[Nov. 2024] On the second day in Chioggia, Veneto, Italy, we made a reservation at a restaurant.
Usually lunch is our main meal, but since it was Monday, we couldn’t find a good restaurant that served a proper meal other than the lunch menu at lunchtime, so we decided to have dinner as our main meal.
We made a reservation at a seafood restaurant called Osteria Del Teatro Dai Do’ Fradei, which was recommended by the hotel staff.
It was located in a dark alley.
When we entered the restaurant, there were no customers.
Maybe because it was not the tourist season and it was Monday night.
It was a bit lonely.
The interior was quite modern.
The people working there were very nice.
When we opened the menu, it was only in Italian and German.
I guess it’s a town that many Germans visit during the season.
For the starter, we shared fried shrimp caught locally on white polenta.
The shrimp were very tasty, so it was a good choice.
The polenta was not too rich, and it was a bit like porridge and delicious.
It is made from white corn.
Veneto is one of the regions where it is produced.
However, it was also served with the main dish, so I ended up getting a bit tired of it.
As for the main dish, I chose eel.
I had heard that eel is a local dish in this region.
It was open-cut and simply grilled.
It had the fatty taste of eel slightly, but for me it was too bland.
It couldn’t compare to kabayaki (Japanese way of grilling eel) for my taste.
By the way, this was my second time eating eel in Italy.
Our first place was at the food market in Alghero, Sardinia.
Eel is not a common food in Italy, but interestingly there are some places where people eat eel.
My husband doesn’t really like any ‘strange foods’, so he went for the baccalà.
Baccalà is also a local dish from the Veneto region.
It was chopped into small pieces and mixed with a sauce called Vicenza.
I had a little from him, and it had a rich flavour.
We were full by this point, so we skipped dessert and my husband had grappa as an after-dinner drink.
I had an amaro del capo.
It’s nice to sip on a strong drink like this.
All in all, including half a litre of house wine, the total came to €97.
