We have received a complaint that we haven’t posted enough food pictures this time (you know who you are, Judy R.!) so this whole blog entry will have nothing but food pictures with a little commentary (eat your hearts out).

If was a dark and stormy night, or rather day, so we laid low until the water went down a bit.  Alan called and booked a 1 PM lunch reservation at Enoteca ai Artisti.  Good thing he did as they were turning person after person away.  This restaurant is quite close, right between Campo San Barnaba and the Accademia on Fondamenta della Toletta.  I am being very specific because when you see the pictures, you will go there!  It is a tiny place with very nice people running it.  We started by sharing the Misto di Pesce (mixed seafood) antipasta.  OMG!  Great!

Misto di Pesce

We then moved directly to the Secondi skipping the Primi as we knew that would make for too much food.  Get ready for this, all our foodie friends.  I had slightly charded tuna on a bed of fresh raw porcini with arugula, and Alan had grey mullet with fresh chanterelles.  Nothing more need to be said as we say a little prayer at the altar of Italian mushrooms.

Tuna with Raw Porcini and Arugula

Grey mullet with chanterelles

Then we had dessert.  This was a chocolate mousse made with 75% cacao chocolate served with fresh whipped cream and a poached pear flavored with star anise.  Just writing this makes my mouth water.

Chocolate mousse with poached pear

One of the wonderful things about participating on the SlowTravel and Slow Europe forums is meeting the people you have been writing back and forth.  As is normal, there are always several in Venice at the same time we are.  Today we met with Christy L whom we have known for several years now.  We each had a spritz (she had prosecco) and we talked and talked.  She came back to the apartment with us to see it.  She had been in it several years ago but not recently.  We then walked over to Ruth E.’s apartment.  Ruth’s trip reports were the reason I decided to take the plunge a few years ago and spend a month at a time in Venice.  Needless to say, I was delighted to finally meet her.  We had a great visit with Ruth, her husband Martin and their son Dan.  Alan had a glass of prosecco grappa with them.  They had 8 PM dinner reservations so we left there about 7:30.  On the way back, Alan had the brilliant idea of seeing if one of our favorite pastry shops, Tonolo, was still open.  They were just closing so we were able to buy breakfast and it was discounted!  Home we came, had a little sausage and cheese and called it a day.  This was our breakfast this morning.

Breakfast from Tonolo’s

The one on the left is a cream puff with white chocolate and lemon.  The one on the right is merely dark chocolate.

Hope these pictures drive you foodies nuts.  Until later!  We are about to go out to try to walk off some of the calories.