Saying “Cheese” in Palermo

Say “cheese” in Palermo – but say it in Italian, “formaggio” (or better yet, in Sicilian “u caciu“) and ask where to find the best of it. Those who know cheese goodness will indicate a small, non-descript shop on a busy street near the port – and you could easily walk right past those fluttering plastic strips of a “spaghetti door” (a screen replacement to keep out flies). My brother-in-law Filippo almost did – and he’s been coming here for years. But then he spotted the tell-tale cheese rounds nestled together in a corner of the window, for there’s no sign on the shop indicating “Formaggio di Salvo”; in fact, there’s no sign at all.

You could miss the shop – if not for cheese rounds in the window

Filippo knows where to take us for great cheeses

Inside behind the counter, big bald Salvo in white apron matching his elegant white goatee, cuts huge rounds with massive knives – and years ago, his father did the job. If you’re curious to taste an unfamiliar cheese, he’ll slice off a piece, holding it out to you on the tip of the knife.

Filippo’s tasting the caciocavallo he’ll buy

With a huge knife, Salvo cuts into cheese rounds

“Care to try a taste of this one?” Salvo asks

The best of Sicily’s enticing cheeses – primentivo, caciocavallo, primo sale, canestrato vecchio – sit on the counter top, Padre Pio calendar hanging on the nearby wall and other huge bricks of cheese are lined up on shelves behind the counter like thick yellow library books.

Cheeses on the counter, Padre Pio on the wall

Huge cheese bricks like yellow library books on the shelves

The shop is small and fills quickly (best to get there early in the morning) and long-time customers chat with each other about the cheeses – and not only – as they wait to order cheeses (and/or salt-packed capers, olives or jars of anchovies).

The small shop fills quickly; customers chat as they await orders

Olives, too, here at Salvo’s

Pino had been to “Salvo, U Caciaru” (Salvo, ‘the Cheese Vendor”) another time. I never had.
But his shop has to be a stop now on every future Palermo trip the day before we leave: so that we can bring Sicilian cheese goodness home for family and friends.

We’ll be back again to Salvo’s!

As we did this time. Sicilian cheeses will be joining Umbrian goodness for a while on our table.
In fact, our first lunch back home was pasta with tomatoes and basil from our garden topped with diced tidbits of primo sale cheese. Buonissimo!