Dean and I have hit the beautiful and bustling city of Palermo. We are with Marco our guide from Streaty Food Tours http://www.streaty.com/ the morning after our arrival.

Marco mentions the spleen sandwich in his preamble so we know we have come to the right place and the time has almost arrived.

(Photo taken on the tour by Dean)

As we wind through the streets of the historic Vucciria market, Marco is cracking jokes with both the locals and tour group. It is obvious he is on familiar ground and enjoys his work with a passion.

Starting with the Arancine (ends with an e in Palermo and o in Catania and the subject of passionate feuds between the cities), the warm up acts to the spleen sarnie prove to be interesting and tasty.

To give us all the courage to taste without hesitation we enjoyed a drink at the famous old pub ‘The Azzura’ before the main event. A boisterous bar full of regulars high on life and other libations during the day it becomes the place for students to gather at night.

But on to the star of the show and we are warmly greeted by Basili who has been selling spleen on bread for the last 65 years.

Calf’s spleen boiled and then cooked in lard, the ‘Pane ca meusa’ is tasty and chewy with the flavour and texture of mushroomy beef.

The famous Palermo snack proves a winner with Dean and me. We both could have easily devoured more.

We finish the tour with a gelato on brioche, satisfied we had conquered the spleen and been treated to a tasty introduction to the offerings of Palermo.