There's a Lot of Good Food in Venice!
Dinner at Hosteria Al Vecio Bragosso
A perfectly grilled fillet of orata, white polenta and a glass of local white wine, what could be better? Well, a lot of self-proclaimed food experts consider Venice an inferior city when it comes to gastronomy. The Tandem Spirits couldn’t disagree more. In fact, we enjoyed some very good food in Venice and, contrary to what you might think, restaurant prices weren’t all that expensive compared to other large cities.
One other nice thing we encountered while dining in Venice was the friendliness of our fellow patrons. Here in Umbria, people tend to be a bit reserved, but this was not that case in Venice. We ended up conversing with a lot of people about their dinners, wine choices, travel, etc.
Delicious Seafood Dishes
You can eat a lot of very good seafood in Venice. Of course, we barely scratched the surface only visiting for a few days; nevertheless, we ate some delicious meals.
And then there are Cicchetti!!!
Enjoying a plate full of cicchetti is a wonderful Venetian culinary experience. Many describe these delicious morsels as Italian tapas. A couple of years ago, in a NY Times article entitled “When in Venice, Eat Like a Venetian” the author described cicchetti like this:
Venetians call these small plates cicchetti (pronounced “chi-KET-tee”) — said to derive from the Latin “ciccus,” meaning “little” or “nothing.” The term embraces a broad range of dishes: polpette (fried meatballs), crostini (small open-faced sandwiches), panini (small sandwiches on crusty rolls), tramezzini (triangular white bread sandwiches) — and a scintillating array of pickled, baked, stuffed or sauced seafoods and vegetables.
We ate them several times for lunch. Close by our hotel was a small bar called Ai Santi where a lot of locals stopped in for cicchetti and a drink. They made some delicious things. You’ll notice in the pictures that the cicchetti can be bread topped with prosciutto or mortadella, or cheese or baccala mantecato but they sometimes include something extra that gives them a sweet-savory flavor. One special topping is called sarde in saor which is a mixture of caramelized onions, vinegar, raisins, pine nuts placed atop sardines!
Inspired By the Experience!
We cant wait to return to Venice for more culinary adventures! In upcoming posts we will share more experiences we had last week!
When we returned home I was inspired to make my own “Umbrian cicchetti.” Hey, they weren’t bad!!!
