50 Shades of Delicious: 2 Chewsy for the Catwalk

We took a trip to Sicily this past summer and have recently been missing this island (the largest in the Mediterranean). It is officially a part of Italy, but could very well be its own country with the diversity of culture and cuisine.   It reminded FloJo of her visit to Spain and Portugal and how different the cuisine and culture can be even though these countries are like two side-by-side states. Sicilian cuisine has it's foundation as Italian, but it is spiced and flavored by the rich and mixed history of this island having been invaded by the Arabs, Normans, Greeks and Spanish over the last few thousand years.  The cuisine has literally incorporated influences from all of these invasions to form how inhabitants eat today. For example, the Spaniards introduced the island to foods like corn, turkey, cocoa from the New World. The Arabs brought citrus fruits and spices like saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and cloves. Pasta alla Norma We saw eggplant featur...

Betsy, our recent guest blogger, put the idea of melted cheese and thinly sliced grilled meat all wrapped up in delicious bun into our brains.  So we had to find some local West Coast versions of the Philly cheesesteak to satisfy our cravings. The trailer New Brick and Mortar We started with our go-to place Philly Boys Cheesesteaks, which we've been going to since they were a bright, yellow trailer (roughly the color of the cheese whiz used to make the cheesesteaks).  Now they've moved into a brick and mortar building right by where they were originally located with the trailer, which tells you business is good. What's so great about this place?  Simple, they keep it simple-- crusty Italian bread, your choice of white cheese (Provolone) or "whiz" and thinly shaved, grilled meat.  The bread is from Borracchini's Bakery , an Italian bakery serving Seattle since 1922.  The meat's top round, it has onions mixed in and salt and pepper-- e...

We've been busy with tax season and project deadlines so we've enlisted a good friend and guest contributor Betsy aka BoBro to explore the iconic Philly Cheesesteak sending her back to the source Philadelphia.  Here are her impressions of that delicacy and some bonus food items--   Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. ― Benjamin Franklin The Famous Philly Cheesesteak First, lets get the cheesesteaks out of the way. Philly cheesesteaks just happen to be one of my favorite fast food items so I was excited to try several Philly cheesesteaks actually IN Philly. Pat Olivieri and his brother are credited with inventing the Philly cheesesteak in the early 1930s but several people warned me against Pats King of Steaks so I didn’t go there. Instead I tried a highly rated neighborhood joint called Ishkabibbles and a street cart called straightforwardly Philly Cheese Steak. Both were dee-licious!   Ishkabibbles , 337 South Street Philadelphia,...