Osteria Al Diavolo E L'acquasanta, San Polo, Venice

We stumbled upon this bar/restaurant (San Polo 561b | Calle della Madonna, Venice, tel : +39 041 277 0307) not too far away from the Rialto bridge purely by happenstance while wandering around in the early twilight of autumn within the maze like pavements in Venice. While we hadn't decided immediately that this was the place that we'll be having dinner, we did eventually head back. It was a pretty good thing we did.

The menu here was frills free, looked as Venetian (mostly seafood) as it could get and was crowded with plenty of locals. The proprietress was explaining that the name of the bar/restaurant referred the devil and the holy water and that holy water in Venice, refers to wine.

Having snacked through more than our fair share of cicchetti for the day, we skipped trying to pretend to eat like locals at the bar and dove straight into the menu. First up was their antipasto della casa which was basically a mixed plate of sarde in saor (a Venetian dish of sardines with onions, white wine and vinegar), baccala and octopus. Altogether, a great deal of mixed flavours and textures coming from the fishes and chopped up cephalopod tentacles.

Their clam and mussels soup was loaded with shellfish in a rich white wine broth. Here was when we noticed that they were not as heavy handed as most with garlic.

Steering away from the usual seafood laden items for a little bit, we had their bollito della casa which consisted of boiled tripe, salami and something that was described as beef head. I'm not too sure if those were really parts from the head. This rustic dish was simple and actually pretty darn good.

We haven't had some vegetables in our meals for a while so we thought it was a good to get some mixed boiled vegetables for fibre and whatever benefits vegetables brings to one's diet. Those bean like things that came with the contorni were very good.

Cuttlefish was in season, so we couldn't say no to some grilled ones dressed in simple olive oil, salt and parsley.

We were pretty stuffed from all the food and wine that we had to give a pass on the desserts. As unexciting as I may have described this, I think I liked this place and would certainly consider coming again if I ever visit Venice again before it becomes Atlantis.

Cantina do Mori, San Polo, Venice

All'Arco, San Polo, Venice

This was a recommended joint (San Polo 436 | Calle Arco, Venice, tel : + 041 520 5666) to eat like a local for drinks and cicchetto, Venetian tapas which usually consisted of sliced crostini with any variety of toppings amongst other small bites. This was a uniquely Venice item to eat. No? The place looked like a small bar where one simply ordered what caught their fancy from the charcuterie, cheeses and bread with toppings that were available along with a spritz/beer/wine/prosecco.

What we picked from top left was prosciutto with sun dried tomatoes, a pungent Rocquefort with caramelized onions, a black truffle cheese paste of sorts with artichoke and the last, baccala that tasted like it was whipped with lard and bits of onions! It was just so easy to keep ordering more and more of these stuff to eat.

My first tramezzini in Venice

These tramezzini were just sandwiches sans the bread crust like they looked, nicely fattened in the middle with any variety of fillings. These ham ones with artichoke and boiled egg tasted exactly as they looked. Novelty of a fat sandwich aside, they were light and made tasty between meal snacking with a beer or/and espresso.

Trattoria Sostanza, Via della Porcellana, Florence

We had almost gotten ourselves lost looking for Trattoria Sostanza (Via della Porcellana 25R, Florence, tel :  + 39 055 212691) but for the kindness of a Japanese dude whom was kind enough to show us the way. In the end, the location turned out to be not too far of a walk from the hotel that we were staying in.

This trattoria was one of those serving straight forward home styled cooking without frills where one finds locals rubbing shoulders with tourists.  Their specialty I've heard was their bistecca alla fiorentina, an out of this world petti di pollo al burro (butter chicken!) and their tortino di carciofi. Since we've just had steak just the day before, we gave that a pass and gave the other items a chance to find a home in our bellies.

To be honest, most of the bread we've had in Italy were dull, airy and crusty stuff on the verge of being made into breadcrumbs. Sostanza's ciabatta was actually pretty good in spite of it's innocuous (or mundane) appearance.

There was something amazing about Tuscan chopped liver costinis that made us marvel at the magic of their taste. It was their brand of fragrance and savoury flavors, clocked in at the right quantities.

Their pasta was very decent, not experimental in any sense at all and served with a hearty ragu.

The highlight was their butter chicken. Imagine a buttery pastry with the texture of tender pan fried chicken. That was really how it was with the fillets fried in a generous pool of butter. There was enough of those charred bits and melted butter to dip each bite of the chicken and then mop up with the ciabatta they gave.

I imagine that one should at least order and try this to have considered visited Trattoria Sostanza.

Their artichoke omelette was also no slouch. It came out as a large tart of light airy eggs with soft chunks of the artichoke hearts embedded within, drenched in olive oil. This would have made an awesome breakfast dish.

As stuffed as we were, we managed their fruit and cream meringue cake thing for dessert. A second time where I was proven that meringue can be not overly sweet and taste pretty good. With the generosity of the cream in the equation, the crumbly meringue, the bits of airy cake along with the cold berries and chocolate crumbles were a party of textures.

Panino con lampredotto

Lampredotto comes, from the fourth stomach of the cow. Like tripe is considered offal and once food for the poor. Today they are a legacy from the cuisine of yesteryears and also considered a delicacy of sorts. At least for me they are.

Boiled in a vegetable and herb broth till they were tender, the lampredotto was then sliced up and subsequently forked onto a hollowed out loaf. With little but salt and pepper and some salsa verde, the sandwich was made. And it was delicious.

I was told that these were pretty common in Florence, but had never happened across them along the streets until tipped of by a certain gentleman to search for the square with the statue of the little pig which was also incidentally a fountain. Actually a boar rather than a little pig. Where people spent a coin and hoped for a return to Florence.

Where else can I find more of these sandwiches?

Fontana del porcellino