04/06/2025: Complete Trapani-style menu that ends with cassatelle with ricotta. Efficient service, average price
17/05/2025: Arriving in Palermo late at night, we began our breathtaking culinary journey, and decided to have our glorious first meal of couscous. Couscous, which means small pasta shaped like millet, is a traditional dish from North Africa.
Since it is close to North Africa, it is also enjoyed in Sicily, and in the case of Sicilian couscous, the geographical characteristics combine to use fish as the base. Originally, meat such as lamb and beef were used.
I found the couscous shop introduced by ‘Spuppa’, which gave me this knowledge about couscous, and there are two stores in Palermo. I went to the main store, but ‘Spuppa’ has a branch store that is a bit far from the city center.
I ordered the signature Trapani-style couscous, and the price was not bad at 15 euros per person. The wine list was mainly Sicilian wines, so I paired it with a bottle of Chardonnay.
Couscous comes with the stew, and the stew is served separately in a large pot, so you can scoop out a little bit according to your taste and put it on the couscous. There was a fish, presumably sea bass, in the pot.
I took the fish meat and put it on the couscous, and the meat was well seasoned because it soaked in the stew. Since the couscous was already mixed in the stew, I tasted it without the stew at first.
It looked like powder, but when I put the couscous in my mouth, I felt a thick texture and a subtle savory taste reminiscent of breadcrumbs. Because of the stew, the texture was like mixing rice in spicy stew.
The stew also tasted like spicy stew like couscous, but the difference was that it wasn't spicy and had a strong tomato flavor. Still, it was refreshing and had a fishy taste, so I wanted to eat it smoothly.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a spoon, so I tried to eat it on couscous, and it became saltier and gradually became a drinking snack. Even though I kept adding stew, the couscous absorbed it and the soup didn't stick well.
Overall, it tasted better than I expected, but it was a couscous that didn't fail, and I think it's hard for it not to suit the taste of Koreans. I drank a glass of the digestif that I received as a service and left feeling good.
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