Best spaghetti @ Venezia, Italy

I was so lucky to tried some really good representation of the typical Italian food in the two-week journey. First was the pizza in Rome, then came the risotto in Siena, and at last the spaghetti in Venice.

We reached that restaurant by coincidence. We jumped off the water bus a few stops earlier, then we followed other passages to walk into the maze like city. After a few turns we saw this restaurant. My friend was really craving for the squid spaghetti (Not veggie!) and we asked the chef if they had it. It was still early and there were no other customers.

Sometimes we need to rely on our intuition to seek for good food. We succeed most of the time in the trip and this had no exception! The spaghetti was the best for 3 main reasons: 1. It's al dente. 2. Every single spaghetti on the plate were having the same tenderness and chewiness. 3. Ingredients as simple as spaghetti (and spices) only!! The last reason is always one of my measurement of the food. The simplier the dish, the more difficult to make it impressive.


It's just basic spaghetti with garlic and basil. Unlike what happened quite often with a plate of normal quality spaghetti, not even one spaghetti of this one was softer or harder than the rest on the plate. There was no sudden and abrasive sand/ rock-like texture pumped up when I was enjoying the whole plate. And no two spaghetti stuck together. Of course the spices were just enough to taste didn't make me drank bottles of water afterwards.


I also ordered another veggie dish - butter bean! I like butter bean a lot because of its creamy taste.

Unfortunately, I could not find the name of the restaurant. I still wanna recommend to it even I don't have the name. Here is the front door of the restaurant. It's own by a couple.

Best risotto @ Malborghetto, Siena

Siena is one of the cities famous for Tuscan wine and cuisine - The "cock wine" is one of the good example. Well... it's called Chianti classico, with the eye-catching cock logo. It was just me and my friend, and both of us can't drink much. Most restaurant/ wine bar don't offer the wine in glass. Therefore I didn't have the chance to take a sip ='[

However, I did tried something really good. The B-E-S-T-! The risotto I had in Siena ranked number 1 among all the food I had in Italy! It is a zucchini and saffron risotto. Three (main) ingredients, as simple as that. All fragments of the spices and freshness of the ingredients were absolutely balanced. Nothing too outstanding, nothing hiding from my taste bud. It's harmonised like floating peacefully on the water.

And look at the beautiful scenic behind! Yaaaaaa, I was eating outdoor, under the sun with mild wind. The weather was as perfect as the food! The restaurant was Malborghetto, which locates below the Piazza del Campo, at the end of the car park. The food are all in reasonable price.

The scene behind the restaurant is breath-taking. The car park is a balcony, which we can view a 270-degree down hill. The colourful, irregular, fair-tale houses are packed on both sides, and a green woodland/ farmland with streams and churches in front.

Siena is definitely worth for a visit.

Story after-------------------------------------

I attempted once to make the same risotto at home, but it was a failure O.o It tasted nothing like the one I had in Siena. Before I can make it again, the beautiful risotto stays in my memory only.
It looks not bad though.

Best Pizza@ Roma

What a nice Easter holiday in Italy!
I visited eight cities in twelve days! They are Roma, Pisa, Firenze, Viareggio, Siena, Venezia, Verona and Milano.

I wasn't a big fan of Italian cuisine, but now I am! I realised that the REAL italian food are hard to make outside the country. Once the oil, the spices, the vegetable and the weather are different, it's very difficult to reproduce the same taste. And most important, the mood and attitude of the chefs. From their dishes I could taste a strong passion, hard work, and respect to the food. Unlike the fast food pizza and frozen spaghetti, their food has a soul.

Most pizza I ate/ saw in Italy aren't seen outside the country. Traditional Italian pizza are usually thin and made in a long rectangle and sliced to serve in a pizza bar/ take-away store, or a big circle if it is served in a restaurant for one person. And there's a few vegan option and plenty vegetarian option! On the left was my favourite - sliced potato pizza! The ingredients (that I could distinguish) were just potato, salt and rosemary! (And the pizza dough of course) It's that simple and that lovely. Other vegan options are tomato with aubergine or spices.

This pizza bar was located two streets from our hostel. This is the approximate address: 20 Via di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

One night we went into a wine bar for dinner, without noticing it was specialised with wine. I kindly requested a vegan pizza and this came out......
It's a 16-inch pizza with tomato SAUCE only... not even tomato meat.
Anyway it's a wine bar only. This added laughters to our journal =]