Product Description

The city of Venice is one of the most beautiful in the world, but visits are too often marred by meals at bad restaurants with high prices, unscrupulous waiters, and tasteless food. Chow! Venice reveals the best places to eat and drink, from simple sandwiches and pizzas to elegant four-course meals. Discover places off the beaten track as well as steps away from St. Mark's Square.

Learn how, when and what Venetians eat and drink, where to get the best cichetti and where to find restaurants and bars open after 10:00pm. In additions to restaurants and bars, there's a list of markets, specialty food stores, and wine shops.

Whether you're visiting Venice for three days, three weeks, or three months, Chow! Venice will prove to be an invaluable resource and guide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #560454 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 194 pages

Review
"They (Essa & Edenbaum) know the little secrets. This is the sort of book that makes you wish longingly to know as much as they do". Bill Marsano, Wine Editor, Hemispheres Magazine"

About the Author
Shannon Essa has spent weeks, months, and even a whole year in Venice. Much of this time was spent in the restaurants and bars you will read about here. She now resides in San Diego, California.

Ruth Edenbaum has been in love with Venice since her first visit. She now spends more than two months a year there. Her years of teaching cooking, writing and reading about food as well as eating in Venice are reflected in this book. She has lived in NJ for more than 30 years.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Venetians generally eat prima colazione (breakfast) like most Italians – a quick espresso or cappuccino taken with a brioche or pastry, often consumed standing up at a bar. Italians drink espresso at all times of the day and night; in fact, the response to a request for un caffè is an espresso. Cappuccino is only ordered by Venetians before 10:30 A.M. but it is fine (though tourist-like) to do so after this time. It is considered uncouth to have milk in your coffee in the evening. If you order a latte, be prepared for a glass of steamed milk; order a caffè latte if you want coffee mixed with steamed milk. You will often see a Venetian start the day with a caffè corretto (espresso with a small shot of grappa or other liquor), or a tumbler of amaro (a bitter, herbal digestive). It is not uncommon to see the first ombra (small glass of wine) tossed back as early as 8:00 A.M., especially in the Rialto market where some of the vendors have been awake for hours, making 8:00 A.M. considerably later in their day than it may be in yours. Croissants are also called brioche, briosca and cornetti; they come con marmellata which almost always means apricot jam, or con crema, with a custard filling. Whole-wheat croissants with blueberry filling, flaky almond pastries and krapfen – deep-fried puffs of dough filled with jam or cream - are other popular choices in pastry shops and bars. Hot tea, hot chocolate and sometimes fruit juices are available. If you do not see fresh oranges and a juicer you may well get a bottle or can of juice. Standing up at the bar is universally the least expensive way to have breakfast. Extra charges are usually added if you sit at a table and/or are served by a waiter.

Customer Reviews

You're In the Hands of Experts
Venice is known as a feast for the eyes but not for the belly--that is, it's known as a town where you can't expect to dine very well. Ordinary is what you'll get at best, and sub-par more often. Well, that's partly true, even largely true for the hapless, unarmed tourist. And Venice is quintessentially a tourist town. Live with it.

Or don't, because there are plenty of good places where Venetians eat, and they are well worth discovering. Fortunately for you, Shannon Essa and Ruth Edenbaum have done that already, and they have published their secrets. In this tiny book they give extensive details on 40 restaurants and 40 bars ranging from cheap to very expensive, from drop in any time to 'reservations strongly recommended,' from calm and delightful to noisy and smoky, from cash to cards.

Their attention to detail is excellent. They give you not only menu recommendations but the name of the nearest vaporetto stop AND walking directions from there. (One's gratitude knows no bounds.) They know the little secrets. Of course, everone by now has heard of the ombra, that traditional Venetian cooler, buy do you know the sgroppino? Do you know cichetti? Do you know that when ordering coffee in Venice (and everywhere else in Italy) you should forget anything that you've ever heard (or had) at Starbucks? Well, Essa and Edenbaum do.

This is the sort of book that makes you wish longingly to know as much as the authors do. Well, buy it and you're on your way. Note to the publisher: Yo! Next time, publish this in pocket-size format, OK? Readers will want to carry it with them. --Bill Marsano is the wine editor of Hemispheres, the magazine of United Airlines; he visits Italy three to six times a year.

A Marvelous Book
We ate in Venice for seven days and Chow Venice never failed us. The one time we used a local resident's advice we appreciated Chow Venice even more.

The authors never missed, from inexpensive pizzerias to top-of-the line restaurants. The directions to the restaurants were always accurate - an important feature.

I could not ask for a better book - short, precise, clear and readable.

The food in Venice is wonderful. Use this book and enjoy both the food and the book.

Reading the 2nd edition of Chow Venice made me want to get on a plane to Venice immediately. It is a wonderfully lively, thoughtful and trustworthy book, brought up to date and expanded.

Don't eat in Venice without this book
This book saved our trip to Venice! We have traveled to Italy many times , and always enjoy the food tremendously- EXCEPT when we had made previous, short trips to Venice. Even when accompanied by Italian friends, we were ripped off by places with "tourist menus" (high prices and indifferent food combined with snarly service).

I bought this book for our recent return visit and it was invaluable! It proved it's worth on the very first day- before we unpacked and could check the book, we went to the first pizza place we saw, famished, soaking wet from a heavy rain, thinking, "Hey it's just lunch, how bad can it be?" HAH! 43 euros (yes, forty three) for two inedible pizzas, one beer and dirty tables. The next day, eating at Casa Mia, a place we would never have found without this book, we had some of the best pizza in Italy, a half-liter of superb house wine, friendly service...for 14 euros!

The book divides Venice into manageable neighborhoods, and gives very good directions. We founds great places for pizza, for drinks before dinner, for meeting friends for dinner, for cappucino in the morning. A very nice bonus was exploring the "less-touristed" parts of this beautiful city, guided by the suggestions and directions in the book.

I absolutely recommend this book for anyone traveling to Venice (my Italian friends want a copy!)- it will literally pay for itself with the first meal!