Oh Modica — Word of Mouth

In Sicily, I based most of my time in Modica. It’s a city in the province of Ragusa which is in the south part of Sicily. It’s about an hour and a half away from Catania. Even though it’s a lot smaller than Palermo (the Sicilian capital) and Catania (the second largest city in Sicily), Modica has been around from around 1360BC which just defies comprehension from where I live in Sydney.

UNESCO World Heritage listed Duomo di San Pietro in the middle of Modica.

When Modica was in its foundation, Sydney would’ve still had giant koalas dropping from mega-prehistoric gum trees and giant kangaroos boxing-out giant cockroaches (cue Jurassic Park theme song).

What a wonderful world (cue Louis Armstrong)!

Focus Tak… this is not a karaoke medley.

Anyway, Modica is a beautiful city from close-up and also from afar. I love how houses and houses are stacked on top of another. The streets are narrow and it’s like walking in an Alice in Wonderland maze.

Stacked up houses like a giant sandwich tower.

Never ending corridors in a giant life-size maze… forget about Google maps.

Whilst I was in this awesome city, I stayed with my Sicilian brother Salvo. Apart from sharing a passion for surfing (yeah, apparently you can surf very occasionally in Modica), the ocean and travelling, we are both crazy about good food… which means sometimes you have to bend the rules to fit in all the good food available… like gelato for breakfast.

Salvo’s breakfast. An alternative to bacon and eggs… gelato in a brioche bun.

Salvo is part-owner and manager of Convivio pizzeria in Modica. The pizzeria is truly awesome (I’ve made a video episode on this and it will be the last episode in the series). From the very first pizza I had at Convivio, I was hooked.

The first pizza I had was FOUR types of pizza on one pizza base… yeah, I got carried away. We’ve all done two types of pizzas on one pizza but this greedy pig, yours truly, had a different pizza per quarter. Little did I know at the time that over the next month, I’d be eating A LOT of pizzas and I’d become like a Ninja turtle without weapons but with a camera instead.

The four quarters (riveting like a great NBA Finals final game) were the following…

First quarter: guanciale (pork cheeks), potato, onion, rosemary on a white-based pizza.

Second quarter: lightly battered cod fish chili, potato, capers on a white-based pizza.

Third quarter: alina (small fish), capers, onion, tomoto-based pizza.

Fourth quarter: eggplant, guanciale on a tomato-based pizza.

Needless to say the toppings are nothing short of amazing, all sourced locally. The pizza dough is made from local Sicilian grains. Apparently there are over 100types of grains in Sicily and since the soil is so rich, the flour that is derived is top quality. I was told that Sicilian flour has less gluten and higher protein than normal flour. Maybe this was the reason why I could have pizzas day-in, day-out and not get sick of it.

Can you taste the difference between normal pizza dough and ones using Sicilian flour? Sure can! In my non-food critic but foody perspective, it had a very subtle sweetness to it: crusty on the outside and soft when you bite in to it. Oh, the taste buds went wild!

I spent the next three weeks in Modica filming all types of food processes: ancient Aztec-inspired artisan chocolate, homemade bread, herb gardens, gelato-making, handmade cheese, etc.

I’ve edited six episodes which I’m excited to share.

Stay tuned!