In Venice, I discovered mozzarella with prosciutto – which I previously thought was only great when paired with melons. Prosciutto e mozzarella was a happy discovery for me. Now that I am home, I’ve introduced the kids to this and they love it as much as they love their brie and camembert. My mission in Europe was to eat as much prosciutto as I could and in Italy, as the rest of the other places we went to, prosciutto was not expensive, certainly at least 30% to 40% cheaper than in Singapore. So it was a joy to walk into any butcher shop and buy 200g or 300g of prosciutto without blinking at the cost. And when we went home on the last day, 400g of prosciutto went into my hand-carry load – which by the way was finished in two days of touch-down in Singapore. But it was not all about just prosciutto…And then, there was the pasta…

I am not crazy about tomato-based sauces, so I stuck with my favourite – vongole in light white wine. Pared down and minimalist – just the taste of fat juicy clams and garlic.

The cream-based sauces could also be heavy and overwhelming and while we like carbonara, it really got a bit cloying after a while. On our last dinner in Europe, my sister ordered carbonara ala roma – without the cream (below). Much better.

When you could tear me away from my vongole, I did try the squid ink pasta, but this version was kinda meh – bland.

We ate lots of sandwiches too – cheap, easy and on the run. Good for a stand-up quickie lunch in the many bars dotting Venice.

In Venice, you could just window-shop for food too. Lots of temptations in the window. Luckily looking is calorie-free!

Lots of goodies…

mounds of meringue and…

…literally chunks of chocolates!

chocoholic’s dream come true

Besides a huge scoop of gelato (and funny how I have no pictures of gelato – too busy gobbling it all up before it melts) for dessert in Venice, I guess the next best thing, if you have a lover or a partner, is a quick canoodle by a canal: