Tuesday evening, I joined my friends at Norma Gastronomia Siciliana (438 3rd Ave.) in Kips Bay, Manhattan for a joint Martedì Grasso (Fat Tuesday) and Jurnata d''a Memoria (Remembrance Day) dinner. Looking to eat our fill before our Lenten fast, as well as honor the men and women who fought and died defending our ancestral homeland during the northern conquest of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, we gathered at the cozy Sicilian eatery for a traditional Duosiciliano feast.

Warmly greeted, our party was quickly seated beneath a giant mural of an antique map of Sicily, where Norma’s crack wait staff took our sizable drink and dinner orders.