Italian food is very regional—but food from Venice is one of our favorites. Seafood and pasta? Wine and pastries? Check, check and check!

Here, three dishes you just have to try while you're visiting Venice.

Sardee in saor

This antipasto sounds odd: It's sweet-and-sour sardines with onions, pine nuts and raisins. But even the name tells you it tastes delicious. The translation of "sardee in saor"w ould actually be "sardines immersed in flavor"! Onions show up often in Venetian cuisine because onions neutralize the bacteria that spoils food—something that Venetian sailors, spending such a long time at sea, would have been very familiar with!

Risi e bisi

Not quite a risotto, not quite a soup, this is a Venetian dish made of rice and peas (in Venetian dialect, "risi e bisi"). It's the dish that used to be offered to the Doge every St. Mark's Feast Day.

Risotto al nero di seppia

You see a lot of risotto in the north, and Venice is no exception. But here's the local twist: risotto drowned in black squid ink. You'll also see nero di seppia served in a variety of other ways, including on vermicelli (long, thin noodles) or served with squid itself.

There are many markets in Venice and the traditional Rialto fish market is perhaps the most famous. In Italy it is a staple item on Italian television programs such 'Linea Verde' on RAI. These hour long shows are dedicated to finding out what is happening in the world of supermarkets, traditional markets and anywhere the consumer is looking to buy well.

At a recent typical products and tourism fair on Via Aurelia, Rome, we met the representatives of this classy cheese from Verona in the province of Veneto.

In the territory of the lower Veronese near the border of Lombardia towards Mantova, there are vast plains of rice cultivation. The center of this industry is the small town of Isola della Scala.

The red radicchio of Treviso is familiar to most people as that slightly bitter purple leaf in many Italian salads, a type of chicory. The Italian for the distinct flavor of radicchio rosso di Treviso is 'amarognolo' .

There are two types of radicchio from Veneto. The 'rosso di Treviso' and the 'variegato' from Castelfranco Veneto. The former comes in the form of spear shaped red leaves with a white crunchy stem while the latter is similar to a large flower sometimes known as the 'fiore che si mangia'.

They are cultivated with great care in environmentally controlled conditions and nothing as unpredictable as the sun or rain is allowed to interfere with their growth. They are surprisingly versatile as a vegetable and can be cooked in a number of ways, noy least in a good risotto with gorgozola cheese.

The two main typical food products of the high plain of Asiago in Veneto are salami and cheese. Although you might expect these salami to be made from pork, the valley folk do a good turn in producing versions with goat, roe deer and chamois.

The 'Gallina Padovana' or Padovan Chicken has a legendary history all of its own. It starts with the Marchese Giovanni Dondi who brought a strange looking bird back to Italy following a trip to Poland in the 1300's.

The province of Treviso is home to such wonderfully named towns as Borso del Grappa, Zero Branco, Asolo and Riese Pio X.

Bassano del Grappa, province of Vicenza, is located at the base of Mount Grappa on the Brenta River, just one hour by train from Venice and boasts a fine asparagus season which runs from April through May.

The traditional cuisine of the territory of Belluno is similar to that of the rest of the Veneto region, the coast excepted. Basically, it was a case of making do as there was always a limited availability of ingredients and even cooking utensils.