[Dec. 2023] After I was bedridden for a few days in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, we went to a restaurant near our accommodation on the day of my recovery.
It’s called Trattoria il Cambusone, and it mainly serves seafood.
It’s not pretentious at all, and customers came in one after another, which gave me a good impression.
There was an Asian man eating alone, and a white man with a woman who was probably Korean, so it might be in an Asian guidebook.
We liked this restaurant, so we visited it again later in the trip, and when my husband asked about it, one of the owners said, “A person who runs a Sicilian restaurant in Japan often comes here and asks for the recipe.”
The second time, there was a couple among the customers who I assumed were Korean, but I was surprised to hear Japanese.
It’s hard to tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean these days.
Well, when we went there the first time, I didn’t have enough energy to eat a lot, so I only had the swordfish main course.
It was lightly fried, just like the Sicilian restaurant we sometimes go to in Milan.
It was called Spada Panato, and I guess it’s the Sicilian way of eating swordfish.
My husband had the seafood fried platter that he had read good reviews about online.
He was disappointed that there was only shrimps, squids, and sardines, so there wasn’t much variety, but the tastes were good apparently.
For dessert, I had a modest lemon sorbet, and my husband had a tiramisu with Marsala.
Marsala is a Sicilian drink, after all.
He said it had a subtle Marsala flavour.
With half a litter of house wine, the total came to €48, very reasonable.
The portions were ample, the food was delicious, and I was satisfied.
As for our second visit to this restaurant, for the appetizer, we shared an octopus salad (octopus and potatoes are common in northern Italy, but here it’s octopus, tomatoes and olives).
For the main I had a grilled seafood platter.
It was white fish, swordfish fillets and scampi, and the scampi in particular was sweet and delicious.
The white fish also had a good strong flavour, too.
My husband had fried baccalà (dried salted cod) for the main course.
It was fried, but not too heavy and he said it tasted good.
For dessert, we shared a tricolour ice cream and had a half litter of wine, and this time, the total came to €63.
In terms of value, I think this was the best restaurant on this trip.
