Taking A Bite Out Of….Venice (Part 1)

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Thank God for Skyscanner and the boredom of a long, dark winter. One spur of the moment decision later, and I’m off to Venice for the first time ever. How have I waited so long to visit this most beautiful of cities?? I envisaged dimly lit alleyways, hidden squares, and narrow bridges over dark water. Mist rolling in from the lagoon and echoing footsteps. A place that has inspired tales of murder, lust and the supernatural. It did not disappoint. However, Venice may be a place of great beauty, but I had read that it is not a place for great food. Apparently you should consider yourself lucky if you manage to eat somewhere that is average. Hmmm…not a good outlook. So I was determined to hunt down good food in Venice – that wouldn’t break the bank. A tricky proposition?

On my first night in town I completely failed at this. Despite my landlady recommending several restaurants nearby, they were either fully booked or closed for the winter. I decided to fall back on Trip Advisor and chose a nearby restaurant with plenty of good reviews – Osteria Ae Sconte. Not only did the Trip Advisor app have the restaurant placed incorrectly – so it was actually nowhere near my apartment – when I did eventually find it, it was disappointment heaped upon disappointment. It was lit in such a way that it resembled a service station cafe and the quality of the food wasn’t much better.

A caprese salad was served where the “green” element was made up of rocket instead of fresh basil – how any self respecting Italian chef could let that leave the kitchen I do not know. I actually ate a far superior example of this in Byron Bay, Australia, for God’s sake! I skipped the primi platti and went straight for the secondi – cuttlefish cooked in it’s ink and served with polenta, which is a local delicacy. The polenta looked and tasted like it had been bought from a supermarket and warmed up in the oven. I couldn’t eat it. The cuttlefish was heavy and uninspiring. Even more horrifying was the bill; the whole sorry lot totalled 56 euros. For one person.

Cost was a problem that raised it’s ugly head repeatedly during my stay in Venice. In a country where four courses are the norm – antipasti, primi, secondi, dolce – and in a city where each of those courses costs roughly between 15 and 25 euros, dining out can be an expensive experience. Burned from my evening at Osteria Ae Sconte, I decided to limit myself to one “big” meal per day and to graze on whatever I fancied during other times. Fortunately there are endless opportunities for snacking, from all the wonderful bakeries scattered throughout the city to the local bacaros – the Italian version of a tapas bar where you can grab a drink and small snacks known as cicchetti. When visiting the island of Burano, I sampled a pane Napoli – warm, soft folded bread with chunks of pancetta throughout. So simple but perfect on a cold day. I also couldn’t resist nipping in and out of the various pasticceria. The smell of fresh baking as you walk past one of these can tempt even the staunchest of dieters!