After our visit to Le Manoir, Dave and I flew off to Venice for a couple of days of fun in the sun (or as the Weather channel assured us, thunder and lightning). We did get some lightning; shortly after we took off, our plane was hit by lightning. I’m still not convinced that planes are designed to be struck by lightning. On a similar note, our flight back was delayed due to having to be checked over after it was hit by a bird when landing in Venice… jinx!!

After all that excitement, we had a fabulous time in Venice. The Doge’s Palace was gloriously over-the-top and liberally festooned with gold leaf. I spent almost as much time craning my neck to see frescos on the ceiling as I did looking at paintings on the walls. Bliss. We didn’t see the Basilica as the queue was incredibly long and moving at a snail’s pace. However, we did have a good long look at the exterior which was a thing of beauty. I’m such a sucker for frescos.

Anyway, onto the food!

La Zucca is a small osteria (restaurant) hidden away from the normal tourist trails in Venice. In an unusual move, I actually picked it from our guidebook (rather than just wandering around sniffing out the restaurant that smells best) and then spent an entertaining hour trying to figure out exactly where it was located. The guidebook just gave the name of the bridge it was located on, however, there were a couple of different bridges over the relevant canal. In the end, Dave’s navigational skills beat mine. (I still contend that I picked the more logical bridge. But no matter, we found the restaurant and had a great dinner.)

Once we actually located it, La Zucca was located beside a very cute bridge (pink skewed bridge) over the Rio Del Megio. As there was a risk of rain on Thursday night, all the sensible diners had moved their reservations inside the restaurant and so, in a reversal of the usual state of affairs, we were offered an outdoor table.

Our table was tiny and perched rather precariously on the canalside. While we ate dinner, we watched a local couple motor up to the trattoria on the opposite side of the canal (interestingly, in Venice the small canals are called rii – rio is the singular) and sit down for dinner. Only in Venice! Quite a few gondolas swept past majestically (laden with tourists), but alas! none of the gondoliers broke into song.

The menu was entirely in Italian, but between my smattering of Italian (picked up from cookbooks of course!) and our very helpful waiter, we managed to pick out some dishes that sounded interesting (me) and relatively safe (Dave). The restaurant started life as Venice’s only Vegetarian restaurant, but over the years it has added meat to the menu. When we visited, the proportions were about 50/50. The other major attraction for us, was that no fish or shellfish were on the menu. I know everyone goes to Venice for either risotto or seafood, but I really wasn’t in the mood for anything fishy. I suspect I ate too much fish as a child, I really do.

We started with Mozarella Caprese (mozarella on sliced tomatoes with olives and an olive oil dressing) for Dave and Gazpacho for me. Dave’s mozarella was creamy and subtly flavoured according to him, so I take that to mean that it was buffalo milk rather than cow’s. The gazpacho was very, very good (a world apart from the version at Le Manoir, but I can appreciate both) with a fantastically bold flavour. It was beautifully chilled with a few ice-cubes floating around and a big sprig of basil and some finely chopped cucumber garnished it. Both starters were very generous portions.

Oh yes, there was wine too. A 1993 bottle of Lugana. To my eternal shame I cannot remember more than that (I even brought pen and paper to jot down the details!). I picked it out as I vaguely remembered Lugana wine being regional to Venice and probably a good bet with the chicken and rabbit we had ordered for our main course. If that bottle was representative of all Luganas, then I’ve found my new favourite wine. White, not too dry, astonishingly fruity smell and taste (smelt very strawberryish). Even went well with dessert.

We opted not to have a pasta course, and moved straight onto secondo. Dave ordered another salad, this time a chicken salad with gorgonzola dressing. The salad was very fresh indeed. According to him, all the component parts (red cabbage, lettuce and carrot) were all moist and juicy with great flavour. The chicken (of which there was a copious amount) was mostly dark meat and again, very tasty. The gorgonzola dressing was pooled at the sides of the salad and smelt great (from my perspective) and was apparently very tasty.

I decided, in a fit of possible insanity, to order Wine Braised Rabbit with Rice. This was a mistake on my part. I expected fairly large pieces of rabbit, however, the rabbit I was served must have been really quite tiny whilst alive. So, very small pieces and unfortunately, correspondingly small bones.

After turning over one piece of bunny, and discovering that it was half a ribcage, I had a sudden attack of conscience (not helped by Dave pointing out from the point of ordering that it was a cute bunny and making doeful bunny eyes) and was unable to face stripping the very tasty meat (or as my brain helpfully supplied – intercostal muscles) from between the ribs.

What I did eat of Mr Bunny was very tasty. He had great legs. The sauce/gravy was excellent too. Mr Bunny was braised in a little onion (which seemed to have been sweated until sweet), white wine and some thyme. Delicious. A less squeamish person would have wolfed him down (sorry) but I had to concede defeat. No more bunnies for me.

One of the reviews I read of La Zucca mentioned “memorable chocolate desserts” which is one reason why I was so keen to visit. After debating about whether we should have tiramisu or not we eventually settled on Mint Semifreddo with Chocolate Sauce for Dave, and Dark Chocolate Mousse with Hazelnuts for me. Now, if you’re dieting or just not interested in desserts – look away.

Dave’s semifreddo arrived beautifully plated: two pistachio green thin slices angled over each other with a dark chocolate sauce drizzled over them. I was only allowed to have the tiniest spoonful as Dave was guarding it very seriously! In Dave’s words it was “exactly how ice-cream should be eaten: frozen enough to have shape on the plate, yet it melts as soon as it hits the tongue”. I’d also add that it was very airy/soft on the tongue. The mint flavour was just right and it seemed to have derived its flavour from an actual infusion of mint into the cream as opposed to just glugging in some extract or creme de menthe. Mint-choc-chip for adults.

As for my mousse. Wow. This was dark seduction at its best. Not your normal sort of airy mousse, but thick, smooth and intense. It was more like ganache than anything else I’ve ever encountered in the mousse-stakes. If you think Nutella consistency, then you’re almost there…. It was also the largest bowl of mousse I have ever seen – if I remember rightly, it was almost as big as my bowl of soup.

Rather than incorporate the hazelnuts into the mousse, they had been toasted and very finely slivered (almost see-through) and sprinkled on top of the mousse. The finishing touch to the mousse were Baicoli (traditional Venetian biscuits) which added extra crunch and offset the richness slightly.

After we’d finished our desserts, our waiter popped over to see if we’d enjoyed them. “Very much so”, we said. He then mentioned that I’d had their last bowl of mousse and that he’d already had to break the bad news to a couple of diners indoors. Apparently their mousse is so popular that people reserve a bowl of it before ordering the rest of their meal, and some have been known to leave if there is none available when they arrive! I must admit that I left feeling somewhat smug.

We would definitely visit La Zucca again. The food was excellent (including the bunny – as I said, a less squeamish person would have adored every last bone) and extremely reasonably priced (EUR 67 for the two of us, I believe). Your best vaparetto stop is S. Stae and then just head right until you hit the Rio del Megio. I’d make reservations though, from all accounts it’s now in every guidebook so popular with those tourists who can find it and hugely popular with the locals too.

OSTERIA LA ZUCCA
Campo San Giacomo dell’Orio
Santa Croce 1762 – Venezia
Italy
Tel. 041-5241570
(Closed Sunday)