Thoughts on a trip to Italy

elyse · November 3, 2003

By the way, what that guy at Boccondivino was slicing off that leg was Prosciutto di Norcia - as you will see in the photo here and in the photo page link a the bottom of the page.

Noyt getting the link here, Craig.

Craig Camp · November 3, 2003

By the way, what that guy at Boccondivino was slicing off that leg was Prosciutto di Norcia - as you will see in the photo here and in the photo page link at the bottom of the Boccondivino page.
Noyt getting the link here, Craig.

It is working OK for me.

hollywood · November 3, 2003

By the way, what that guy at Boccondivino was slicing off that leg was Prosciutto di Norcia - as you will see in the photo here and in the photo page link at the bottom of the Boccondivino page.
Noyt getting the link here, Craig.
It is working OK for me.

Now, if only you had photos of Mr. & Ms. Tommy and the German couple.

Priscilla · November 3, 2003

Tommy this is all very cool and evocative. Moremoremore.
In the midnight hour she cried - "more, more, more"
With a rebel yell she cried - "more, more, more"
In the midnight hour babe - "more, more, more"
With a rebel yell - "more, more, more"
More, more, more.
[sorry, tommy, couldn't stay focused.]

I've been asking Southern guys in bars for years what is a rebel yell, presaging, perhaps, Billy Idol's appropriation of the term. I've asked and asked and asked would they do one please, and they all demur and say stuff like, "Oh, little lady, you don't want to hear such a thing," and I keep saying yes I DO but none acquiesce. Rebel Yell bourbon I've always thought had the BEST name, too.

And then we get a new neighbor the other month, who is a drummer (see the relevance just keeps on comin'), and who is from MiSSiSSiPPi, and who wandered into our garden late one evening and we invited to sit down and join the assembled, got him something to drink, and I saw my chance, and I asked my question, and he tried saying "that's a Billy Idol song" and I said don't give me that nonsense you know what I mean, is a rebel yell whoo-hoo, or yee-haw, or what IS it, and of course he hauled out the same dissemblement, "Oh, you don't want to to hear THAT, little lady, that's what they did when they were about to KILL somebody," and I said, yes, I DO and wow but then didn't he let rip with a BLOOD-curdling yell that resounded and echoed through the canyon, striking abject terror in the hearts, certainly, of those lucky enough to hear it. It was very rock & roll.

hollywood · November 3, 2003

he let rip with a BLOOD-curdling yell that resounded and echoed through the canyon, striking abject terror in the hearts, certainly, of those lucky enough to hear it. It was very rock & roll.

There's a pretty healthy yell in Won't Get Fooled Again. Also, there's a Rick Derringer song that they used to use in the scream contest on KROQ years ago. Can't remember the name. Meanwhile, back in Venice.....

menton1 · November 3, 2003

Tommy, you must be slipping-- I can't believe you went to Al Mascaron, a place that I highly recommended!! :laugh:

Bill Klapp · November 3, 2003

Menton 1, just ate there myself, and I found it to be the best of its price range/type in Venezia. Our seafood was all exquisitely fresh and perfectly prepared. I had mantis shrimp to die for, as well as superb spaghetti with verace ("true") clams. My wife and a friend split the best branzino I have ever tasted. Tommy is right that the staff is a little rough around the edges, and there is only house wine, but seafood in Venezia does not get too much better (except at Alle Testiere, but there, you are talking bigger bucks and gourmet aspirations).

menton1 · November 3, 2003

I agree, Bill-- the place is a great find in Venice. I loved the community tables, and we had the best "Seppie Col Nero" we've ever had, the quintissential Venetian dish! (My knees don't hurt a bit! :smile: )

tommy · November 3, 2003

Tommy, you must be slipping-- I can't believe you went to Al Mascaron, a place that I highly recommended!!

believe me when i say you were on my mind for the better part of the trip. :laugh:

FoodZealot · November 3, 2003

Brilliant reports, tommy. Thank you and please continue!

~Tad

hollywood · November 3, 2003

Brilliant reports, tommy. Thank you and please continue!

Wait just a minute. We don't want him resting on his laurels. We want reports.

Varmint · November 3, 2003

It has been nearly 22 hours since the last report. Whassupwiddat?

hollywood · November 3, 2003

It has been nearly 22 hours since the last report. Whassupwiddat?

Tommy is the new Fran Liebowitz.

elyse · November 3, 2003

By the way, what that guy at Boccondivino was slicing off that leg was Prosciutto di Norcia - as you will see in the photo here and in the photo page link at the bottom of the Boccondivino page.
Noyt getting the link here, Craig.
It is working OK for me.

Getting it now. Thanks for listening. :smile:

They have those things in Brasilian churascarias (sp).

bloviatrix · November 3, 2003

It has been nearly 22 hours since the last report. Whassupwiddat?
Tommy is the new Fran Liebowitz.

Which means he'll be resting on his laurels for the next 20 something years.

hollywood · November 3, 2003

It has been nearly 22 hours since the last report. Whassupwiddat?
Tommy is the new Fran Liebowitz.
Which means he'll be resting on his laurels for the next 20 something years.

Is that like pressing flowers or pressing a ham?

tommy · November 5, 2003

Having arrived in Venice relatively hungry, I found myself grabbing a slice of pizza in the middle of the afternoon the first day. (This, by the way, was the best slice of pizza I’ve ever had. It could have been the hunger, I’m not sure. But it was delicious). From there on, I was in search of more pizza.

Taverna San Trovaso

Fondamenta Priuli

Dorsoduro 1016

Venice

Tel. 520 37 03

Our second meal in Venice was at Taverna San Trovaso. Another egullet recommendation.

The only goals that afternoon were to sit down, eat pizza, and drink wine. Taverna San Trovaso is a pretty good place to do all of those things. We ordered two pizzas: gorgonzola & speck, and artichoke.

The gorgonzola and speck was fabulous. A nice crispy thin-ish crust, with some very good speck and mild gorgonzola. The cheese was mild overall, but the flavor in the veining was intense.

My artichoke pizza was almost as good. It did have a bit too much cheese for me though. I was a bit surprised at that.

We drank a 2001 Cabutto barbera d’alba for 15 euro. A super-fruity wine, with cherry and dark berries. It also packed 14% alcohol. :shock:

The place was filled with Italian families, having big lunches and having a ball. Seems like a real “regulars” kind of place. Kinda like the Olive Garden commercials. I’d definitely go back here for lunch.

Vini Da Gigio

Cannaregio 3628A, Fondamenta San Felice. Tel.: 041-528-5140

Venice

website

I was so looking forward to eating at this highly recommended restaurant that I completely forgot my camera. I suppose one didn’t have anything to do with the other, but I can’t think of a segue.

This is a great spot, and a tough reservation. Several people came in looking for a table and were turned away. Luckily, we secured a reservation that morning.

As this was an uneventful meal (other than food), I’ll just mention the dishes…

Pumpkin ravioli. They came in a super-rich, but not sickeningly so, sauce. The pumpkin flavor was quite intense.

Fresh pasta w/ mushrooms. The dish was perfectly balanced. Just the right amount of parsley bits throughout. I noted that I could have eaten that dish all day.

Osso bucco was declared “delicious”.

Sliced steak au Poivre. The sauce was slightly, and surprisingly, acidic. I’m guessing there was balsamic in it. the green peppercorns were more fruit-like than pepper-like. They tasted super fresh, and really set the dish off.

We drank a clerico ciabot mentin ginestra 1995 barolo.

8 mild cheeses were brought out. A mild blue managed to bring an intense chocolate flavor out of the wine. That was a lot of fun.

The service was friendly and helpful. It seemed like a family-run operation. Actually, I think it *is* a family run operation.

It should be noted that dishes were brought to the table as they were ready. That’s just fine by me, as I don’t want my dishes sitting under a lamp.

On the way back from dinner, we passed an irish pub on campo dei testori that had a pretty good crowd going. We figured we’d stop and have a nightcap. Strangely, I met a guy who doesn’t live far from us. He was nice enough to take a picture with his camera, as I had forgotten mine. Additionaly, I had never seen a more disgusting restroom in my life.

By my estimation, I had about 3 nightcaps too many.

Some horrible place near San Marco

Tel: don’t worry about it

Lunchtime snuck up on us the following day. It was pissing down rain, and we had just waited in line for the basilica for a very very long time. I decided, against my better judgment, to just duck into one of the thousands of touristy places nearby. What a freakin mistake.

We walked into the least-offensive looking place. The theme song to “The Price is Right” was coming out of the speakers. I shit you not. We knew we were in the wrong place. But damnit we were hungry.

I had a pizza with artichokes, which completely fell short of even my very low expectations. Mrs. Tommy had pasta Bolognese, which wasn’t horrible, but certainly not memorable. If I recall correctly, they didn’t even have house wine. I ended up dropping 40 euro on a bottle of amarone. Oh well.

Please, don’t ever do this. Ever. You simply cannot take back a shitty meal. And when it’s not cheap, it hurts that much more.

Agli Alboretti

Rio Terra Antonio Foscarini – Sant’Agnese 882

Venice

Tel: 041 523 00 58

website

Attack of the ugly Americans.

The tables are very close in parts of this restaurant, so you almost can’t help but be distracted at times. Especially when the people next to you are sending back food, complaining, and talking about deeply personal issues way louder than they should. That aside, we managed to eek a pretty good meal out of the night.

After being seated, a glass of prosecco came out, along with an amuse of bean soup with john dory. Off to a very good start.

My notes are vague, but from what I can tell, we had the following:

Red mullet and scorpion fish with coriander. This was a really good, and simple dish. The fish was moist and tender. It was nice having a dish with different types of fish. I haven’t found that very often.

A pasta with duck and mushrooms was oddly acidic (this seemed to be a theme), and declared “excellent” by the discerning Mrs. Tommy. The rich duck played well against the earthy mushrooms and fresh pasta.

A bottle of chianti classico, 1997.

A selection of cheeses.

Horrible bread. In fact, I didn’t have any decent bread at all until we got to Rome. And even that bread wasn’t all that good. Perhaps good bread is more of a southern Italian tradition.

All in all, I think the bill was about 120 euro.

We had a couple of outstanding meals in the next few days. I’m looking forward to reliving them.

hollywood · November 5, 2003

All right. Keep em coming. BTW, feel free to comment on things other than food, such as the basilica, the pigeons, the gondolas, etc.

Edited November 5, 2003 by hollywood (log)

tommy · November 5, 2003

All right. Keep em coming. BTW, feel free to comment on things other than food, such as the basilica, the pigeons, the gondolas, etc.

what pigeons. :wacko:

Priscilla · November 5, 2003

What about the KITTIES!!!

hollywood · November 5, 2003

All right. Keep em coming. BTW, feel free to comment on things other than food, such as the basilica, the pigeons, the gondolas, etc.
what pigeons.

Are you sure you were in Venice? You did go to St. Marks, right? It's the pigeon capital of Italy. http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articl...s_of_venice.htm

Edited November 5, 2003 by hollywood (log)

tommy · November 5, 2003

what pigeons.
Are you sure you were in Venice? You did go to St. Marks, right? It's the pigeon capital of Italy. http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articl...s_of_venice.htm

i was kidding. hence the :wacko: .

as an aside, i'm not sure about others, but i use the wacko to refer to myself. isn't it slightly obnoxious obnoxious to use it any other way?

KatieLoeb · November 5, 2003

All right. Keep em coming. BTW, feel free to comment on things other than food, such as the basilica, the pigeons, the gondolas, etc.
what pigeons.
Are you sure you were in Venice? You did go to St. Marks, right? It's the pigeon capital of Italy. http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articl...s_of_venice.htm

I have a series of pictures of myself from Venice that include me peacefully feeding the pigeons, followed by what appears to be a cut out scene from a Hitchcock film. I was ATTACKED by the little buggers I tell you! It was really SCARY!!!

Pigeons are called Sky Rats for a reason. They turn garbage into bird shit and that is their entire function in the ecosystem. :blink:

bloviatrix · November 5, 2003

Pigeons are called Sky Rats for a reason. They turn garbage into bird shit and that is their entire function in the ecosystem.

This is the reason I don't understand the obsession of feeding those damned things. They're rodents with wings.

tommy · November 5, 2003

"winged rats".

i'm pretty sure that the pigeon food industry, which seems to be flourishing in san marco and elsewhere, would be shut down by someone here in the US.

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