Seafood in Cinque Terre

We had lunch in Vernazza, one of the five villages that made up "Cinque Terre" on the Italian west coast.  (For more photos on the village, please visit my travel blog Travels with rarecat.)  We were a group of eleven but we split up into two groups for ease of ordering.  In any case, we tried to "maximize" our food experience - the motto was try as many kinds of seafood as we possibly could!

In general the seafood was fresh tasting.  The one dish we were looking forward to was the fish baked in salt, just because it was the house specialty and the restaurant made a show of its presentation.  In reality, I found the fish too salty and was disappointed the skin was not crispy, in fact it was quite tough (likely from the salt), and not great for eating, no wonder the server was about to throw it out when I stopped him.  I would think that most seafood already have enough natural sodium in them that very little salt, if any at all, is needed in their preparation.  This is clearly a recipe that needs updating.

Fried shrimp

Mussels and squid

Anchovies made three different ways - deep fried tasted best for me

Octopus!  Love this!

Scampi and squid - personally I don't see much point in scampi - neither shrimp nor lobster and not tasting as good as either...

The galley kitchen which opened out onto the street

The fish baked in salt presented with a flourish

Good fileting! 

Looked good but...

Where we ate - prime location in Vernazza on the main street right by the water