Cicchetti Walk in Venice

www.monicacesarato.com Along with our cooking classes we did a guided walk as an introduction to Venetian street food one evening. We made our way down to Pizzale Roma and walked over a glass bridge ... very spooky walking on glass steps..some of which were broken...a funky 80's twist in an ancient city of some 440 bridges. On the other side we were meet by Monica for a 3 hr excursion. It was worth paying that bit extra for a private guide as she walked us to 4 Osterias in different quarters of Venice. I loved the ancient Jewish ghetto from the 1500's. This was the worlds first Ghetto which was infact was a safe haven for the Jewish community, a word which has been adopted around the world with different meanings attached. We saw the fist bank. Banco in Italian means table and they would bring the table to the footpath and trade. They could only lend money to their own as the government was restricting their wealth. This lead to money only being lent to your own religion in other parts of the world. When the table had no money is was referred to as "roto" meaning broken which today is known as bankrupt. The food was accompanied by local wines, each Osteria has exclusive wines and it is sold "loose" which means you can bring along a container and have it filled with Rosso or Bianca table wine for very little. The wine by the glass was 80 euro cents or 1 litre for $3 euro. The food was small plates that each Osteria was known for. As Venetian 's were merchants they knew that samples were the way to encourage people to buy there product.... By making small plates of food they keep the men there longer and they tried more wine. There was many dishes varying in cost between 1 and 2 euros, some using unsalted bread as the base toped with either cheese, meats, proccutio or tomato. Among the best flavours we tried were.... bread with a blue Gorgonzola with walnuts.....polpette di carne which was a small meatball with parsley. Parmesan and egg to bind crumbed and fried......polpette Melanzane which was eggplant filled with soft cheese and crumbed..... Stock fish or Baccala is dried cod originating from Norway which is rehydrate for 24. 48 hr then beaten to a pulp and rehydrate with olive oil to make it a moose of sorts. But seriously a piece of old dried fish rehydrated, beaten on a rock even with the addition of olive oil still tasted as you would imagine!!! Taste sensation 2 ...didn't say it was good either was....cuttlefish fish cooked in Squid ink that was so thick it had a Perkins paste texture with a very fishy smelly served on boring tasteless white gluey polenta hmmmm hmm don't have to do that again. One of the other places we went was a uni bar so between 5 and 7 pm each night if you bought a wine for 5 euros per glass you could eat all you eat at the open buffet as long as the glass had wine in it....it was heaving the students and in a dead end ally with the canal as the backdrop. Another plate I tried was Sarde in Saor....and have added it to the "don't do it again list" was sweet and sour sardines which with a look form Sandy I knew she was not even going to go there, but as a good taste test dummy I just had to try.... The next place was great. We had some really good meatballs. Polpette piccanti....Here is the recipe 500 gms minced meats of choice, 1 egg, grated carrot, chopped handful of celery, parsley, chilli to taste and rosemary. Soak 3 small slices of old bread in milk, squeezed out and the combine all. Smash an old bread roll into crumbs and coat drop into oil to fry. Bread in Italy is made with no preservatives or salt so after 1 day it is uneatable as bread and it is then used as an ingredient in many ways. A cured air dried beef bresaola with ciciotta which is a common cheddar style cheese is worth a try. One for the dishes we were given was a soft cheese on bread called Robiola teamed with asparagus, or local salmon or truffle the smell and flavour of the truffle was fantastic. These guys also had a great cellar and we had some wonderful Amarone Bio 2006 Cantina Negar for 8 euro a glass. As I wore my Australia leather country hat I was a crowd stopper in the back streets and had my photo taken next to a wine barren in a tiny lane way by inquisitive fun loving locals who thought I was the original crocodile Dundee....must have been the wine.