EXCUSE US WHILE WE MORPH INTO A FOOD BLOG FOR A MOMENT...

So, first things first I think. There's this place where my friend A goes for lunch almost EVERY DAY (you'll see). It's sort of near the Rialto bridge but as with most places in Venice, just around the corner from swathes of tourists it's lovely and quiet. It's a small place, a bar really. You go in to see people milling around standing up, then behind the bar there's a father and son and another guy, a grill, various wines and a load of fresh ingredients. (No kitchen.) You (well, not me, I just grin inanely - this is where it pays to be either with locals or fluent in Venetian) have a bit of banter with them while they're doing five other things simultaneously - and after a bit of discussion they make you something for lunch. Like this:

This actually belonged to another customer but it was so pretty I had to take a picture...

How do you say raw prawns in a nice way in English? Natural super fresh prawns simply with olive oil and the teensiest bit of lemon juice. Also some other kind of deconstructed flobbedy (what, spellcheck doesn't know flobbedy?) prawn type sea creature (bottom left) the name of which I don't know but it was all delicious...

Octopus? Squid? ink spaghetti...We also had tuna tartare which was gorge, but apparently my fork was faster than my camera...

Porcini mushroom and prosciutto little appetiser. They took it upon themselves to knock this up for us to have while we were waiting for our sandwiches. Love those guys.

Sorry if this is a really obvious thing to say, but lunch there is cheaper than Starbucks or Pret A Manger. I can't help but make that comparison, daft though it may be. Or maybe it's not daft since people go there every day on their lunch breaks. Waaah. I have no doubt in my mind that the guys at this place are artists. The way they put ingredients together, all day long without a break, always thinking about the taste, the colour, the texture. Mind sufficiently blown. Oh, and it's about four minutes walk from the little Cipriani ice cream outlet so you can go there for dessert afterwards.

Oh, and this is only the coolest thing in the entire world. You pull up to the window in your boat, shout whoo hoo, ciao! through the window, order your pizza, beers, whatever. They cook it and pass it to you through the window and off you go down the canal again. It's the Venetian version of a drive-thru. Don't ask me where it is. It's on a canal. Next to a bridge. Somewhere in Venice.