My good friend Earl Yevak is stationed in Iraq right now but he recently went on vacation in Italy and had some pizza at a place in Palermo called SciuScià. That means "shoeshine" in Italiano! I know Earl loves pizza and I'm looking forward to his posts.
-Lauren
Hello. Or maybe I should say "Ciao!?" Either way, greetings greetings. Lauren V. is one of my great friends, who I love dearly.
Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to visit a few European Countries, and eat a lot of really great food. Since I was traveling on a budget my diet consisted mainly of pizza!! I was emailing back and forth with Lauren about some of the better places to visit while I was there, and also the better spots to eat. Although I wasn't able to make it to Naples, the birth place of pizza (*Lauren and I had a conversation earlier today about how there actually is a big debate that pizza originated in the middle east somewhere, but we won't get into that now), I was able to eat at a lot of really good tasting spots in some of the cities I visited. One of the better pizzerias I found was down in Palermo, a place called
SciuScià.
The wait was about an hour, but well worth it. I was starving when I sat down, but they quickly brought an assortment of hush-puppies and french fries. My server, who was also the owner, was very sociable. I had already decided to try the spinach and Gorgonzola from reading through the menu while I was waiting. It came out in maybe 10-12 minutes, which was surprisingly fast, since the restaurant was packed as full as it could get.
Something I failed to realize, due to my poor Italian, was that I had ordered a white pizza, instead of a red pizza. Now, I'm a pizza fan, probably in almost all of it's forms, but I do prefer red pizzas, so I was a little disappointed. However, it was delicious! I couldn't complain.
As I mentioned before, I wasn't able to visit Naples, but from how I've heard the pizzas described from Naples, this is probably the closest to the real thing I've had (I guess literally and figuratively). About halfway through I got pretty full, and just relaxed and watched the crowds of families and friends laughing and carrying on. The atmosphere was very good. It wasn't too loud or quiet.
On the way out I noticed a room that was decorated with some information from trips the owner has taken to Africa. From what I understood, a portion of the restaurants profit goes to helping fund a few charities in various countries in Africa. Sooo... I would recommend eating here if you happen to be down in Sicily anytime soon. Get great food, and bless someone else's life also!
Oh I almost forgot, Sciuscià is located
Via Dante, 212 90141 Palermo, Italy. Check it out!
- Earl Yevak
