Another restaurant review

The Little Sicily

I have been a frequent visitor to the Little Sicily in Cavan town for many years. For one thing, in the days before I had such a beautiful assistant as Rosie to push me places, it was the nearest decent eatery to me. Another thing, and very important, it was accessible.

We went to the Little Sicily on the last night of Rosie's stay and as usual we made pigs of ourselves. We started with a dish of Suppli (rice and mozzarella croquettes) served with a creamy white cause. This made a change from the meaty sauces usually served with Suppli. As is usual with us we had a pizza for our main dish. Now I'm a twelve incher when it comes to pizzas. I love nothing better than to be able to cut it into wedges and eat it with my fingers, the way pizze are eaten in Napoli.

As the various cuisines of Italy (as varied as the country itself) are nutritious and healthy I never feel embarrassed by excess when eating in an Italian restaurant. Yet in the Little Sicily I always end up making the politically correct choice for desert, a fruit smoothy. These are wonderful. What's more by that time in the meal I am too lazy to use my hands, so begging your pardon missus, I can just sit back and suck.

We had two bottles of the house red, a very nice and velvety Merlot from La Venezia. This is a perfect accompaniment to a whole spectrum of foods, being pleasantly quaffable but not too strong as to drown out the flavours of the food. The Little Sicily is fully licensed, and this encourages me to indulge in numerous bad habits. For one thing, I've got into the bad habit of drinking vodka and tonic with my meals (in addition to wine. The old adage about never mixing the grain and the grape doesn't seem to apply to me.) If anything vodka enhances the flavour of food and I heartily recommend the practice to my readers.

Another character weakness which has been sprung from my armoire recently, and which has been facilitated by the Little Sicily, is ending a meal with a cocktail. Last Saturday I had a Margarita and let's just say that I would not have said no to dos o tres margaritas - comprende hombre?

On the night we were there the place was hopping. It was really noisy, and I just love noisy restaurants, the type of place where you can laugh uproariously. It shows that people are having fun and enjoying themselves. That's what they should do when they have a nice meal. I cannot stand those starchy restaurants where you can hear the cutlery clinking ashamedly against the backing sound of the muzak. You might as well be in a church, and sometimes you need the kiss of life when you're presented with the tab.

The price of our meal was, as always, very reasonable and well within my limited financial constraints. The staff were also attentive, courteous and helpful. One girl in particular, from Lithuania, shows that the women of that Baltic nation are amongst the most beautiful in Europe - along with the women of East Sussex.