Sicily

Italy. I have never met anyone who has said they don’t want to go to Italy, have you? Italy is an extravagant place to see it a different culture to see and new flavors and place to explore. So let’s narrow it down to a specific location in Italy… how about Sicily? Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea; along with surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Siciliana (Sicilian Region). Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean and the population is around 5.048 million people. The average daytime temperature is about 13°c/55°f and the average sea temperature is about 15°c/59°f.

From 734bc-800ad lots of things happened. For example; In 734bc The Greek colony of Siracusa, on the southeast coast of Sicily was first founded. The colonist began crops to suit their already, complex palette, and they introduces gapes, figs, pomegranates, wheat, walnuts, and hazelnuts. They also planted olive trees which lead to the very well known Sicilian wines. With honey that the native bees made, the Greeks used it as an offering to Aphrodite (the god of love).

In 880ad 10,000 Arab troops landed on Sicily’s western coast and began to conquer over the Greeks. The Arabs quickly succeeded and the Arabs took over Sicily. While the Arabs were in power they introduced cash crops, which are crops that can be sold for very good profits that are better for the economy. Some of the things that the Arabs introduced were things like; cotton, linen, rice, and sugar cane. The Arabs introduced and propagated -breed specimens of (a plant, animal, etc.) by natural processes from the parent stock- preexisting crops in the Greek gardens such as; lemons, bitter orange, bananas, date palms, pistachios, mulb...

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...lour, and served with baskets of fresh fruit and sweet wine after a meal. Malvasia was also popular, that is basically sweet wine made by crushing fresh and dried grapes together. And anther popular dish was Tyropatinum– custard made of ricotta honey and eggs.

After the Arabs arrived ‘Sherbat’ or better known as sherbert was very popular. Flowering Jasmine, Roses and bergamot were used fro flavorings and snow from Mt. Etna was used for the ice. Cannoli and Cassata the most famous Italian desserts can be traced back to 1000-1200ad. Pistachio Di Pollo is a perfect example of an Arab Legacy because this dish contains olives, capers, and pistachios which all play a huge role in Arab cuisine. The dish is made by pounding out chicken breasts, wrapping them in mozzarella, and olives, decorated with other fillings and to finish with a layer of parmesan and pistachio crust.