Fondamenta della Misericordia Venice

After a day's worth of Murano and Burano, the outlying islands of Venice, Dad was the grumpiest man alive.

No, it wasn't the islands. We pretty much enjoyed our island hopping experience taking the boat from Fondamenta Nuove to Murano and taking our mini glass making tour, taking a switch of boats to get to Burano where we unfortunately missed seeing women doing lace handicrafts but we were rewarded by colorfully painted quaint houses and a special knit dress buy for me :)

Oh, so about Dad. It was lunch time and we had been walking about looking for Fondamenta something or other with bags of groceries (there aren't many stores around Venice so we thought it's best to grab what we wanted when we saw one) Nigel and his bags of pasta almost broke our arms and backs carrying those around.

Eventually we settled on Fondamenta della Misericordia. It would have honestly become pure misery for us had we gone on to search for the original place we wanted to get to for their recommended lunch sets.

Lunch sets in Venice are good value for money if you know where to find them.

Apparently according to so many reviews from tourists, prices rise exponentially for dinner. There's even a difference dining al fresco or indoors. In this kind of winter, I'll pay the difference to dine indoors.

The lunch set came with starter, main and sides selection. If I don't remember wrong, it was 13 Euros per set. The clams pasta was cooked just right, not al dente that made it too hard. There was just enough sauce to coat the pasta and clams that although had shrunk to the tiniest possible, tasted fresh and marinated well. :)

The beef lagsane was a pleasant surprise. Made with a white cream sauce, it was rich and had a fair amount of minced beef enveloped within the sheets of pasta. Small quantity but more than enough for sharing.

Then there were the mains. The grilled chicken was a little dry and this probably due to the fact that it's probably chicken breast and lacking in fat content to lock in some juices which being grilled. I distinctly remember ordering swordfish steak but after a few mouthfuls, I was pretty sure this was chicken.

Then there was squid that was served in a black mass.

I was bracing myself for horridly pungent taste of the sea (my previous experience of squid ink was at Saizeraiya at City Square Mall that was just the messiest ever with black stains all over my mouth and a very pungent fishy smell) but there was none of it.

The squid rings were fresh. Tender and chewy coated with a sauce to remember. There was no fishy taste. It was decadent and ohsogood to dip my chicken pieces and bread into. Now this was NOT meant for sharing.

For sides we had two servings of fries that were mediocre and no there were no drinks included. Dad was too used to having tea/ coffee as part of his sets and ordered two shots of espresso which were way too bitter to be drunk black and costing 1.50 Euros each.

Four people sharing two lunch sets. I was full from the fries and bread sticks amongst other nibbles but there's always space for dessert.

Guess what it could be? :)

First fall in Roma

Taking a walking trail in the late afternoon starting from the Patheon, to the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and to the Spagna metro station which overlooked the Spanish steps. It was tiring but we felt accomplished- covering quite a few tourist sights in just a couple of hours. It looked like a lot on the map probably that's why.

Coming back to the place where we stayed near the central station, Dad needed his Chinese fix. Mum probably did too so we split up and went out separate ways.

When in doubt, go back to enquire with the hotel.

Taking a card with a 20% discount, we were glad to walk just around the corner for dinner. It was late and we were tired.

A complimentary bruschetta. What a nice gesture. Plump tomatoes. But very dense and stale bread. Typical of all Italian establishments.

Don't bother looking for Gardenia. No one eats olive oil with those. ;)

Most or perhaps all the tables around us seemed like they had the same discount card.

Something was amiss. Hmm.

Well, how would we know if we didn't try?

First fall.

Deciding on a pizza main was easy. I wanted olives. Eggs, artichoke, mushrooms and salami sounded like awesome pizza toppings too!

Alas, it was served semi cold. :(

Pizza loses out when served cold. Where was my stringy mozzarella?



Now this, was piping hot. And the ugliest lasagne we've seen. Haha.

A better word might be homestyled. :p

This was full of tomato sauce (tasting like it was out of a can), random bits of meat (random being code word for measly and unnoticeable maybe) and it's saving grace was stringy cheese. :)

This definitely needed a discount or patron rates would be equally random (codeword: nonexistent) on most nights!

What made it worse? Dad and mum had xiaolongbaos, stir fried veg and mushrooms and fried rice for a 2 pax set that was cheaper that our substandard dinner. Why oh why.

And while we're on that point, chinese food is really pretty affordable in Italy. Fear not, my dad the chinaman at heart survived our ten day escapades without starving! :)