Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable/Sicilian Dishes

by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Sicil′ian Dishes (Sicŭlæ dapēs) were choice foods. The best Roman cooks were Sicilians. Horace (3 Odes, i. 18) tells us that when a sword hangs over our head, as in the case of Damoclēs, not even "Siculæ dapēs dulcem elaborabunt saporem."