I no longer work weekends and suddenly the world is a bigger and brighter place. “Do you want to go out on Saturday?” – yes! “Shall we go to a food market on the weekend?” – yes! Last weekend was the turn of Portobello Road Market, and Eve and I were hunting down one food stall in particular.
Fritto & Via are a recently launched street food concept here in London producing bitesize seafood treats with an Italian twist. Italy, unlike England, has a different specialist cuisine in each region of the country. The team at Fritto & Via have designed their menu drawing on influences from the region Le Marche. It’s a coastal town with a thriving fishing port, so it makes sense that Fritto & Via is all about seafood.
Fritto & Via have also drawn on another of the key elements in the local cuisine of Le Marche – stuffed olives – for three of the items on the menu; olive ripiene all’ascolana – olives filled with Parmesan and minced meat; gamboli – skewers of olives filled with shrimp; and olive di pesce – olives filled with fish. So much choice!
We asked for a custom platter with a little bit of everything. While they were preparing our mini-feast, we had a browse of their new sauce labelling. The chilli one, the tartar one, the tomato one… Simple yet effective.
Have a browse of the display products as well as picking from the menu. White bait always looks more appealing than it sounds!
We weren’t overly keen on the stuffed olive combinations. The olives were salty, as expected, which I didn’t find particularly complimented the stuffed cheese and fish filling. My mind pairs the olives with a minced meat or rice filling, like arancini.
We were able to sample something we had never eaten before, and isn’t even on Fritto & Via’s menu yet – tempura zucchini flower! The batter was much lighter than the breadcrumb coating on the seafood, which allowed the delicate sweetness of the flower to come through. Eve and I had to go halves on the last squid skewer as we both enjoyed them so much.
For a new concept in it’s first month, I think Fritto & Via are doing pretty well! Aesthetically, the branding and presentation is clean and my only note would be to add something green to break up the orange tone across the food and stall itself. The service team are friendly and got chatting to us about Fritto & Via’s future plans to pair wines and prosecco with their individual seafood portions. Now, that’s something I’ll have to go back to try!
If you want try them Fritto & Via for yourself you can find them at Wembley Foodshed Market on Wednesday, Portobello Road Market on Saturday, and at the Old Truman Brewery food market on Sunday. Order the squid!
Buon Appetito!
