Our Estonian in Sicily
Review of the OÜ Greta paperback edition (2020), a slightly revised version of the original Petrone Print paperback "Minu Sitsiilia. Maffia kohta mitte küsida!" (My Sicily. Don't Ask About the Mafia!) (2012)

Minu Sitsiilia (Estonian: My Sicily) is author Mae Merusk's self-published 2nd Edition of her original book which was first published as part of the popular Minu ... (Estonian: My ...) travel series by Petrone Print in Estonia. The Minu ... series is now up to a rather formidable 158 volumes with the publication of the recent Minu Süüria. Hetk rahu ja sõja vahel (My Syria: A Moment Between Peace and War) (June 2022).

The Minu ... series is written by authors of Estonian background who are usually permanent or at least long-standing residents of the city, province, or country which they are writing about. They are not travel guides in the usual sense but simply describe the location's life and its foibles from an insider's point of view.

Minu Sitsiilia is travel guide Merusk's description of her life in Sicily after taking up residence there since 2004, having visited and enjoyed it previously since 1998. It describes her life and anecdotes with locals, primarily in the city of Palermo where she herself lives. There are the occasional comparisons and contrasts with Estonia as often Merusk now conducts tourist excursions between Estonia and Sicily and vice versa.

A few years ago, some Estonian tourists and I were eating in a restaurant here, and a man pestered me with endless questions about what kind of pasta is the tastiest. How can I recommend such a thing if I don't know a person's taste preferences? Being a cheese lover, I suggested that he could have the penne with four cheese sauce. Done and ordered. When the desired dish was brought to the table, the pasta lover stopped the waiter:
"I'd like some ketchup, too."
"What?" the waiter did not understand the client's request.
"Some ketchup, to put on the pasta." The desire was expressed by the movements of squeezing ketchup from a bottle onto a plate of pasta.
The waiter stared at the man and announced:
"We don't have ketchup."
"How come? It's available everywhere else, but you don't have it?"
Ketchup is used here, but mainly to flavour french fries, and it may not be found in all restaurants.
I tried to keep the ensuing war of words under control:
"Don't put ketchup on pasta with cheese sauce, it spoils the whole taste!"
"Yes, but I want a tomato taste too!", the demanding customer did not give up.
"But what was the point of you asking me what kind of pasta I would recommend – You could have just ordered any kind of cooked macaroni and poured tomato paste over it!"
The man tensed up. I was a little worried about how he would eat his dish, and I asked the waiter to bring the regular tomato sauce - it was at least a bit like a ketchup substitute, only healthier. The delicious dish was topped with tomato sauce and mixed. The diner seemed to like it. The waiter, however, cast disbelieving glances at our table every time he passed. - my translation of a excerpt from the book.

I enjoyed Minu Sitsiilia for its down to earth stories of regular people and its humorous views of life. The second edition makes only minor changes to the original. The subtitle Don't Ask About the Mafia! has been dropped but the relevant portion of the text remains, which is that the local tourism does not capitalize on any notorious associations with the now infamous crime brotherhood. The town of Corleone, for instance, has absolutely no attractions to tie it back to its fictional association with the Godfather films.

See map at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FW2KVuxWQAAq9RW?format=jpg&name=900x900
Map of Sicily with Estonian language notes from the original 2012 edition of "Minu Sitsiilia." The map is not included in the 2020 edition. ( )