Ethnic Food In Sicily

For awhile now, we have wanted to try a new restaurant near our house called Ikebana. It is a Japanese word that means "arranged flower." The sign for the restaurant is also very Japanese with bamboo shoots as the logo. Now Catania is a fairly large city, but it is very difficult to find ethnic foods. There is a Japanese restaurant downtown, a couple of Chinese joints (there is a Chinese population in Catania), a Moroccan restaurant, and a really bad Mexican place. That's pretty much it. Italians tend to believe they have the best food in the world and see no reason whatsoever to eat anything different. So, as ethnic restaurants are fairly rare, we were very excited that there was one so close to us. We arrive at the restaurant and it is very nice. The pathways are lit by candles. The building is an old lava stone house typical of Sicily, but they enclosed the outside in glass to make very nice indoor seating. There is also a patio with nice wicker type tables and chairs and curtains giving the tables privacy. We opted for an outside table because we didn't have reservations and didn't want to wait. We sat down on very comfortable chairs. The place mats talked about the Japanese style and gardening techniques used to create the wonderful atmosphere. This was looking good.

Our waiter brought us out a menu and we opened it, excited to choose a tasty Japanese dish. The first page: Italian antipasti. OK, so maybe they know some patrons aren't very diverse in their food choices. The second page: Italian pasta dishes. The third page: Italian main dishes. So now the Italian food is out of the way, let's turn to the Japanese food on the next page. Page four: pizza. That's right, pizza! Even a pizza named Ikebana! What the....

So, the ITALIAN food was excellent at our neighborhood Japanese restaurant. What else can I say? Only In Sicily!!