Eating - Venice and the Veneto - page 76

Secondi (second or main courses) are usually seafood or meat dishes. Adventurous eat-
ers will appreciate a traditional Venetian secondo of trippa (tripe) or fegato alla veneziana
(liver lightly pan-roasted in strips with browned onion and a splash of red wine). If you're
not an offal fan, you can find standard cuts of manzo (beef), agnello (lamb) and vitello
(veal) on most menus. Committed carnivores might also try carpaccio (a dish of finely
sliced raw beef served with a sauce of crushed tomato, cream, mustard and Worcestershire
sauce dreamed up by Harry's Bar ( Click here ) and named for the Venetian painter Vittore
Carpaccio, famous for his liberal use of blood-red paint).
Contorni (vegetable dishes) are more substantial offerings of verdure (vegetables). For
vegetarians, this may be the first place to look on a menu - and meat-eaters may want to
check them out too, since secondi don't always come with a vegetable side dish. Go with
whatever's fresh and seasonal.
Dolci (desserts) are often fatti in casa (house-made) in Venice, especially Veneto-inven-
ted tiramisu , Vienna-influenced bigne (cream puffs) and strudel , and safffron-scented
Burano esse (S-shaped cookies). Otherwise, gelaterie (ice-cream shops) offer tempting
options for €1.50 to €2.50.
DAILY SPECIALS
Here's one foolproof way to distinguish a serious Venetian osteria from an imposter:
lasagne, spaghetti Bolognese and pizza are not Venetian specialities, and when all three
appear on a menu, avoid that tourist trap. Look instead for places where there's no menu
at all, or one hastily scrawled on a chalkboard or laser-printed in Italian only, preferably
with typos. This is a sign that your chef reinvents the menu daily, according to market of-
ferings.
Although fish and seafood are increasingly imported, many Venetian restaurant owners
pride themselves on using only fresh, local ingredients, even if that means getting up at
the crack of dawn to get to the Pescaria (fish market). Lagoon tides and changing seasons
on the nearby garden island of Sant'Erasmo bring a year-round bounty to Venetian tables
at the Rialto Market ( Click here ).
Beware any menu dotted with asterisks, indicating that several items are surgelati
(frozen) - seafood flown in from afar is likely to be unsustainable, and indigestible be-
sides.
DRINK MENU
No Venetian feast would be complete without at least one ombra (glass of wine) - and
that includes lunch. Fishmongers at the Pescaria get a head start on landlubbers, celebrat-
ing the day's haul at 9am by popping a cork on some prosecco (sparkling white wine), the