I'm watching Bourdain in Venice on the Travel Channel

[Stinky The Clown]

I'm nearly crying, the food is so beautiful. Simple, unpretentious, pure.

[AwakeAtLast]

1. I was going to post about it, too!

All I can say is: THE RISOTTO! OMG! :wow:

The rest looked amazing, too, but for some reason that flying risotto really stuck with me!

Great episode!

:hi:

[elleng]

2. Thats what Italy does to me.

and my family.

[grasswire]

3. it was beautifully filmed, too

Great camera work, great writing, great subject matter. Really fine stuff.

[hippywife]

4. Will be the only way I ever

get to visit the land of my heritage. Thank goodness for Rick Steves. :eyes:



:hi:

[The empressof all]

5. Except for the Risotto I didn't think it was one of his best

Even though I have been to Venice a number of times I didn't know of the Risotto in Burano. Makes me want to consider visiting again. Honestly, although I think every traveler should go at least once for the Art alone, Venice has always struck me as a smelly tourist pit. The locals steer clear of the swarms of tourists (Think Disney World at Spring Break) and really who can blame them. The food is at best hit or miss unless you know someone and more often than not you'll get greasy frito misto which the waiter will claim is the best in town.

Don't get me wrong, I have some lovely memories of riding through the canals with the drunk ambulance boat drivers after I sprained my ankle on my honeymoon. (Our first trip there) The caver ens of the hospital were something reminiscent of Snake Pit. I enjoyed the cake and wine the drivers shared with me on our way back to our Pensionne. Our inn keeper Izzy was a lovely man who made the most wonderful coffee. On our second trip I experienced the Peggy Guggenheim which is one of my favorite collections in the world. Probably second only to the Barnes Collection in PA.

In fairness, I shut the episode off in the middle. I just wasn't sucked in with Tony as a usual. I will try it again with him and Venice though...Just to see the Risotto again.

[tigereye]

6. do you read the Donna Leon books? She should have recipes to go with

the story. (really interesting police detective in Venice, loves food, knows all the great places to eat for locals, hates tourists, married to a left-wing professor - I would assume it's a fairly common thing in Italy! )

:hi: