We made a Thanksgiving week trip to Venice, Italy! We arrived there at dusk. We looked for a place for our first meal in the water city near where we stayed. We first tried to find a place that our local hostess recommended but somehow couldn't find it although we were using Google map to locate the place. The city was like a crazy maze! At that point, it got dark and chilly; we were tired and hungry. On our way back to our B&B, we happened to see a restaurant called al Paradiso. With a quick check about their rating on tripadvisor (4 out of 5 by less than 100 reviews), we took a chance.
There were only a group of about 6 people who sounded like tourists in the dining room on Saturday evening, which scared me a little bit. Little dinner rolls with olives and Grissini were served. They were ok.
We shared an antipasto:
Sarde in saor - fried sardines marinated in onion and vinegar. The dish was a classic Venetian dish. The onion was caramelized and very sweet. I liked the dish very much. In fact, the taste was very familiar for me because there is a very similar dish in Japan.
We both ordered
Spaghetti alle vongole veraci. Vongole veraci is a certain type of tiny clams that are used for traditional Italian "spaghetti with clam". They were really tiny! It tasted fine but a little oily overall for me. Also, spaghetti might have been cooked a little long? I was in Italy; my expectation to pasta was ultra high!
After the dinner, we stopped by at a gelato shop. I had tiramisu and J had coffee. Refreshing!
It was just a beginning for our adventures in the floating city.
