The best way to eat in Venice
Each region of Italy has its own special approach to food, but nowhere is it more diverse and exciting than in Venice. The cuisine there much like the colourful frescos that adorn walls, buildings and ceilings throughout the city. Vivid and surprising, crumbling or faded in parts, richly layered with stories, and seasoned with history and cultural influences.
The city’s densely patchworked history as a wealthy merchant centre and military base gave its people access to spices and exotic ingredients from the corners of the globe that contributed unusual flavours to the local food scene and is still present in the food today.
The best way to taste Venice is by sampling cicchetti (pronounced chick-etti), the small bites – similar to Spanish tapas or French hors d'oeuvres – sold in bacari (wine bars) throughout the city.
A selection of cicchetti from Emiko Davies’ latest cookbook Cinnamon & Salt. (Photo: Supplied)
For guidance I turned to Emiko Davies, an Australian cookery writer who has been based in Tuscany for the past 14 years and is a regular visitor to Venice. Her passion for cicchetti inspired her to write her latest cookbook Cinnamon & Salt, which is dedicated to the art of creating and consuming these delicious mouthfuls.
She describes cicchetti as “a way of life” in Venice and a casual, not to mention economical, way of socialising for the locals.
“Venice is a city experienced on foot and you walk pretty much everywhere, unless you’re occasionally on a boat,” says Davies. “This means you’re bound to wander past a wine bar (bacaro) and to bump into people you know because it’s really quite a small town with a strong sense of community. So the culture of cicchetti becomes a way for people to stay in touch.”
Cicchetti can be eaten both warm or cold and feature a wide variety of seasonal ingredients with a strong focus on seafood. This is hardly surprising, considering Venice is surrounded by fishable lagoon waters, and you’ll find prawns, anchovies, salt cod and, if you’re lucky, the tiny softshell crabs called moleche that are available only in November and March. But there are also plenty of meat options, including locally made salumi, and vegetables such as grilled eggplant, deep fried zucchini flowers, boiled artichokes and roasted red peppers.
Regardless of the ingredients, all cicchetti should be eaten in the same way: with one hand, while in the other you hold either a classic spritz (a proud Venetian invention) or a small glass of wine.
More delicious cicchetti from Emiko Davies’ latest cookbook Cinnamon & Salt. (Photo: Supplied)
I was eager to try them on a recent visit to Venice, so I took Davies’ advice and planned a self-guided cicchetti crawl around some of the tiny bars that have been operating since the 16th century near the famous Rialto bridge. This area is home to a bustling market that has been running daily since 1097 and features an extensive selection of seafood. As popular with locals as it is with tourists, this is the commercial hub of the city and an exciting place to visit if you love food.
“Venice is only touristy in certain areas and it’s easy to get off that beaten path to find areas still full of local life,” says Davies. “You literally only have to walk one or two streets away and you’ll find yourself in a totally residential neighbourhood, such as the area near the Rialto.
“Wandering the back streets near the market and going into the bars for a glass of wine and a bite to eat, you feel like you’re in the footsteps of many others over the centuries, and that’s special and feels really Venetian.”
I started my little tasting tour at Bar All’Arco, and if you only have time to visit one place in Venice for cicchetti then this should be it. Most of their cicchetti come on thin slices of fresh baguette-style bread and their star topping is baccala mantecato, a deceptively simple spread unique to Venice that consists of salt cod whipped with olive oil into snowy peaks.
More treats from Emiko Davies’ latest cookbook Cinnamon & Salt. (Photo: Supplied)
Perched at the wooden counter, I sipped a glass of local white wine (even though it was still not midday) and devoured a small plate of cicchetti that included, alongside the baccala, a piece of bread crowned with pink shavings of prosciutto and another with local white anchovies.
After a quick stop in Baccalà Veneto, a small family run food store opposite Arco, to buy a few tins of their homemade baccala mantecato to take home with me, the next bacaro on the list was Cantina Do More. This is the longest running bar in the area, where copper pots hang from the ceiling and everyone orders the tender pale green artichoke hearts that come staked with a toothpick for easy nibbling
On to Cantina Do Spade, a mere shuffle down the narrow alleyway, where I discovered a particularly spectacular selection of fried delights. Order a spritz and point at any of the items in the counter that take your fancy. My favourites were the skewer of four crunchy battered prawns and the deep-fried zucchini flower stuffed with molten mozzarella and a tiny salty nugget of anchovy. Then take your spritz and plate of treats, as I did, outside and enjoy them under the ancient stone portico while indulging in some people watching.
Next I headed back through the Rialto market to the Grand Canal to find Osteria i Compari, which has big windows overlooking the marketplace and a menu packed with fresh seafood bought on its doorstep that morning. Here the specialty is boiled octopus chopped into small pieces and served in a puddle of peppery olive oil, dressed with a spray of lemon and a scattered handful of parsley.
A snack from Emiko Davies’ latest cookbook Cinnamon & Salt. (Photo: Supplied)
I was defeated by this point, but if I’d had a little more gas in the tank I would have popped next door to Al Merca, a little gem beloved by locals where you can enjoy an affordable glass of prosecco and a €1.50 panini laden with tissue paper-thin slices of garlicky mortadella.
All the bacari on my tour were within 100m of each other, but if you are looking to head slightly further afield then you should duck over the Grand Canal to Cà D'Oro alla Vedova for a few of their famous meatballs that are crisp on the outside and lusciously soft on the inside. Then continue to the Cannaregio region for a glass of natural wine on the edge of a canal at Vino Vero, where the locals congregate daily to snack on cicchetti featuring more unusual ingredients.
Or down near Port dell’Accademia you’ll find the revered Enoteca Schiavi where their vast selection of cicchetti is often topped with pretty garnishes such as dried herbs or even flowers.
Wherever you go, it’s worthwhile checking opening times as some of the bars, including the must-visit Arco, are only open during the daytime.
