Tag: Cicchetti

Santa Marta farmers’ market, a hidden gem in Venice

Approaching to land at Marco Polo for a few days in Venice, I was leafing through ‘Walks in Venice, in the footsteps of 9 locals’ and came across The Mercato de Santa Marta, ‘a small but lively local market’ where every Monday morning, farmers from the mainland come to set up their stalls.

The book is by Katia Waegemans, founder of The Venice Insider, a travel blog for frequent visitors to Venice. It’s available from Amazon, the link is at the end of this post.

We landed on a Saturday in October, which gave us a day to settle in and be ready to find the market. The Santa Marta neighbourhood is in the depths of Dorsoduro.

Dorsoduro

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We passed Tramontin, one of the few remaining boatyards that specialise in repairing gondolas, then through the campus of Venice University, where we paused for coffee in the student canteen before proceeding into a complex of unprepossessing halls of residence.

Gondolas at Tramontin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old ladies were walking towards us with laden shopping trolleys, which is always a sign that you are getting close to a market; sure enough we rounded a corner and there it was. We headed for the busiest greengrocers’ stall, hoping we would be served eventually.

Fortunately a young student shared the helpful information (in English, she was Italian/Australian, an interesting mix) that we should take a ticket from the red dispenser (there’s one on every stall) and wait for our number to be called.

We came away with a good haul of fruit and veg for just 17 euros.

We were recommended to try ‘The Devil’s Beans’ with instructions on cooking by the cheerful stallholder, who threw in some parsley and sage to complete the dish.

Approaching Santa Marta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shoppers were a mix of students and locals, I think we were the only non-Italians there. The quality of produce was excellent, and prices were very reasonable.

The plant stall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We picked up some pork and chicken, salame, cheese, buffalo pannacotta, and a beautiful yoghurt with forest fruits.

Best of all, I spotted ‘Puntarelle’, a salad vegetable that’s only available for a limited season, and rarely seen outside Italy.

Puntarelle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After shopping, lunch would be our reward

We decided to award ourselves a snack lunch of tramezzini, little sandwiches stuffed with various fillings, and headed across the Giudecca Canal to the Bar Palanca.

I’ve always been a little concerned about the Palanca since Time Out magazine listed it as one of its ‘bars with the best views in the world’.

I needn’t have worried.

We were greeted by a lovely waiter who’s been there for years; he fist-bumped each of us in turn, and firmly upsold the specials of the day to share. We were putty in his hands.

The star dish was an antipasto of tuna tartare, baccala mantecato (whipped salt cod), silver anchovies with pink peppercorns, and sarde in saor (sardines with onion, vinegar and golden raisins).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My enquiry about the delicate spicing of the tuna was met with the inevitable response:

‘It’s our secret mix’.

You can reach the market by vaporetto from the Grand Canal to the Santa Marta stop, or walk as we did from the San Basilio stop on the Giudecca Canal; cross to Palanca on the opposite side.

Amaro. For the avoidance of doubt.

‘It’s bitter, no?

This is the true Amaro’, explained Luca di Vita, the charming maitre d’ of Osteria alle Testiere in Venice.
It’s one of my favourite restaurants.

Amaro in Italian means bitter. It’s also a drink. Most of the commercial brands are a bit too sweet, and Luca has created his own ‘Nostrano’, (Ours).

It’s a drink to savour after a meal, a bit like port, but yes, bitter…..
It’s brownish red in colour, with a hint of green.

There’s sweetness, yes, but with the bitterness of rhubarb, artichoke (try Cynar, if you’re feeling adventurous) and who knows what other alchemy.

It’s stimulating, a punctuation that marks the end of a meal, and it supposedly helps the digestion.

Bitter flavours are prized by Italians in ways that we Brits might find challenging: radicchio, rocket, Campari, and the complexities of aged balsamic vinegar or Gorgonzola Piccante.

I dare you.

I had my say in The Sunday Telegraph

The Telegraph was my parents’ paper of choice, and my sister still subscribes.

She tipped me off about the weekly writing competition ‘Your say’ in the travel pages on Sunday.

This week the brief was to describe a favourite sweet treat discovered on your travels, in no more than 150 words.

My entry was printed in a very slightly edited form. Here it is in full:

 

A favourite ‘sweet treat’ from my travels

 

Frìtole in Venetian dialect (frittelle in Italian) are traditionally devoured only during the Venice Carnival, a celebration of gluttony and excess which ends on Shrove Tuesday, before the austere days of Lent begin.

Days are often foggy and cold, and revellers seek out fried treats in the misshapen form of frìtole, found in pastry shops and cafés throughout the city.

They’re knobbly little doughnuts, studded with candied citrus peel, pinenuts, and raisins (which, if you’re lucky, will have been soused in grappa) then fried and dusted with sugar.

Carnevale is not only for tourists; on one night of our stay we managed to get seated in a crowded dining room of a busy Osteria. At the neighbouring table there was a party who were clearly Venetians, finishing a tray of warm frìtole: a Renaissance prince, a nineteenth century admiral, and a Mikado who started singing arias in Italian….

 

 

The Sunday Telegraph, 11 April 2021

Drinking with Chip ‘n’ Dale

It’s your first evening in Venice, and you’ve booked dinner at Al Zucca, ten minutes walk from your hotel. You’ve been there before, you fancy a drink first, but you can’t remember anywhere on the way to the restaurant. There’s a street in the other direction where you know there’s a simple pizzeria on the corner, with a well stocked bar, so you set off.

As you approach, there’s the sound of lively conversation that grows louder as you get closer, and it’s not coming from the pizza place.

Turning the corner, there’s a tiny new bar, and it’s buzzing. On one side it opens onto the calle, inside is the bar: a glass cabinet of cicheti, some bottles of wine, and a display of your favourite bitters above. There are two bar stools, a couple of barrels outside, and that’s about it.

 

‘Un spritz al Cynar, con prosecco, grazie’

 

There are two guys behind the bar, the service is friendly, and so are the prices:

A spritz is €2.50, or €3.50 con prosecco – a generous pour over ice, topped up with prosecco and a splash of soda. They have Cynar and Select, as well as the usual Campari and Aperol.

You prefer wine? €1 for un ombra, or €2.50 for un calice, a proper glass. Cicheti are €1.50 a piece.

 

 

The seemingly never-ending pour

 

 

We enjoyed it so much, we went back for a drink after dinner….

 

‘Later that night’

 

 

In fact, we were back the next morning too, for coffee this time, although there were spritzes lined up on the bar by 11am.

 

 

The morning spritz, Cip & Ciop

 

 

Demographic: all ages, from a babe in arms upwards; a mix of visitors and locals.

Playlist: energetic salsa.

What’s it called? Cip e Ciop. In English, that’s pronounced (approximately) ‘Chip Eh Chop’. None the wiser, I looked it up; apparently they are Disney cartoon characters, two chipmunks whose names translate as ‘Chip ‘n’ Dale’. 

Where to find it: the closest Vaporetto stop is Riva di Biásio on the Grand Canal; it’s the first stop from the train station, which explains the flow past the bar of visitors with luggage. Turn right off the vaporetto stop, until you have to turn left into Calle del Pistor, and Cip e Ciop is on the corner of Lista dei Bari.

 

I’d say you can’t miss it, but this being Venice, of course you can….

 

The Grand Canal near Riva di Biasio

 

http://www.hotelcazustovenezia.it/en/

Ristorante La Zucca: http://www.lazucca.it/en

My review https://wp.me/p7AW4i-zv

A last lunch before the deluge

Acqua Alta comes as no surprise to Venetians in November, it’s an annual phenomenon; an irritation, an inconvenience to be dealt with stoically by the residents and businesses of the city.

This year, as we now know, it was a disaster on a scale unprecedented since 1966. Many restaurants and shops were forced to close by the flood on the night of November 12th.  The water subsided, only to be followed by a second high tide a couple of days later, then a torrential downpour.

As I write this on 17th November, BBC Radio News is reporting a third flood.

 

Osteria Bancogiro

 

One of the restaurants affected by Acqua Granda is Osteria Bancogiro, on the fringe of Rialto market, within sight of the bridge and the Grand Canal.

Just over a month ago I was in Venice. We usually visit Bancogiro to sit at the bar with a selection of their chicheti, but on a warm and sunny day in October it seemed a good idea to have lunch at a table outside.

 

 

Bancogiro from the terrace

 

Instead of choosing from the display of snacks in the counter, we were presented with a printed menu. In a moment of innocence I ordered the Antipasto Misto di Pesce, expecting the typical Venetian restaurant plate of baccala (salt cod), prawns, cannochie shrimp, cuttlefish roe etc.

What arrived was an antipasto with a Bancogiro twist – a tasting tour on a plate, helpfully guided by our waiter:

‘From the bottom right, anticlockwise’

Prawns in tomato sauce on cream cheese. Octopus and aubergine on polenta, drenched with olive oil. Baccala mantecato on warm black polenta. A generous pile of smoked tuna, infused with orange zest. Sweet pepper stuffed with soft cheese. Sarde in Saor.

 

 

 

Antipasto misto di pesce

 

 

Lunch was accompanied by an equally varied soundscape: the sounds of the engines of traffic from the canal, the hammering of builders restoring the roof of a palazzo on the far side, and the cries of seagulls scavenging debris from the fish market.

There was a moment of serious balcony envy, as we looked up and realised there was someone else enjoying lunch, followed by a spot of sun worship.

 

 

Balcony envy

 

As we enjoyed a coffee, someone at a neighbouring table was already contemplating

‘Spritz o’clock’

 

Spritz o’clock

 

 

Bancogiro closed the day after Acqua Alta; they were defiantly open again a day later.

 

In the following days, there have been many images in news and social media as the unsung heroes of Acqua Alta have quietly got on with the business of pumping, mopping and cleaning up after the waters subsided, and in some cases opening for business even if they have been up to their knees, or higher, in water.

As a small tribute to these heroes, here are some of their Instagram tags, where you will find images of citizens of all ages, doggedly trying to restore normality to their homes, churches and businesses:

On Instagram, you’ll find the team outside osteriabancogiro up to their knees but grinning, sharing ‘that glass of wine, that slice of fennel salame, a hug between friends who share a difficult moment’

cantinaschiavi is more succinct: ‘Honestly, it’s just a ****ing disaster’ – their shop floor underwater; a collapsed stack of sodden cases of wine.

But at venissa_tenuta on the island of Burano, a waiter is standing ready to greet you on the restaurant terrace with a bottle of Prosecco. He’s smiling.

The green floodwater nearly covers his waders, and the caption reads ‘Still positive’ 

 

On the morning of November 18th, the waters appear to have subsided….

HOW TO HELP VENICE AND THE VENETIANS AFTER THE ACQUA ALTA

 

Here’s a link to some sound advice from The Venice Insider:

 

https://www.theveniceinsider.com/how-to-help-venice-venetians-acqua-alta/

 

A postcard from Santa Croce

Santa Croce is one of the sestiere of Venice, between Rialto and the railway station.

Arriving in Campo San Giacomo dell’ Orio in the early evening, you’ll encounter a microcosm of Venetian life. A few tourists pass through, but really it’s an urban village.

At its centre is the eponymous church. When the junior school is out, you’ll see boisterous children doing circuits of the little cluster of trees, on scooters, bikes and skates.

 

 

The race track, early evening

 

There’s a game of football being played, with the walls of the church and the Co-op supermarket acting as goals – when I was there it became clear that the boys were playing the girls, and the girls were winning….

There are three restaurants in the square, but my favourite haunt is Al Prosecco, a husband and wife operation, where they serve cicheti, and platters of cheese, salumi and smoked fish; perfect for a light lunch or an early evening aperitivo.

 

I arrived at Spritz o’clock.

 

 

Spritz at Al Prosecco

 

http://www.alprosecco.com/english_who.htm

Open every day from 9 am to 8 pm (winter) and from 9 am to 10:30 pm (summer).
Closed Sundays.

 

Campo San Giacomo dell’Orio at night

Ten favourite Bacari in Venice for chewing the lardo

Cichètti, or Chewing the Lardo

 

There’s something democratic about this city without cars. No-one can hide behind the anonymity of a windscreen, so the chances are you will know your fellow passengers on the vaporetto by sight, at the very least. Lawyers and professors share the same transport system as plumbers and market traders. The same is true if you visit bàcari, the archetypal Venetian bars (and no, neither Harry’s Bar nor the cocktail bar at the Gritti Palace is a bàcaro).

 

 

Vaporetto No 1: walking the dog, and checking for messages.

 

 

On a recent four night stay we were revisiting four restaurants for dinner, so during the day we made a habit of visiting a bàcaro (or two) for a light lunch, between ‘feasting’ on a banquet of Tintoretto.

 

Bàcari usually have a glass cabinet of snacks on the counter; cichèti (in Veneziano) or chicchètti (Italiano) are usually slices of crunchy baguette, sometimes warm, which brings the flavours of the toppings to life, especially the silky Lardo (cured pork fat).

They’re much the same as Pinchos from Spain; sometimes you see them described as “a Venetian take on Tapas”, but I would be careful where you say that….

 

 

On the bar at Al Timon, Cannaregio

 

These are ten of my favourites, listed by Sestiera:

 

Around Rialto

 

BANCOGIRO

The bar takes its name from the first public merchant bank, founded here in 1600.

There’s a restaurant upstairs, and tables outside overlooking the Grand Canal.

Playlist: The Kinks greatest hits.

Campo San Giacometto, Ponte di Rialto, 122, 30125

Vaporetto: Rialto Mercato.

 

 

Bancogiro

 

 

Inside Bancogiro, (out of season)

 

 

AL MERCÀ – is a tiny hole-in-the-wall place at the side of the food market; there’s barely room for the staff to work behind the bar.

Campo Bella Vienna, San Polo 213.     Vaporetto: Rialto Mercato

 

 

Al Merca’

 

 

ALL’ ARCO

Locals stand at the bar chatting to the owner, who seemed to be doing a quality control check on a magnum of something interesting when we visited. Venice is a small city, so you start to recognise characters you’ve seen before.

Tourists treat All’ Arco like a buffet, choosing a full plate which they take to the little tables and chairs in the alley outside.

 

 

All’ Arco: Piovra (octopus) and Baccala alla Vicentina

 

 

Playlist: animated conversation, with a little showing off.

Campo dell’Ochialer, San Polo 436.       Vaporetto: Rialto Mercato

 

 

All’ Arco

 

 

I RUSTEGHI

This tiny bar tucked away on the San Marco side of the Rialto Bridge, serves top quality cichèti, see my separate post here: https://wp.me/p7AW4i-xy

Playlist: Dylan, early and late periods.

Corte del Tentor, San Marco 5513     Vaporetto: Rialto.

 

 

San Polo

 

ADAGIO Caffè & Wine bar

Well placed if you’re visiting the Frari, or on your way to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, it’s in a corner of the Campo dei Frari behind the church. It wouldn’t look out of place as a Patisserie and Salon du Thé in Paris, but actually serves well-priced cicchèti (€1 – 1.50), glasses of wine for around €4, and a well-made macchiato.

Playlist: Otis Redding, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen. And Dylan.

Calle del Scaleter, 3028, 30125      Vaporetto: San Tomà

 

 

Adagio Caffe & Wine Bar

 

 

BASEGÓ

where a cool young crowd mingles with older ne’er-do-wells over Spritz and good snacks.

Calle del Scaleter, 2863, 3012      Vaporetto: San Tomà

Playlist: Electro. ‘Dance’. That sort of thing.

 

 

Bacaro Basego

 

 

Castello

 

EL RÉFOLO – a small, hip bar on via Garibaldi, knocking out Aperol, Cynar and Campari spritz in serious quantities…. Tue – Sat 11am – 11.30pm

Via Garibaldi, Castello 1580.     Vaporetto: Arsenale.

Website: http://www.elrefolo.it/

My post “to spritz or not to spritz?” https://wp.me/p7AW4i-4I

 

 

Campari spritz at El Refolo

 

 

Dorsoduro

 

CANTINONE già SCHIAVI (aka VINI al BOTTEGON)

A glass and a snack at Vini al Bottegon, a wine shop on Fondamenta Nani. Stand outside with a glass and cicchetti, prepared by the redoubtable Sandra.

There’s no playlist; just the three brothers selling bottles of wine.

Ponte San Trovaso, Dorsoduro 992.     Vaporetto: Accademia.

 

 

THE RED CAFFÈ

Campo Santa Margharita is a rambling square of bars and cafes which stay open late, especially in the summer. The happening place is The Red Caffe, popular with students.

Dorsoduro 2963.     Vaporetto: Cà Rezzonico.

 

 

Cannaregio

 

On winter nights, instead of Santa Margharita, head for the Fondamenta della Misericorderia and Fondamenta dei Ormesini for an aperitivo or a late drink.

 

Fondamenta della Misericordia

 

VINO VERO

This small bar, popular with the local crowd, serves natural wines with cicchetti. “No Spritz! (we love wine)”.

 

Vino Vero, Cannaregio

 

Fondamenta della Misericordia, Cannaregio 2497. Closed Monday.

Vaporetto: S. Alvise; Orto; San Marcuola Casino.

 

 

 

AL TIMON

This trattoria has a lively bar in its main dining room, and even livelier cutomers by the canal outside!

 

Cicheti at Al Timon

 

Playlist: lively conversation into the small hours.

Fondamenta degli Ormesini, Cannaregio 2754.

Vaporetto: S. Alvise; Orto; San Marcuola Casino.

“We don’t make coffee here, we are very serious…. We have grappa!”

Walking to dinner at Alle Testiere, a sign in an archway caught my eye – “I Rusteghi”. I recognised the name from Russell Norman’s directory of bars, in his book Venice, Four Seasons of Home Cooking.

 

 

Sign to I Rusteghi, under the Sotoportego del Tintor

 

 

Through the arch in a tiny courtyard was a well, covered with empty champagne bottles. Round the corner is the bar, and we decided to return to investigate when we had more time.

 

 

The well, Corte del Tintor

 

 

Finding ourselves in the vicinity at lunchtime a couple of days later, it was the perfect opportunity for a light lunch on the way to see the Tintoretto paintings at Scuola Grande di San Marco.

The bar seats about 18 inside. There’s more seating outside for the summer months. Every available surface is devoted to bottles and wine-related paraphernalia. They’re serious about wine here, and there’s a blackboard over the bar which declares “No Spriss!!”

 

 

Inside I Rusteghi

 

 

Giovanni, the charismatic owner, took charge. He only serves tap water, “it comes from the same spring as San Benedetto” he declares, “invest your money in wine, not in water”.

His own Prosecco is a lovely example, soft and aromatic, Prosecco as it should be. Above the bar hang little ceramic mugs that his parents used for serving wine when they opened in 1990. Giovanni referenced their shape when he designed his wine glasses; “you can’t have a present or a future if you don’t have a past”.

 

 

Giovanni’s glasses

 

 

Giovanni is a purist. He spent a dozen years working for “a very good place” in Switzerland before returning to take over the family business. “All the restaurants in Venice offered the same thing; it was boring, and I wanted to do something different”. He chooses the very best products he can find from Italy, and it shows.

Cicchetti are served “Rusteghi style”: a plate each of fish, meat, and cheese, served with good bread. The anchovy fillets are firm, meaty and not over-salty, served with tomato ‘cream’; wafer-thin cooked ham comes with ‘rafano’, a dollop of tangy horseradish sauce; cheese is a rich, cave-aged Taleggio Rubino.

 

 

Cicheti “a Rusteghi”, to share

 

 

After a generous mound of fragrant prosciutto crudo with excellent Taggiasca olives, a request for coffee elicited this response: “We don’t make coffee here, we are very serious” (he fixes you with an intense stare…) “We have grappa!” Then he explains he doesn’t have space for a machine, and in any case the smell would interfere with the wine….

The name “I Rusteghi” is the title of a play by Carlo Goldoni, which translates as “The Boors”, or “The Cantankerous Men”. Goldoni is best known in the UK for the English adaptation of his play “Servant of Two Masters” as “One Man, Two Guvnors”.

 

Playlist: Late Dylan; Blues & Jazz.

It would be a good place for an aperitivo on the way to dinner at Alle Testiere, which is five minutes away.

 

I Rusteghi, Corte del Tentor, 5513, 30124 San Marco, Venezia.

Open daily. https://www.airusteghi.com/  0039 338 760 6034

 

DIRECTIONS: Leave the Rialto bridge heading towards San Marco (Salizzada Pio X) into Campo San Bartolomeo, with its statue of Goldoni, and turn left. Leave the square along the right hand side of the Luisa Spagnoli store, and turn right into Calle Bissa. Look out for an archway on your left, Sotoportego del Tintor.

“Every time someone does this, a Venetian dies”

 

On the evening of our arrival in Venice in late November, we were asked for directions three times by other visitors. After all this time, we must be beginning to blend in.

From the Vaporetto No 1, I was struck by the swathes of residential properties in darkness on the Grand Canal, apparently unoccupied.

They are interspersed by lavishly lit palaces, which are mostly hotels.

 

The Grand Canal

 

Festa della Salute (the feast of health)

On 21st November each year, a temporary bridge is constructed across the Grand Canal between Santa Maria del Giglio (next to the Gritti Palace hotel) and the basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, where mass is said hourly, from morning to night.

 

 

Mass at Santa Maria della Salute

 

 

Venetians cross the bridge, buying candles from stalls set up outside the Basilica, then they gather in their hundreds inside the church to light them, in an emotional and devout commemoration of the souls of their dead. It was a privilege to be present at this profound and memorable act of remembrance, as the community gives thanks for its deliverance from the plague in 1631.

 

 

Lighting candles for the Festa dell Salute

 

 

 

Castradina Sciavona

Afterwards, every restaurant in the city prepares the traditional Castradina, a hearty soup of shredded smoked mutton and cabbage, which is only served once a year, for the festival. It’s a restorative and satisfying dish that transcends the simplicity of its humble ingredients.

 

Castradina Sciavona

 

(Castradina Sciavona, in Venetian dialect, Schiavoni in Italian, is named for the Slavs who historically imported meat from Croatia and Slovenia, which were part of the Venetian Empire).

 

 

Acqua Alta

Returning to our hotel after dinner one evening, the receptionist made us aware that the water level was expected to rise by 100 cm the following morning. “Not enough to cover your shoes”, it would be worse in St Mark’s Square and other low-lying districts. After 120 cm it becomes more problematic, he said, but still nothing like the 160 cm the city had experienced in October.

The next morning, three hours before the expected surge, a siren sounded, followed by three eerie blasts. At the appointed time there were gasps and laughter from a group of guests in the hotel, when one of their number looked out of the window and reported that water was rushing into the Calle below.

Acqua Alta is a severe inconvenience for Venetians, but what irritates them more is the inaccurate media coverage of the phenomenon, and the tourists who regard it as just another photo-opportunity.

However, some visitors take a more practical approach to the conditions….

 

Rocking Acqua Alta

 

In almost thirty years of going to Venice in every season, this was the first time we experienced a downpour. It’s as beautiful as ever in the rain.

 

 

‘The Stones of Venice’ – Campo dei Frari

 

 

Osteria La Zucca, Santa Croce

 

 

 

“Every time someone does this…. a Venetian dies” 

 

What heinous act has this effect? I found the answer on the blackboard in Basego, a bar on Campo San Toma serving a good selection of cicchètti.

 

“Ogni volta che mangi una sarda in saor con un cappuccino, muore un veneziano”.

 

Outside Basego, San Toma

 

 

“Every time someone eats a sardine in saor with a cappuccino, a Venetian dies”.

 

I will be writing more about cichèti (the Venetian spelling, or cicchètti in Italian) in another post; they are an emblem of the resurgence of the city’s food culture.

Also emblematic is the Venetian gentleman’s winter cape, worn here almost as an act of defiance….

 

Enjoying cicheti and a glass of wine, outside All’ Arco, Rialto

 

 

 

The Festa della Salute, the eating of Castradina, and even the wearing of a cape, do not take place for the benefit of tourists; they are symbols of the life that continues to be lived in this unique, proud city, “the most beautiful city in the world”.