Wednesday, January 06, 2010

EUROPE 03: Florence & Venice, Italy

Florence, my new found favourite Italian city. This place is one of the most beautiful city in the world.

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After Pisa, we came to Florence for some sightseeing and had dinner in the city.

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This Osteria De' Peccatori was recommended to us for its good food and value, so we settled our dinner here.

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The owner of the restaurant was on hand to take our orders, and he revealed to us that a part of the restaurant (the bar area) was previously a church with a history of about a hundred years. However, the restaurant is only 1 year old.

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The cold freezing weather warrants some warm drinks such as this hot Ciocolata (Hot Chocolate). The chocolate was thick and not too sweet.

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Carpaccio Di Roast Beef - Roast beef slices, salads, Parmesan Cheese, aromatic vinegar. (9.90 EURO). The beef slices went well with the salad and the vinegar. Beef slices were not too dry.

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Tagliatelle with sausage, cream and truffle sauce (7.90 EURO). My pasta order is one of the best I had in Italy. Can really taste the generous amount of truffle. Pasta was done al-dente style which I prefer. They do not stinge on the portion.

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Baked Lasagne (6.90 EURO). I did not try this, but didn't hear any bad comments for the lasagne.

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Bistecca di Maiale Alla Griglia - Grilled pork chops (7.90 EURO) . The pork chop was flavourful and juicy. And as mentioned, portions were big.

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Tagliatellete Al Pomodoro - Pasta in Tomato Sauce (7.90 EURO)


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Pizza

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And ordered some desserts such as Tiramisu and Cheesecake.


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All in all, one of the better restaurants we tried. I cannot say it is one of the better ones in Florence as we only dined in this restaurant, but the standards here are good.


Osteria De' Peccatori
Piazza San Firenze,
14 r
Firenze
http://www.osteriadepeccatori.com/


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Next stop, Venice. For centuries, Venice is touted as the most romantic place on earth sitting through the Gondola ride along the canals of Venice. For me, I enjoyed the Gondola ride. We also had an Italian singer singing for us on the Gondola, and it was quite special.

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It was snowing and freezing cold in Venice, so we chose an indoor restaurant for an Italian seafood dinner. We were awed by the decorations inside the restaurant. Can you spot the large inverted lotus pond on the ceiling?

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Fish Soup (16 Euro). I was surprise how much seafood the "fish" soup had. There was a giant prawn (almost the size of the lobster), lot's of clams, cuttlefish, salmon, and smaller shrimps. The seafood broth was sweet and tasty. One sip and I know that the broth must have been boiled for many hours with lot's of seafood. Worth the 16 Euro price.

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Spaghetti with cuttlefish in black ink sauce (14 Euro) . The squid ink pasta was surprisingly tasty. Even though it will temporarily stain your teeth after eating it, but the combination of savoury squid ink sauce with pasta works well. The cuttlefish was slightly cooked, so it is still very tender when served with the pasta.

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Spaghetti Venetian style (with scallops) . A special style of pasta unique to Venice. A light tomato paste sauce is stir fried with the pasta, and chunks of scallops were added. Very good.

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Pizza


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Out of all the pasta, the Venetian style version is the best. At least to me, it is the best of all the pasta I tried here.

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Crispy cuttlefish - I had 1 piece of the cuttle fish. And the batter was crispy while the cuttlefish retains its juiciness.


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The food were expensive, but fortunately it was still tasty. So any dear readers visitng Venice can try out the food here.

Ristorante La Nuova Grotta

Calle delle Rasse, 358
Castello, 4538
30122 Venezia

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Autogrill again. I was smart this time and avoided the main restaurant. Instead I bought a pizza from the takeaway corner. It was okay. Not too bad but average.

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Tried a little of this pasta dish. There were lot's of oval shaped pasta bites, some bean suace and cheese. Better than the grilled pork sausages I had few nights ago.

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