Living in London far away from your family is one of the most constructive experiences that a person can have. I have been living here for almost two years now, but my huge love for my country, Italy, never fades. In fact it gets bigger day by day.
My hometown is Palermo, Sicily, and every time I go back there I feel overwhelmed by the beauty of the monuments and the vivid colours of the city’s nature.
London, especially Stratford, is now my second home. It is the place where I feel I am growing as an independent and more confident woman. It is where I have got to know people from different cultures and countries. And it is also the place where I am learning to know myself better.
But when you live far away from home you always need something that reminds you of it. It may be a shop, a person, or a restaurant. That is what happened to me when I first moved here in 2016. I wanted to feel closer to my hometown, and the only way to do that was to go out to Italian restaurants.
Sicilian street food and pastries are known all over the world. The first thing that reminds me of Sicily is cannoli. It is a dessert made of wafer filled with sweet ricotta and chocolate chips. We are also famous for arancine. An arancina is a fried rice ball that can be filled with different ingredients, from meat to ham and butter, and from salmon to spinach.
One of the restaurants where it is possible to try that traditional Sicilian taste is Mangia Siciliano located in Liverpool Street. They make some of the most popular dishes including cannoli and arancine.
