Above: Frascoli Bacaro
Let’s start with a bacaro. A bacaro is a food stop offering cicchetti with wine where it’s perfectly acceptable to stand around chatting while consuming both.
Cicchetti? Think tapas or pinxtos. A wonderful social concept, but I really prefer to consume a pleasant lunch sitting down. And the bacaros we sampled in Padua met that desire well.
Bacaro Padovano’s saor di mari might have been our first introduction to the Veneto classic. For thousands of years, Venetian sailors would preserve fish in vinegar and onions for times at sea when replenishing supplies was not an option. While the combination sounds overly tart or pickled, the thinly-sliced onions take on a sweetness resembling a confit preparation. Bacaro Padovano’s included shrimp and sardines for a wallop of flavors.
Bacaro Padovano also provided a vegetable fix with a salad and a hearty vegetarian platter. A regional thick wheat pasta, bigoli, paired nicely with an anchovy sauce.
Above: Bacaro Padovano
The kitchen’s selection of five well-decked-out cicchetti at C20 Bistrot could easily serve as lunch, and a pistachio hummus was delightful. Cherry tomatoes and shrimp tails topped paccheri pasta, served cold. Definitely prefer hot pasta, but, looking back, it’s obvious everything C20 offered for lunch was cold, aside from an espresso with grappa. And it was unseasonably hot for September – 90+ degrees.
Above: C20 Bistrot
The wine bar at Enotavola has plenty of personality, but for lunch you are ushered into a windowless, narrow dining room, about the most stripped-down one I’ve ever come across. The food was not. Chef Giuseppe Romano prides himself on seafood and did not let us down.
We began with grilled squid and grilled octopus, which arrived with strips of zucchini and a mountain of crispy fried leeks. The seafood tortelloni were as plump and beautiful as Baroque putti. The enormous serving of fried seafood seemed to have jumped straight from the boat into the fryer.
The food definitely would have merited a return visit, but the minimalist-to-the-extreme dining room dulled the experience. I might recommend the wine bar instead.
Above: Enotavola
Regionally sourced ingredients and tables snuggled amongst racks upon racks of wine from small vineyards make Enoteca dei Tadi a pleasant retreat. Thinly sliced vegetables were roasted then grilled for ultimate sweetness. The eggplant flan should spur me to experiment with savory versions instead of sweet ones (Note to self: Would bruleed Parmesan would work on top?).
Scottona beef was flavorful and tender, and I decided to plunge into my every-couple-of-years order of liver. It might not look appetizing, but it was tender and smothered in extremely sweet sauteed onions – think reduced onion soup. I picked the right spot for an iron supplement.
Ordering two meat dishes is rare for us, so the perfect dessert to refresh our palates was lemon sorbet with vodka. On another visit, we embraced a pair of luscious semifreddi – one pistacchio and one chocolate croccanti.
Above: Enoteca dei Tadi
Frascoli Bacaro projects a comfortable neighborhood feel, one featuring an abundance of fresh seafood. Sesame-crusted tuna tataki, mussels and sauteed vegetable peperonata were among our appetizers.
Bigoli with caramelized onions and anchovies was true to tradition, and seafood platters, whether fried or grilled, were loaded and cooked with a deft hand. Plus, there was a nice semifreddo for dessert. And, yes, these photos are from more than one sitting.
Above: Frascoli Bacaro
Peace ‘n’ Spice is a project of a gourmet cuisine, designed as an exploratory taste trip alongside routes travelled by a group of refugees and asylum seekers…. It took more than a year for Alì and Hadi to arrive in Italy through illegal crossing from Iran to Turkey and Greece. The passion for local cuisine raised from these forced pathways, as well as the desire to experiment different dishes, revisiting recipes, mixing spices and creating new flavors…. Between 2012 and 2017 they opened three restaurants in Venice… employing the migrants of the Venetian reception centers.”
“Into the Route of Food as Creative Entrepreneurship Interpreted by Refugees in Northern Italy,” Alice Brombin, Food2Gather, January 13, 2021
Ali and Hadi Khan were only 16 by the time they made their way from their native Afghanistan on foot. During the rough journey, they made many acquaintances from throughout the Middle East, swapping stories and food around campfires. Fusion resulting from necessity, yet blending different ethnic traditions into tasty concoctions based on whatever ingredients were at hand.
This willingness to alter traditional recipes gained from these experiences has been key to their success. They cultivated a following even among native Italians and have opened Peace ‘n’ Spice in two locations in Padua. The restaurants serve as a nurturing haven for immigrants – helping them to learn Italian, acquire hospitality skills and assimilate culturally.
Whether Kurds, Afghans, Iranians, Syrians or Albanians, all those who pass through are contributing their regional flavors to the Peace ‘n’ Spice melting pot – even adding twists reinvigorating a few classic cocktails. Another layer of fusion is contributed by diners creating their own combinations from dishes of different nationalities on the menu – three or five per plate. We opted for five the first time, way over-ordering.
Among our selections were: lamb and eggplant; Ethiopian chicken and eggplant; falafel; meatballs, definitely not Italian-style; a Greek vegetarian plate; curried vegetables; Afganistan rice with lamb; and a Syrian rice with caramelized onion. Vegetable pakora was packed with Italian bitter greens sweetened by the chickpea batter. We loved it all, all the way down to a delicately rose-flavored dessert topped with pistachios.
Does, the beautiful concept work? Wonderfully. So much so that we went to the Capitaniato location three times.
Above: Peace ‘n’ Spice
VinEt puts the focus on wines and regional products from the Euganean Hills, volcanic mounds seen in the distance from Venice and Padua. Cured yellowfin tuna and ricotta-filled zucchini blossoms made a nice beginning, and Adriatic bay scallops studded a risotto.
The one disappointing dish was the vegetarian fried cheese plate. The vegetables, the smaller component of the plate, were okay. The cheese slanted toward boring side, lacking the depth of either the provolone fried in Argentina or the salty sass of Greek saganaki. VinEt definitely still was a pleasant venue.
Above: VinEt
Oh, dear. We’re at the end of the alphabetical list of restaurants, and I fear I’m ending it on a negative note. Zairo. Locals and tourists all seem to love it. It’s been around forever. And did I mention it’s air-conditioned? Much appreciated during the heatwave.
Traditional, yes. Kitschy, yes. But not in the red-checkered-tablecloth way; the tablecloths are white. The decor? Central fountain with statuary, columns, murals – all there a while, but somehow exuding a Disneyland-Small-World-like feel. Service was formal and impeccable.
“Grilled” seasonal vegetables were lackluster, with a texture as though simply boiled and buttered. Branzino with chicory greens was fine, and the kitchen’s recipe for classic sliced veal with tuna sauce could not be accused of much in the way of contemporary alteration. The high point possibly was dessert – a pistachio custard tart and a version of zuppa Inglese.
Obviously, this review of such a traditional spot presented through my eyes is not fair as this type of cuisine is not what I’m seeking. Hopefully, these photos will help you decide for yourselves if this is to your liking.
Above: Zairo
Postcards from Barton Springs 