Chiaramonte Gulfi (RG)

It's a magnificent drive from Siracusa out to Chiaramonte Gulfi via Vizzini and Monterosso, but there's normally only one motivation: pork. "Qui si magnifica il porco" is an inscription to be found on the tiles in the dining room of the Ristorante Majore. Since 1896, now run by the fourth generation of the same family, the restaurant has specialised in serving the finest pork products in Sicily (which probably means in Italy, which means in the world).

It was hard to locate the restaurant - an address [Via Martiri Ungheresi 12] is little help on a cold, drizzly May afternoon when all sensible people are indoors - but eventually, more or less by chance, I passed a bead-curtained opening, outside which a few men in cook's whites were lounging and smoking. "C'è ristorante qui?" I enquired hopefully - it was already late. I didn't even care by this stage whether or not it was the legendary Majore (first recommended to me by Daphne in 1993). But it was. Properly dressed waiters within showed me to my table: I left the menu to the experts. The lunch which followed was described in my diary as "MAGNIFICENT - antipasto: two types of salami, a sort of brawn with pork, olives etc; primo: homemade ravioli with sugo and minced pork; secondo: a pork chop - the finest I've ever eaten [the signature dish - invented by the restaurant's founder]; dolce: fragole. Including an espresso and a carafe of red wine it all came to .... €18.50, a derisory £12! The weather had improved over lunch, and I strolled around the pleasant little town in the hopes of sobering up sufficiently before driving on the Ragusa. I followed local custom by taking a snooze on a bench!

Visit the Ristorante Majore website (Italian only)