Da Fiore Dinner

We were in Venice to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary, and our daughter Hannah very kindly organised for us to have dinner at Osteria Da Fiore, which is a Michelin starred restaurant.  We opted for the tasting menu, and decided following on from our great experience at Passage 53 not to choose our courses, but have the chef surprise us.

 

The bread and bread sticks were delicious

Fried Baby Shrimp with white polenta

Local shrimp marinated in citron with celery puree.  Scillian tuna Carppacio with capers, rosemary and scillian olive oil, with roast pumpkin marinated in lemon.  This was my favorite course - it was delicious

Local shrimp wrapped in celophane thin bacon fat and "gratinated" in the oven. With tomato and bruchetta bread, and deep fried rosemary.  This was dish was unusual, but full of flavor and delicious.

Homemade papdelle pasta with oysters, speck and fresh Iranian saffron with an oyster consume sauce.  We'd only ever seen dried saffron, so this was very exotic for us.

Softshell crab from Murano in tempura batter with white polenta, green salad and orange segment.  The softshell crab tasted like honey and was juicy and delicious.  The white polenta was pretty bland (as it was in the previous course that used it).

Balakala Fish cooked and served in a glass mustard pot (the waiter serves it out at the table), served with white polenta.  Apparently the fish is cooked for 3 hours with milk and low temperature - this is a really odd tasting dish and I think must be an acquired taste.

A small slice of cheese (with truffle inside), with pear, honey, walnuts and bread.

Tangerine Sorbet - mmmmmm (the orange segment had been dehydrated, and looked a lot like a stained glass window)

Warm chocolate cake with Rhum - yum

Fried pastries for Carnivale

We were very lucky to get one of the two tables by the canal :-)

Osteria Da Fiore from the bridge over the canal - it was the perfect place to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary together :-)

Venice

We had a few days in Venice to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary - it truly is a magical place and we loved it. 

A glass hot air balloon that looks a lot like ChiChi :-)

It was bitterly cold in Venice (sadly no snow though), but the people were super friendly

We were upgraded to a suite!!!! The room had a dining table, lounge room, bedroom and massive marble bathroom. It was bigger than the apartment we stayed in in Paris, and more luxurious than anywhere we have stayed. 

On the balcony of our suite!!! Yup, life is pretty good :-)

The view from our  room

We were lucky to be in Venice for the first few days of Carnivale. There were people walking around in masks and costumes, which made for a really fun atmosphere. This photo is the parade of rowing club boats down the grand canal (we are standing next to the Rialto bridge). All the clubs dress up in costume and call out to the crowd - it was heaps of fun.

The front door of the Ai Reali hotel (there is another around the corner off the piazza).  The white balcony on the first floor is actually our room :-)

The Aqua Alta flooded the piazza and the water came up over the doorstep. In Venice they are very prepared for this, with alarms and bells sounding the impending flood well in advance and most buildings have steel barriers for the doors to keep the water out.   We couldn't leave the hotel, oh what a shame, we'll just have to spend some time lazing about in our suite then!!!

The flooding at the front door of the hotel

Sketching the canal

In the hotel swimming pool :-)

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This is the bridge over the canal that our hotel was on.

Traffic Jam, Venitian style

When the Aqua Alta brings flooding in Venice the city puts out what looks like tables that all join together to create a raised pathway.  This gentleman is walking along the raised pathway near the Academia Bridge.

Raised walkway for the Aqua Alta

The bridge of Sighs

The Grand Canal

Public art in Murano

 The local farmers market in Murano :-)

Yup, Ice Skating in Venice!!!

There really is no such thing as a bad photo in Venice

Paris : Lunch at Passage 53

To celebrate finishing my chapter Stephen took me to a very special lunch at Passages 53.  This restaurant has 2 Michelin stars, and is very unusual in that it doesn't have a menu - you either get the 3 course lunch, or the "tasting lunch" (which is the same as their dinner).  You have no idea what is coming (although they do ask if you have any allergies), it is simply what the chef thinks the fresh ingredients lend themselves to. The tasting lunch turned out to be 12 courses (with 4 different deserts), and it was amazing. 

This is the front door of the restaurant - it can be easy to miss.  The restaurant only seats16 people.

Low temperature egg, Haddock mousse, topped with beet and raspberry sauce.

Inside the egg

Crab and onion pie - short crust pastry, topped with crab, carmelised onion and tomato, and vinegar mousse

Root vegetable consume with Brittany onion ravioli

Scallops, with parsnip puree, breadcrumb and seaweed sauce with black truffle

John Dory served on cabbage (and sprinkled with dehydrated cabbage powder), shimeji mushrooms, mussels, and lime zest

Green apple slices with green apple and wasabi sorbet with apple jelly

Chicken breast with crispy skin, leg gallantine with foie gras, with mushroom sauce, spinach 

This is the same chicken dish with black truffle slices

The chicken came with slices of wood fired sough dough bread - we loved this so much the waiter wrote down the name of the bakery and we went there the next day - the line was around the corner to get in, but it was worth the wait for the taste - it was sublime.

Spanish dry aged beef, caramelised onion with slices of truffle between each layer, and a jerusalem artichoke ball (this was our favourite -the beef was AMAZING)

Shortbread, vanilla pastry creme, truffle ice cream, with shaved black truffles

When we arrived they asked if it was anything special and we mentioned that we were travelling for our 25th wedding anniversary, and so one of the deserts came presented like this - it was a lovely touch.  This is lycee with lime zest jelly, sago and cream

The desert course

Chestnut with fresh banana, salted caramel ice cream, with a meringue base

Coffee mousse, with creme brulee, candied walnuts and wafer biscuit

After lifting the biscuit

Chocolate pie with salted caramel blob (with aniseed)

Espresso coffee, jasmine tea

Madelines that came with the coffee and tea

Inside the kitchen :-)

Cheers to a wonderful celebration!