Ciao Bella!

Last year we enjoyed a fabulous holiday in Sicily, a birthday gift from our children. This year, we are on holiday in Norfolk - but had some incredible Sicilian food in Norwich!

Norwich City Council has been encouraging new traders to set up street food stalls on the market.
We walked through the area early on Friday morning, and spotted Italian, Chinese, South American...and much more. Most of the stalls were still closed, with signs saying they opened around midday.
We went back at lunchtime to the Sicily Market [Stand 34]
It was wonderful.
Owner, and chef, Rocco Consiglio, could not have been more helpful.

 The stall is on a corner- here are photos from both angles. That lady is Italian, and clearly knew what she wanted. She engaged in a cheerful conversation, in Italian of course, ordering her food with enthusiasm. We both felt that if Italians thought the food was good, then it must be authentic!
Bob ordered the meal deal [Calzone, Arancino, drink] but I dithered "Is there cheese in the arancini?" 

Yes there was "Oh, I'm afraid I can't eat cheese"
So Rocco immediately said he would bake me a Napoli pizza without cheese. Oh thankyou!
And it did not take him long to produce a gorgeous anchovy and tomato pizza, from which he cut two slices.

We chatted while all this was going on, to Rocco and his assistant. Then Rocco gave me his business card. 


He explained he bakes his arancini freshly each morning - and if I sent him a text early in the day requesting 'no cheese ragu arancini' then he would make them especially for me" How fantastic is that?
We took our food and went and sat on the benches at the top of the market to enjoy our delicious, but inexpensive lunch in the sunshine. We felt as if we were back in Sicily again!

Then Bob had a mooch around the parked motorbikes, and missed his Honda!!

The other positive Customer Service today came from the Lisa Angel store in Lower Goat Lane, quite close to the market. Bob bought me a beautiful pendant from them [online] at Christmas, but the chain had broken. We took it into the store, and they could not have been more helpful. I am expecting a replacement to be waiting for me on my return to Dorset! Thankyou L.A.

We wandered round The Forum, and enjoyed looking at the exhibition of photographs of BBC Comedy Shows from the 1940s till now - Joyce Grenfell, The Glums and Tony Hancock - through various Ronnie Barker favourites, Fawlty Towers, Butterflies ...right up to Miranda and contemporary shows. If you had a favourite BBC SitCom in the last 70 years, it was probably pictured there. The very affable staff member said he didn't actually remember many of them, he was only 23! [please note, we are too young for The Glums and that era - although we have enjoyed the repeats on Radio 4 extra]

Sadly our coffee break in John Lewis was not quite so satisfactory. The assistant said "Two coffees - £9.45 please" "How much? I think that might be wrong" "Oh sorry, I rang up four not two" [and I thought to myself £9.45 does not divide by four...] She played around with the till "Oh no, it is £7.45" This time I was getting a little frustrated "That can't be right either"...eventually, once she had stopping adding the price of a non-existent fresh scone to the order, I ended up paying the correct price. I wonder how many people these days just tap their credit card and don't even notice when they get overcharged?

But ignoring that brief hassle, we had a wonderful day together in this lovely city. We came home in the afternoon and called in at Toftwood, where we enjoyed tea with our dear friend Jean. We were very impressed by the spectacular jigsaw she had just completed.