For you non-foodies, feel free to skip over this part. For the rest of you, here's the good stuff...
Our best meal was at Osteria Oliva Nera, which Dennis found by chance, as we were exploring yet another secret alley passage. My favorite thing to do in Venice is get lost, which is both easy to do and hard to do. It's easy because hundreds of tiny pedestrian alleys go in every direction, and many of them dead-end on a canal. It's hard because, well, you're on one of several tiny islands, and no matter what you do, you're going to end up on a canal that you recognize if you just keep walking. So, it's fun to explore neighborhoods by walking until you see a canal that looks "secret" as I like to say. Maybe it's cute and hidden and shady or, maybe it's spooky, but for whatever reason, it begs to be followed. We followed some, and this restaurant (click here for their website)was our reward:
I had two kinds of bacala (salt cod) on one plate as my appetizer. One is the pasty white (especially mild at this restaurant) ground up cod, and the other was salt cod re-hydrated and baked with onions -- the fish was beige and had flaky texture, and was incredibly good. Both were served side-by-side on a bed of polenta. Dennis had a small plate with shrimp in a creamy gorgonzola sauce, complimented by grilled radiccio. For our next course, I had spaghetti in a typical Venetian preparation with anchovy paste. It was fishy and delicious. Dennis had seabass filets with some kind of herby sauce of olive oil and basil. We had that with a Pinot Grigio from Friuli.
After the dinner and wine, the proprietress gave us a taste of a dessert wine she called "strawberry wine" though it was not made with strawberries. She said it was illegal to sell, and could only be shared with friends because the alcohol content was too high for it to be in the wine category. It was sweet but had the flavor of bitter grape seeds (to me) that offset the sweetness well. For dessert, an almond cake with honey and strawberry preserves for me, and for Dennis, chocolate mousse topped with a chocolate cookie, topped with a white and dark chocolate lattice. Finally, we ended the evening with some grappa (Italian distilled liquor).
Then there was the ill-fated boat ride back to the hotel, and the blissfull warm sleep of stuffed foodies.
--Aimee
Our best meal was at Osteria Oliva Nera, which Dennis found by chance, as we were exploring yet another secret alley passage. My favorite thing to do in Venice is get lost, which is both easy to do and hard to do. It's easy because hundreds of tiny pedestrian alleys go in every direction, and many of them dead-end on a canal. It's hard because, well, you're on one of several tiny islands, and no matter what you do, you're going to end up on a canal that you recognize if you just keep walking. So, it's fun to explore neighborhoods by walking until you see a canal that looks "secret" as I like to say. Maybe it's cute and hidden and shady or, maybe it's spooky, but for whatever reason, it begs to be followed. We followed some, and this restaurant (click here for their website)was our reward:
I had two kinds of bacala (salt cod) on one plate as my appetizer. One is the pasty white (especially mild at this restaurant) ground up cod, and the other was salt cod re-hydrated and baked with onions -- the fish was beige and had flaky texture, and was incredibly good. Both were served side-by-side on a bed of polenta. Dennis had a small plate with shrimp in a creamy gorgonzola sauce, complimented by grilled radiccio. For our next course, I had spaghetti in a typical Venetian preparation with anchovy paste. It was fishy and delicious. Dennis had seabass filets with some kind of herby sauce of olive oil and basil. We had that with a Pinot Grigio from Friuli.
After the dinner and wine, the proprietress gave us a taste of a dessert wine she called "strawberry wine" though it was not made with strawberries. She said it was illegal to sell, and could only be shared with friends because the alcohol content was too high for it to be in the wine category. It was sweet but had the flavor of bitter grape seeds (to me) that offset the sweetness well. For dessert, an almond cake with honey and strawberry preserves for me, and for Dennis, chocolate mousse topped with a chocolate cookie, topped with a white and dark chocolate lattice. Finally, we ended the evening with some grappa (Italian distilled liquor).
Then there was the ill-fated boat ride back to the hotel, and the blissfull warm sleep of stuffed foodies.
--Aimee
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- I'm off2paris
- From Paris, France
- off2paris at wonky point org
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