Venice Travel Blog

Birthday frittelle, Venetian style

ABOVE: Frittelle alla crema on a nautical-themed plate. INSET BELOW: Up close and personal with our daughter's Venetian-style pastries.

by Durant Imboden

A few days ago, our daughter, Cedar Imboden Phillips, cooked me a birthday surprise: a platter of  frittelle, the pastries that Venetians enjoy during Venice Carnival. She made the cream-filled version, with frying assistance from her sister-in-law, Erin Phillips Lauinger, and a Frittelle alla crema recipe from Cookinvenice.com. (Cook in Venice is owned by two women on the Venetian mainland who offer cooking classes as well as a "Food and Ghost Tour" in Venice.)

The frittelle were delightful, and our daughter offered a practical tip: When making frittelle alla crema, pipe the filling into the pastries immediately before eating. This way, if you aren't planning to devour the entire batch in one sitting, you can store the pastry cream in the refrigerator while keeping the unfilled frittelle at room temperature to minimize sogginess.

Note: Frittelle recipes vary quite a bit. Many pastry cooks dust frittelle with confectioners' sugar, others use granulated sugar, and some leave the pastries unadorned. Frittelle fanciers have also been known to debate ferociously about whether pine nuts should be used in filled frittelle (as opposed to frittelle veneziane, which are solid). As for me, I'll take frittelle however and whenever I can get them--even in the hot month of July.

Spizzico and Burger King abandon Campo San Luca

ABOVE: The windows of Spizzico and Burger King are papered over, and their signs are gone from this building in the Campo San Luca.

For years, the large building with arched windows on the Campo San Luca has been shared by Spizzico (an Italian pizza chain owned by Autogrill) and Burger King. Before that, its tenants included McDonald's and another hamburger chain.

On Thursday, we were suprised to see that the Burger King and Spizzico signs were gone, and the windows were papered over. Two small signs on the doors that advertised "400 seats available upstairs" were the only reminders that the premises housed Venice's largest fast-food restaurant until recently.

Venetophiles tend to be snobbish about fast food, but we think it's unfortunate that Spizzico and Burger King are gone. In the handful of times that we stopped in (usually after arriving on a transatlantic flight when we were too tired to go anywhere else), we saw a clientele that ranged from teenagers to hotel workers to military cadets on tight budgets.

With 400 seats upstairs and free restrooms for customers, Spizzico and Burger King offered a place where locals and tourists could eat cheaply, rest their feet for a few minutes, and use a toilet without paying the outrageous €1,50 charged by Venice's municipally-operated facilities.

We hope the restaurant's premises haven't been leased by a clothing retailer (Venice already has more than enough of those), but we're not optimistic. After all, Benetton is taking over the city's main post office, so it wouldn't be surprising to see a Banana Republic or a Jack Wolfskin occupying the former Spizzico and Burger King.

 

Bellini cocktail in a can

This year, we celebrated New Year's Eve with Bellini cocktails: Not the made-to-order version at Harry's Bar (which runs 15 euros for a glass of peach juice and prosecco), but the non-alcoholic canned variety shown in the photo above. The "Cipriani Bellini Mix" is produced under license from the Ciprianis, who own Harry's Bar, and the text on the can recommends serving the "peach juice softdrink" with "gin, vodka, white rum, or sparkling wine."

Cipriani Bellini Mix contains 25 percent peach juice, carbonated water, sugar, and the usual dash of preservatives and antioxidants. It's bottled by San Benedetto, a leading producer of mineral water in the Veneto region.

Look for Cipriani Bellini Mix in supermarkets and gourmet shops in Italy or abroad. You can even order it from Amazon.com, although an Amazon reviewer suggests that it's cheaper--and tastier--to simply buy peach puree and add Champagne. (If you prefer that do-it-yourself approach, we'd recommend using Spanish cava, Italian prosecco, or another less expensive fizzy wine instead of diluting good Champagne with peach puree.)