Flowery Floats, Vintage Cars, BEST Granita and So So Arancini

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Bonjouro ching ching from her home in Sicily. Boy, do Sicilians love their festivals. Not just religious, also foods, and yes, flowers.

[00:00:12]>> Spring has sprung, Esther. The cherries are out, the strawberries are out.

[00:00:17]Everything is coming out. Yesterday we had broccoli. Robbie, right, >> the Nestle's all the fruits. All right.

[00:00:24]>> Oh my goodness.

[00:00:25]>> We've got a full show for you. We're going to go to Achad Ali and the flower festival. Floats made out of fresh flower petals. Say that 10 times. And then we're going to meet my new friends at the radio a radio espresso. These two guys are so much fun. We're going to walk around together with them and try a granita. And then Alfred is going to try an aranchchini. And then our friend Lisa who wrote this children's book and her son visited. We're going to say hello to them and so much more. And don't forget our friend Danielle from Wines of Italy.

[00:01:00]What's that thing called?

[00:01:01]>> Child Daniel.

[00:01:02]>> Child Daniel. Hi Daniel. We haven't seen you for a while. We love you. Best wines ever.

[00:01:08]>> Let's go.

[00:01:12]After the war emerges, >> here I am with these beautiful bed.

[00:01:41]And here we are in real. We're going to walk around town because it's the flower festival right now.

[00:01:49]>> Fury flowers >> party. Okay, >> let's go.

[00:02:01]>> Look at these vintage cars.

[00:02:06]>> Oh, there's my car right here.

[00:02:11]This is 600. And >> there's my car.

[00:02:15]>> It's my first car when I was younger.

[00:02:19]>> Wow. Younger.

[00:02:20]>> Younger. Diana.

[00:02:23]Oh, Diana.

[00:02:25]Diana.

[00:02:29]>> 1950s.

[00:02:32]>> Look at that.

[00:02:35]>> Wow.

[00:02:39]No matter.

[00:03:00]So many people. There's the cathedral.

[00:03:06]>> All right. Now, let's go get some granita.

[00:03:10]All right, let's see. We've got granita almond arabist.

[00:03:31]It has a mustache.

[00:03:34]>> A burka.

[00:03:50]This is a bri that I would have. Oh my gosh. With the sesame. Sesame seeds make everything better.

[00:03:58]Here we go. Now that's a winner right there.

[00:04:04]All right. Look at my t-shirt that they gave me with the bri. And you saw the bri because it has a cool little way. It's not your traditional bri. And boy, they have some really good flavors in there.

[00:04:32]Mando la inside and then >> espresso for >> long and strong >> my program in the morning espresso name >> 7 a.m. He has a radio program and they talk about everything >> and bosupo tupo. This is >> tupo.

[00:04:54]>> Okay. K mjo. Okay. I'm going to show you how do you eat a granita in Sicily.

[00:05:00]Okay.

[00:05:00]>> So you take the brios, tear it apart >> and dip it. Dip it and then Tupo. Tupo is >> take the top off.

[00:05:18]>> Take the top. The topo and the topo. Uh finish here.

[00:05:22]>> Let me see. Let me see.

[00:05:23]>> Swimming. Swimming in the swimming.

[00:05:27]Swimming in the mandola. Liquid mandola.

[00:05:30]>> Swimming. Swimming. Swimming.

[00:05:32]>> And soak it right up. And now >> Yeah. Yeah. And eat.

[00:05:37]>> Okay.

[00:05:39]These two, I'm telling you right now, they're marketing machines.

[00:05:44]And every time they do a video, they started out with >> Amico.

[00:05:57]Wonderful place in America.

[00:06:02]>> Canada.

[00:06:02]>> This is a Canada.

[00:06:04]>> Canada. Australia. Australia.

[00:06:08]Canada statue meet in America.

[00:06:13]Bye-bye.

[00:06:25]>> Salvator is the baker. 24 years he's been here.

[00:06:35]Passion.

[00:06:50]He was a young kid. His father was a pastry shop owner and he fell in love.

[00:07:07]And here we are at the Sanmeni.

[00:07:31]Sicily in the world.

[00:07:49]You, me and Sicily.

[00:08:04]just been >> lots of handmade products here.

[00:08:22]>> Where's the palette? Fodia's pal.

[00:08:24]>> Rickley pears.

[00:08:26]>> And this is Fodia.

[00:08:30]>> Pears India.

[00:08:31]>> All handmade.

[00:08:34]There's hello.

[00:08:39]>> Oh, there's Mount. That's a beautiful trust >> street art. Here we are on a Sunday and it's beautiful. So, you bet people are coming out.

[00:09:12]I'm back with my friends and claustrophob train express train Talk talk radio talk to have fun easy >> easy talk easy talk thank you for this opportunity it is years a little younger.

[00:10:01]>> He's a little older.

[00:10:04]>> You, me and Sicily.

[00:10:07]>> Alfredo. Alfredo. Hi, Alfredo.

[00:10:10]>> Alfred, you got to come on the show one time. I told them all about >> Alfredo >> from Taste. I told them your Gano and Toesi came from here. So, you have to come.

[00:10:20]>> Chanuts. Three chins. Tast.

[00:10:24]Chestnuts. Chestnut. Chestnut. Chesnner, >> beautiful cast.

[00:10:37]>> I want to say thank you again to the guys at the radio station, Salvo and Cladio, for having me on. Boy, we make a good little trio over there, but they're dying to meet you, Alfred. And I told them, oh, he said he doesn't want to go on the radio show because he doesn't speak Italian. I said, "No, no, no. They want you to come because you speak Sicilian, so you got to come on the radio show."

[00:11:00]>> We'll give it a best my best shot. But I'm really feel tentative about this. I really do. We'll see.

[00:11:06]>> Anyway, talking about festivals this weekend, today, if you're watching on Sunday, is the festival of San Alfio over there in Tastani. We're also going to have highlights from the Noto Festival.

[00:11:18]>> I've been there I think 20 straight years. both I haven't very funny as I haven't gone to the one in Lawrence for a long time but the one here I go to especially on the Sunday the fireworks drive me crazy they are the loudest biggest enormous fireworks together there's so much that you could feel the you could feel the the the noise hitting your face I like the religious component a lot I go to the church I light candles for all my friends uh who I promise I would light candles to it means a lot to me because my family has been connected to that feed for over a hundred years if you believe that.

[00:11:57]>> All right. So, there's religious festivals, food festivals, there's wine festival and all type of festivals, but there's also an aranchchini festival which we took you a few years ago. But speaking of aranchchini, take a look at this review that Alfred did of an aranchchini. having our aranchchini and there's no one better to give a full taste test than Alfred Zapala.

[00:12:24]>> Uh, you know, I I've probably eaten a few tons of these in my life, Esther.

[00:12:30]And to be honest with you, you have to look on the outside. Number one, make sure it's not dark like this. If it's dark like this, that means the oil should have been changed. It should be a little bit lighter than this color right here. That's number one. Then number two, when you cut it open, make sure you have the proper ingredients in here. For example, there should be peas always. There should be peas and a good bunch of ch >> Well, wait a second.

[00:12:56]>> What?

[00:12:56]>> Not everyone puts peas in the ragu. And by the way, this is a ragu, which is a meat sauce. You You definitely want to see a lot of meat. Right.

[00:13:07]>> Right. I mean, this one over here was made in preparation to a lunch business at a very a very busy place, and that's not really a good time to get an ancino.

[00:13:16]So, all of a sudden here >> Well, isn't that when most people get an ancient for lunch?

[00:13:21]>> Yes. But if they're prepared, if they're prepared, if they're so busy, they just plowing them out. You see what I'm saying? So, this one over here is plowed out and the oil should have been changed a couple of days ago.

[00:13:32]>> So, now let me ask you this.

[00:13:33]>> I would give this a 6.8 out of 10. Now, is there an egg in there? Cuz some of them have an egg.

[00:13:39]>> No, >> there's no egg and no peas.

[00:13:42]>> And the ragu is a little bit tight as you can see. But it's a good It's very Look, I'll put it to you this way. E, it's a lot better than anything in the States except uh at a very few places, but I'm spoiled.

[00:13:53]>> Just from my observation, there's doesn't look like they use a lot of saffron. Usually, it has to be a little bit y the rice has to be a little bit yellowower. Okay. So, that's our review of this Aranchchini. What did you say the grade was?

[00:14:10]>> 6.7 out of 10.

[00:14:11]>> Wow. Okay.

[00:14:13]>> You know, Esther, uh, on this whole Aranchino, Aranchchini business, they one one half of the country says Aranchino. That's on the east coast. On the west coast, they say arenchina.

[00:14:25]>> But you want to know something? all the new flavors that are out on these little guys right now.

[00:14:30]>> Um, nettle deeppia one is now getting to be >> salmon, >> salmon. I mean, I'm a traditional guy.

[00:14:38]>> Classical classical and buro classical. Now, if you're interested in the history of Anachini, we did a video with our guide uh Juicy a few years ago. I'll leave you a link because it's a very interesting thing.

[00:14:55]Listen, if you haven't heard yet, Alfred published another book. Very impressive.

[00:15:02]>> It's called The Infinity Protocol. It's available on Amazon. I believe Essa will be nice enough to put a link down below for you. It's getting great reviews.

[00:15:12]Lots of my friends have been buying the book. It's available both as a paperback and also as a Kindle download. This book is a little bit different than Alfred's five other books that he's written because it's a time travel. It incorporates religion. It's action-packed and it's just a good read.

[00:15:32]Now, Alfred's other book, My 75year-old life, my 75year-old Sicilian life is also available as are the other four.

[00:15:41]But what I really liked about the 75year-old Sicilian life is that he talks about everyday life here in Sicily. some really well-written stories. So, congratulations on that.

[00:15:53]And again, available on Amazon, all six of them. Now, let's move on to another author. And this is Lisa and her son.

[00:16:02]This is such a cute book that she wrote uh for children. And it's dedicated to her grandfather who told her sweet stories of Chicha and the beautiful island. and it's illustrated very beautifully. It's basically the adventures of the chie beans. Anyway, Lisa and her son came to visit and I gave them a little bit of a flavor of a sundae in Sicily. And take a look, >> Esther. That was classic. The name of the book at the books about a chichi bean. That's a very flavorful title, right? And they taste great. They're a staple of our diet. I'll tell you that much. We eat them all the time.

[00:16:43]>> Pasta. Let's go.

[00:17:02]Let's see what's in it.

[00:17:03]>> We've got sausage and koi. You excited?

[00:17:11]I was stink >> made right here.

[00:17:25]>> Molto, >> we've got cabapon. We got >> mushrooms.

[00:17:49]Well, after you ate Roman food for a week.

[00:17:54]>> No comparison.

[00:17:55]>> Welcome to Sicily. Welcome to Sicily.

[00:18:00]All right, let's see this.

[00:18:16]What prompted you writing this book?

[00:18:19]>> So when I was young, my grandfather would always tell us stories about Chetchi the chickpea and the chickpea would go on adventures and we would sit on his lap and he would tell us all different stories about the little chickpea. And so when I was growing up and I got older, he would say, "You have to write a book about jetachi." And then and he would al he would call jeti jicha in uh town.

[00:18:45]>> It's such a great book. So what do you think of Sicily?

[00:18:48]>> Oh, I love it.

[00:18:50]>> From Calaneta, right?

[00:18:51]>> Yes. Castella. Yes. Uh Satalo.

[00:18:54]>> Satan. Yes. And he was from.

[00:18:57]>> And this is Michael's first time. And you just came from Rome. What do you think? Not a fan.

[00:19:04]>> And Sicily >> way better. Way better. Um way more authentic, less touristy. You get the more um Italian or should I say Sicilian experience.

[00:19:16]>> There you go.

[00:19:18]>> All right. So, you saw my new mug, Sicilian Queen.

[00:19:23]We've got this really high quality bag with Yumi and Sicily. And yeah, that's Alfred and I. And then let's see that one.

[00:19:32]>> You want to know something? I've had this mug now for several years. This is the best high quality >> mug I've ever The last time I got one of these was also good, but I gave it away.

[00:19:45]So, this is my second edition. It's printed on both sides. It keeps my coffee hot or my tea hot or my alcohol hot. It's a great mug right here. We got lots of merchandise in our shop. And if you click down below, there's you go to the shop and there's probably about 40 different items with different designs and so forth. There's a a lemon one that people seem to love, a Sicily one. So that is in our shop.

[00:20:16]>> The Figu one.

[00:20:17]>> The Figu one. Alfred >> complete with my new borcelino, I may add.

[00:20:23]What are you most looking forward to as we start our May tour?

[00:20:28]>> Making new friends like I always do.

[00:20:30]Some of the best friends I have now are people who came on our past trips >> and I'm hoping that on our future trips.

[00:20:38]Uh wonderful people we have met, people who love Sicily, who are eager to learn about it. I love first time travelers.

[00:20:45]Don't you?

[00:20:46]>> I do. But as you said are people that come into our lives. We are so blessed to have made some great friends really now part of our Sicilian family here. So we want to say thank you to you guys and hopefully oh by the way we forgot to say we have our tours that are still available. The next one that's pretty open is the one in September and it's a great tour because our base is in Jardinian access then Leap Buddy. Oh my gosh. And if you haven't seen that video yet, uh, I'll leave you a link to Leap Buddy because it is paradise within paradise. And then we have our regular October tour, October 7 to 17. And then we have the legend shore which means that all new spots places that we actually love to return to chefu and casti will be the base but then we'll be doing some different trips like termini hime places like that >> you know in the fall is >> delvallo how can I forget that's a new place >> there's a lot more places u I want to just say one thing about the fall the fall here of course with the the harvest is coming in. The food here is extra special. The vegetables are extra scrunchious, the fish, the meat, you name it. The arenchino, the pizza. And we also going to a gastronomical festival is now I think it's like one of the biggest ones in Sicily up in October. In October, Zephrana dela Edna, which is always a highlight. People just love that. And don't forget the Veno. Oh my goodness. We go to a place >> Veno is always good here.

[00:22:23]>> One of our partners we go to uh all the time. Not only do we get a tour of the vineyard, but they feed us as well.

[00:22:30]>> Homemade good food.

[00:22:32]>> It's really a it's really a good time.

[00:22:34]You know, it's Sicily. Uh and why not come here, especially if you're curious about Sicily, if you have ancestral roots here in Sicily, because one of the things that she does better than anybody, by the way, is take people to their ancestral homes. Usually what what happens is people come a couple of days early or stay a couple of days later and this one over here tracks it down, takes you there and it's really well I mean it's hundreds of people have just flipped over that and make me look good because I'm hooked up with her. Listen, if you love history, if you love the culture, if you love food and wine, and if you love beautiful things, come to Sicily. On that note, ching ching bunny bum.

[00:23:32]>> Oh, wait. Look at our view. Look at our view.

[00:23:37]And there's our laundry.

[00:23:40]Ciao.