Campo della Pescaria

Oh yeah, it was that big!

Watching above Campo Beccarie behind the Pescaria

Since Venice is in the middle of a lagoon and shaped like a fish, the first thing to do in the morning is checkout the fish market.  The Campo della Pescaria was once the fish market but now holds the market for fruits and vegetables.  Some specialize in produce from nearby Isola di Sant'Erasmo.  Next door or around the corner is the Pescaria, the neo-Gothic covered pavilion built in 1907.  The market is open only in the mornings, Tuesday-Saturday.  So don't order fish in a Venice restaurant on Sunday or Monday.  Fish here most likely comes from the Mercato Ittico all'ingrosso di Chioggia at the south end of the lagoon.  The link with take you to their website which is somewhat translatable and useful for Italian names of sea creatures.  Click on the following link to see a 5 minute video of Chioggia, Venezia a real working town.  Since Campo della Pescaria is not a wholesale market if you arrive say at 6 AM expecting to see things in full swing, sorry, they will be just starting to set up.  Relax, have a café, pull out your sketchpad, you have time to draw, or walk around with a camera with no tourists around to photo bomb your work.   Look up and you'll see others watching the morning action.  The pace is nice, relaxed but things are getting done.

The produce market is next door and the deliver boats dock at the same place.

Being May, the stars of the produce market were carciofi violet.  Vendors were also carving away on larger artichokes making tubs of prepared artichoke bottoms, talk about convenience.

Pulpo

Travel information can come from some odd places.  A London restaurateur, Russell Norman, became enamored with the bàcari of Venice.  He subsequently opened a restaurant in London, Pulpo.  When that took off he wrote a cookbook, Pulpo.  The last chapter of Pulpo, after the sweets and drinks is a nice little guide to the bàcari, and some of his favorite Venetian restaurants.  Valuable stuff and the recipes are very authentic.  The major problem is unfortunately if you don't live near the Adriatic substitutions will be required.

Let's walk around a bit and see what's on offer and watch them set up for the day's business.

Capesante or Scallops, how come we never get the coral in Seattle, oh because they've always been frozen.

Red rock crab would be a match for these, not a commercial catch in Washington, but I think they're caught commercially in Canada.

Branzini are a hot item back home but they come by air.

Here's an example with no real substitution, mantis shrimp.  The closest thing in Seattle would be spot prawns but these are plentiful and cheap.

Cuttlefish or Seppia in Italiano, they look like calamari on steroids.

He's putting a salt barrier on the edge of the box.

To prevent this.

Well it's time for breakfast.

Arrivederci,

Emmo