.