Mile Zero Fish - Castellemmare del Golfo

Today we got up “early“ and went to the port at Castellemmare del Golfo where the local fishermen bring in their catch each morning. This is something I had been wanting to do for sometime, ever since I saw the signs for the mile zero fish.

When we arrived there was only one Fisher with her fish out. She was kind enough to tell us that more fisherman would arrive shortly. Fisherman continue to come in for the next hour causing immense excitement among the Sicilian men gathered on the wharf. As each fisherman pulled in, in their medium to tiny boats, the men on the wharf would swarm to the new location. 

As I believe I’ve mentioned before, food is a serious business here in Sicily. Until quite late in the proceedings there were no women at all, other then the first Fisher who we met when we arrived at around 8 AM. Everyone else was male. 

Chris and I made our first purchase, then walked away, had coffee, orange juice, and watched  more boats come in, along with more little cars speeding down the warf. The energy continued to build, drawing Christopher and I back to see what we had missed. Not much as it turned out. Just swarms of Italians.

My favourite was the little boat that pulled up  drawing a small crowd of Sicilian man, and one very affectionate cat. For some reason this was the fisherman that this cat decided would feed her. As it turned out it was a customer reached into the basket fish and threw it down for the cute cat. She didn’t run up to any other boats, it was as if she knew that boat or that fisherman.

Of course when we went into town to get vegetables to go with the fish on the grill, I couldn’t resist buying some of the special sweet red shrimp that they have.

Yum