loveSicily

Alessandro - 'U Pisciaru'

Two days in Sicily and I must have already eaten about 8 different kinds of fish. Now hold on, before you jump to any conclusions, let me assure you that it is not a case of me stuffing myself and having eight meals in two days! The fact is, that just in my mother's fish soup last night there must have been at least six varieties of fish.

The great thing was actually going to buy the fish with mamma. We went to Alessandro 'u pisciaru' (the fishmonger), who is a young guy full of passion and
enthusiasm for his job. Alessandro 'u pisciaru' has a very small shop, he has no fridge in it and keeps only a small quantity of fish on crashed ice -- the quantity he knows his customers will consume in one day. "U pisci a ssiri friscu", the fish must be fresh, he claims with a pontifical tone.

While mamma and I were there a young mother with her 7 years old kid came in. She started pointing at various things asking her son "will you eat this if I buy it?" -- the kid looked in wonder and asked explanations about each fish. The mother could not bother to answer and in the end under pressure the poor kid cracked: 'But I do not know if I like it!' 'Are you going to leave it in your dish?' the mother demanded. 'I know what!', she added, 'let us go home and get you some fish fingers'.

FISH FINGERS!!!!!!!!

Me and Alessadro turned to stare at each other in amazement. And then Alessandro cracked. He did it, he showed what a professional he is and more than that what an evangelist of fish he is. He ignored the mother and talked directly to the kid. He explained to him what fish fingers are actually made of and told him about the great taste and nutritional properties of "U pisci veru", real fish, while the mother dragged the kid out of the shop in embarassment, I hope!

Now, needless to say Alessandro cannot be called just a fishmonger, he is a missionary and you cannot mess with his passion. All my respect to him and hope he really manages to spread his word.

Written on
July 18, 2004
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