Whitebait and Muscadet-sur-Lie

Regulars may have noticed a distinct French bias in my matches of the week and have wondered why this is. The truth is that my husband is an unreconstructed Francophile so French wine is mainly what we drink at home and what we order if we’re out together.

No surprise then that the wine we chose to drink at our local seafood restaurant, Fisher’s in Bristol last night was a Muscadet* and that it proved a sufficiently good pairing to make my match of the week. (There was also a fair bit of rosé drunk in France last week which hit the spot with most of the things we were eating . . .)

Whitebait has quite a strong oily taste so is normally coated with a spicy chilli-spiked batter but this was served conservatively seasoned so needed the lemony sharpness of the Muscadet to give it a kick.

Looking at other possibilities outside France I’d go for Albarino (always good with seafood), Vinho Verde (goes with sardines so why not whitebait?), Austrian Gruner Veltliner, Hunter Valley semillon, verdelho, more minerally sauvignon blancs and almost any kind of crisp, unoaked Italian white.

Only I probably won’t get the chance to try them out ;-)

* We were so tired after travelling all day I forgot to check the producer but Fisher’s website shows the Domaine de la Tourmaline 2010. I suspect it was a more recent vintage. Majestic is selling the 2012 for £6.99 at the moment.

Fritto misto + vino bianco

One of the real treats of our trip to Venice is fritto misto which used to refer to the assorted small fish that were too small to be sold from the fishermens’ catch but nowadays takes all manner of shapes and forms including vegetables and polenta (usually to keep the price down).

I suppose it’s the Venetian version of fish and chips but it’s much lighter with a crisp thin batter and (generally) no chips. When the fish is fresh - as it usually is here - it’s utterly delicious. My husband is so addicted he orders it in virtually every restaurant we go to that has it on the menu.

I have to admit it’s hard to recreate anywhere else unless you live right on the sea and have access to the day’s catch but if you do go to Venice the two drinks to have with it are a simple, crisp, fruity house white (vino della casa) or - less traditionally - a class of Prosecco, the local fizz. The house whites are really very good here particularly in the top restaurants so don’t feel embarrassed to order them. The best seem to come from the Friuli region although I’ve had some excellent house Soave.