Sicily Fest London 2018

Pop up market Sicily began in 2012 in Sicily's second largest city, Catania.

The market is a mixture of apparel, handmade accessories, art and design all made in Sicily accompanied by Sicilian musicians, local food and drinks. It has been made into a regular event and after just two years it became one of the most important markets in Italy.

It has been featured in Glamour Italia, Vanity Fair, Vogue and many more publications. The market takes place around once a month in historical locations in and around Catania and this weekend for the fourth time it came to London at a new location, The Boiler House in The Old Truman Brewery, which is located in the popular East London area of Brick Lane.

Created to bring to London an authentic Sicilian experience Pop Up Market Sicily transformed The Boiler House into a traditional Sicilian street market, just like the ones in Catania, but without the Sicilian sun and Mount Etna keeping a watchful eye, however the British late summer sun did come out to bless us this weekend.

Spanning from Friday evening and all weekend we decided to visit on Sunday as we knew that our friend and favourite Sicilian chef Enzo Oliveri from the London restaurant Tasting Sicily UK Enzo's Kitchen would be putting on a special treat with a cooking demonstration and tasting session.

The Boiler House is an industrial red brick warehouse on Brick Lane with heaps of character, a very high ceiling, large windows, skylights and many original features such as the Truman chimney. The building dates back to the 1830's.

Our first visit to Pop Up Market Sicily was in London's Spitalfield's market in 2015, we have unfortunately missed the past two as we were in sunny Sicily.

My lovely friend Carola from Rome had visited on Saturday and excitedly messaged me to say "Sarah, the Sicilian market is great!!!!!! Oh my god and so full of people" My reply was "Have you had Arancini?" she replied immediately "Of course".

On arrival yesterday we felt as if we had been transported back to Sicily straight into the middle of a Catania market and were greeted by huge banners declaring "Sicily, Love at First Bite".

 This year the Fest was on a much larger scale than before. Stalls included local produce and drinks such as Etna wines, liqueurs, amaro, gin (more about that later), olive oil, jars of Sicilian sunshine in the form of honey, marmalades, jams, pesto, caponata and preserved artichokes, tempting sweets and biscuits, gelato, cheeses and cooked meats. Food available to be savoured and eaten included panelle, pasta, arancini, Sicilian style fried fish served in paper cones and my personal addiction, cannolo.

The lovely guys at Etnacoffee who with two stalls had people queuing in long lines for their delicious Arancini and Cannoli. The cannoli tubes were being freshly filled quicker than I have ever witnessed.

The in house bar served up cocktails with names such as Montalbano gin, Sicily sun and Sicilian spritz amongst bottles of Etna red wine and Sicilian craft beers.

We arrived just in time to find Chef Enzo perusing the many stalls looking for local produce and ingredients for his cooking demo. We headed up to the mezzanine level and waited eagerly for the master chef to work his magic. Upstairs there was a small art exhibition with work by 'Pop Art and Comics Umberto Gagliano" whose artwork depicts reinterpretations of folklore, traditions and places from Catania in a pop art style together with "Ciulla Art" who create digital prints from symbols and images of Sicily merged with ones from London.

Chef Enzo declared that today he would showing us how to prepare cous cous.

This typically Arabic dish made its way into the cuisine of Sicily with the Arab conquest which began in AD827. It is a very popular dish served with seafood on the western side of Sicily. Every year there is a cous cous festival in San Vito Lo Capo, a stunning seaside village on the north-western coast of Sicily near Trapani.

After telling us about the history and origins of cous cous Chef Enzo showed us how to prepare the cous cous and what to add to give it depth and flavour adding to it chopped tomatoes, lemon, artichokes and olive oil then giving us samples to taste and then adding more ingredients such as pesto, caponata and olives.

He also prepared and let us taste fresh bread topped with provolone cheese drizzled with either honey or Niru d'Amuri, which is a creamy thick Sicilian chocolate liqueur,  he then sprinkled chopped pistachio nuts on top. The taste was like a Sicilian explosion in our mouths.

All products that he used were from traders at the Fest.

It was a pleasure to meet the family behind Niru d'Amuri, who made a big fuss of our dog Daisy. This chocolate liqueur has a unique and velvety texture and is hand made from beginning to end by the producers. It is delicious enjoyed on its own or try it on top of puddings and ice cream.

It was also lovely to see Emilia from Strazzanti who was also visiting the Fest. It was great to hear about her upcoming plans for more Sicilian supper clubs in London, so sign up to the Strazzanti newsletter to receive updates and news or follow her on social media.

Now back to that gin ... over the last five years the trend of drinking gin in the UK has continued to rise every year with gin tasting becoming increasingly popular, so I was delighted to be able to taste 'Panarea Gin'. The Inga Family chose the brand "Panarea" as a statement of their heritage. Panarea is one of the Aeolian Islands that sit like gems off the northern coast of Sicily. This refreshing gin is made using a combination of juniper and myrtle berries and citrus peels from the island. This gin was delightful to taste and held a lovely aroma and fragrance.

As more and more people arrived to enjoy a Sicilian experience it was soon time to leave.

Sicily Fest was a great day out, Daisy our dog loved it. Everyone was so lovely and as always with all things Sicilian we walked away after making wonderful new friends.

A big thank you to the organisers of Pop Up Market Sicily for bringing a piece of Sicily to London once again and for appeasing my withdrawal symptoms of missing Sicily, for a little while anyway, as we prepare to drive Daisy home to her Sicilian house in a couple of weeks time. We are looking forward to many adventures including the wine harvest and olive picking. So watch this space.

I am now signing off and going to go and pour myself a large refreshing gin and tonic, Salut !!!

For Market news and updates
Follow "Pop Up Market Sicily" on:
Instagram www.instagram.com/popupmarketsicily/

For Sicilian Cooking Classes in London
with Chef Enzo Oliveri visit
https://www.tastingsicily.restaurant/


Photo Gallery


























Thank you for following me on
White Almond Sicily Blog

I am also a Contributor on

For NEW Blog updates and all thing Sicilian
you also follow me on 


For Travel Tips, Trip Advice and Recommendations 

Love Sarah & Daisy x

Daisy was rescued and adopted from North London charity
'All Dogs Matter'
They have many wonderful dogs waiting for their
forever home just like Daisy found,
visit their website at www.alldogsmatter.co.uk

Popular posts from this blog

The Sicilian Day of the Dead

Image
The Day of the Dead is most well known as the Mexican holiday called 'Día de Muertos'.  This holiday involves family and friends gathering to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died and to help support their spiritual journey. In 2008, the tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, the same as our fascinating Puppet Theatres that we have in Sicily who are also on this list. In recent years the festival has moved out of cemeteries and is now celebrated in the form of parties and parades including the annual Day of the Dead parade.  However have you heard about the Sicilian Day of the Dead? The Sicilian Day of The Dead or in Sicilian, 'U Juornu re Muorti' is celebrated on the 2nd November. The history of this festival goes way back to the 7th Century and it was traditionally a day to honour all the world's Saints. All Saints Day known as 'Ognissanti' in Italy falls on Nov
Read more

Forza d'Agro

Image
In the Godfather Part I, when Michael Corleone (Al  Pacino) and his two bodyguards are walking in the hills, they see a picturesque village in the distance, they point and remark “Corleone”. The town in the distance is in fact Forza d' Agro a short drive from Taormina. Forza d’Agro is an ancient hill-top town and is a warren of narrow streets and tiny houses leading up to a ruined Norman castle. Most of the stone paved lanes here are impassable by cars. The town was also used as a filming location for The Godfather Part II and III. In the opening scene of The Godfather Part II, following the assassination of young Vito Corleone’s father, the funeral procession was shot in the dry riverbed below Forza d’Agro, Michael’s older brother is assassinated in this scene after being found hiding in the hills. Following this his mother is also brutally murdered, and so being the only surviving male, Vito Corleone must escape Sicily and with the help of local residents he c
Read more

25 Sicilian Myths and Legends

Image
Sicily is a place full of myths and legends and there are many stories associated with the island. From the stories of nymphs and gods from Greek and Roman mythology to tragic love stories from an exotic era when the island was under Arabic, Norman and Spanish rule. Some stories have happy endings and some not so happy endings.  What is a legend? Legends are stories which are thought to be based on true events but have developed fictional elements that have deep significance to the culture from which they originate. For example historians claim that King Arthur really existed but his existence is shrouded in different legends, such as is his final resting place on Mount Etna?  What is a myth? Myths are stories derived from cultural traditions or legends most of which have a deep symbolic meaning and usually involve a lesson that will be helpful to the listener or reader. Mythical characters are often non-human in some form or related to a god or supernatural being, often set in ancient
Read more