Sicily's Street Food, Stall by Stall

Ask a Sicilian where to eat well in Palermo and the answer is rarely a restaurant. It's a stall, a cart, a spot that's served the same three things since before anyone working there was born.

Street food here isn't a budget compromise. It's the actual cuisine. Panelle, chickpea fritters served in bread like a sandwich, cost just a couple of euros and taste like something a much fancier kitchen spent hours trying to reverse engineer. Arancine (Palermo insists on the feminine, Catania argues back with arancini) come stuffed with ragù, butter and ham, or pistachio, eaten standing up, wrapped in paper, usually mid-afternoon.

Then there's the one that stops most first time visitors: pani ca meusa, a sandwich of spleen and lung, simmered in lard and served on soft bread with a squeeze of lemon. It's not on any list built for comfort. It's on every list built by people who actually live there.

Our advice before every Sicily trip: eat standing up at least once. That's where the real food is.