Venice Food Highlights

Back to food again, so the restaurant, Fiaschetteria Toscana, was not a Michelin star restaurant, just a 2 fork for “buon confort” and it was indeed very good. We opted for the tasting menu of seafood. Our meal began with tuna tartare that had a slight crunch from sea salt and had an apple kiwi sauce which neither of could really note. Next up was tagliatellini nero (squid ink pasta) with lobster. That may have been our favorite. Third was fried mixed seafood and vegetables. Very light and crunchy; we think the vegetables included zucchini and leeks and seafood included shrimp, squid and clams. Dessert was caramelized apples with a scoop of ice cream. With this we had a bottle of a Venetian white wine that was quite nice, Angiolino Maule Sassaia. Sassaia is made leaving the juice with the skins longer which gave it more of a golden color. It was a little like a dessert wine without the sweetness.

Today's lunch was equally good at a restaurant on Murano. We shared a plate of prosciutto with perfect cantaloupe and a plate of small gnocchi with scallops and grilled zucchini.

Our last night in Venice we decided to try “chiccheti”, snacks, at a couple wine bars (osteria/enotecas). The first was down by Campo Apostolino on a little side street. It had been recommended in a Rick Steves Guide to Venice, but I forgot to write down the name of it. Osteria something or other. There we ordered a mixed place of chiccheti and it included some delicious rolls of sardine stuffed with raisins and pine nuts, roasted red peppers, marinated squid and some other seafood things. We each had “un uombro”, a small glass, of the house red wine. You can get a small glass of wine and snacks at the bar for less, but our feet were tired from sightseeing and we opted to pay a little more for chairs and a table! On the way to the Osteria we had passed an Enoteca near our B&B that had a good selection of ham sandwiches, so we decided to stop there on the way back. The patrons and staff were very friendly and we ended up chatting with three Brazilian women from Recife who were visiting Italy for 2 weeks. It was a mother, daughter and mom's best friend. The daughter was studying to be a lawyer and the best friend works at a hotel. The mother plays bossa nova on piano, but I'm not sure whether that's what she did for a living or not. Her son plays piano professionally. At that Enoteca you get to choose among several types of wine that are open. There were ham sandwiches of many descriptions along with various other snacks like roasted tomatoes and something that looked like quiche. There were tables in the back too for a regular meal. Jake ordered Tiramisu to end the evening with which was excellent although the bartenders gave him grief for ordering dessert at the bar. It's at the first canal after canal Guglie on the main street, left side.

Our last food from Venice were pizza arrolatas (pizza rolls) from a take-away shop that we got before boarding the train. Also quite tasty – they heat them up for you before carefully wrapping them in a paper napkin.