The best fritto misto in Venice according to Mark Bittman

If Theseus had to navigate like we had to reach Vecio Fritolin (Calle della Regina 2262 - Sestiere Santa Croce, 30135 | Calle della Regina, Venice, tel : 041 522 28 81) from the hotel via his method through the labyrinth to the minotaur, his ball would have run out of string. Seriously. 

My incompetency with directional mapping in the early dark of Venice's autumn aside, I had discovered this osteria the night before while valiantly trying to navigate my way back to the hotel. The place had for reasons attracted my attention so I walked in and asked for a business card and promptly made reservations the next day after taking a peek at their menu.

candied almonds?

Mark Bittman had once written a number of years ago in NYT that this restaurant (which dates back more than a couple of centuries if what I had read were true) had the best deep fried seafood in Venice. I was pretty sure he hadn't eaten in all of Venice, but the point was not that. It was just that this was an opportunity to put the words of a food channel celebrity to the test and see if we share the same taste. Heh!

To start, we tried their deep fried crab and artichoke which were in season. As tasty as they were, I thought a little salt would have gone ways in making them taste better. No complains about the crispy little crustaceans and vegetable though.

The first of the two pasta we had was an egg spaghetti with baby squids, black cabbage leaves and garlic cream. Venetians are really subtle with the garlic thing. I tasted more of the squid in the sauce. Still, I thought it was pretty good until the next pasta arrived and impressed me off my feet.

Vecio Fritolin's black tagliatelle was an amazing. Redolent with the flavour of squid ink like we've never had in pasta before. Paired with nicely boiled cauliflower and fresh sweet chunks of scampi tail to boot. I'd recommend this in a heartbeat to anyone and I only wished that the portions were double of what they served.

The item to order here as recommended was their platter of deep fried seafood and vegetables. We had noticed that it was on almost every other table. Even on the one just next to ours that freakily ordered exactly the same items as we did. I suppose it was all very decent fried seafood. Again in need of some salt to elevate the flavors. It's also a first time that a large amount of fried stuff I'm eating were babies of the actual seafood.

But anyone that thinks that what they did here is amazing (Mr Bittman!) needs to visit Porta Porta for comparison.

Dessert was a very innocuous but wonderfully robust and creamy saffron creme brulee that I would order again if I ever get the chance to come back.

Trattoria da Romano, Via Galuppi, Burano

Burano is a 40 minute vaporetto ride from the main island of Venice. Like its neighbour Murano, it is famed for craftsmanship. But here, it is lace instead of artisanal glass. And houses painted in cheerful happy colors that dot the residential part of the land. Until the day we had decided to visit it, I hadn't known that it was also a place where Anthony Bourdain visited once in an episode of No Reservations for their risotto of no tiny fame.

In an old school eatery call Trattoria da Romano (Via Galuppi, 221 | Burano, Venice, tel : +39 041 73 0030) where the waitering is still a respectable profession that required one to be genteelly observant, knowledge of what the restaurant is serving and a fish filleting dexterity that has been honed to the point that the job is done before a cooked fish has turned cold after it has been trolley-ed to the customer.

Seriously.

To start off, we had picked sea snails doused in olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

The follow up was the one of the stars of the lunch. A risotto di Goa that was made from a fish broth reduced into the rice. The flavour of the risotto turned out to be very balanced. A little different from what I had in mind of a rich fish broth. There was just enough of that fish flavour and rich creaminess that hadn't threatened to overwhelm one another in a mask of savory goodness.

Mindblowingly awesome it wasn't. But it was still a good risotto.

Then came the second star of the lunch which was juicy grilled scampi that was a little expensive. Wished those scampi had more meat. It was truly wowingly good. The wowingly good was largely due to the fact that these crustaceans were sweet from the freshness. The grill elevated them to the next level. In fact, we liked it so much that after a while, the fork and knife were forgotten and we were happily sucking the contents out of the head.

Next up was a last minute add on of their cuttlefish ink spaghetti with bits of cuttlefish thrown in for bite. Totally enjoyable this was.

To wrap up with something sweet, a pretty and decent cioccolato torta which we spied on the cake trays by the bar.

This place did represent certain aspects of what we liked a lot about the food here being straight forward and delicious in spite of the fact that we're eating in a very touristy area. It was not an inexpensive lunch by any measure, but it left us leaving with a smile on our faces.

Service was excellent.

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.