My wife and I
just came back from a summer vacation in Croatia. The country is famous mostly
for its long Adriatic coast line with many small islands scatter just short
ferry trips away. In general, it is not advisable to travel Croatia in August
as this is high season and touristy places, especially on the coast, get
extremely crowded. Unfortunately, work does not permit us to take holidays
later, so it was either now or not this year. We anyway had a good time, trying
to ignore the tourist crowds, and instead discovering the culinary offerings.
Croatia is
culturally and culinarily part of the distinct Western Balkan region and thus very
close to Bosnia and Serbia despite remaining grievances between the
nationalities after the collapse of Yugoslavia and the ensuing war. These
countries not only share a common language, but many dishes and food costumes.
Most notably, as in the entire region, ćevapčići is a popular street food. This
is sausage shaped meat consisting of ground beef, pork and lamb mixed with eggs
and spices. The Bosnian/Muslim version would be without pork and so every area
of the Balkan has their own variety of the dish. It is a regional specialty
that derives from the Ottoman rule of the region. Cevapčići is close to the
kebab of Turkey and is usually served, just like the popular döner kebab
version, in a flatbread.
Croatia is
also strongly influenced by Italy. Not only did the Romans leave cultural and
architectural traces, but also the Venetian kingdom controlled most islands and
cities of the Dalmatian coast during the Renaissance era. Culinarily, Croatia
is thus also part of the typical Mediterranean food culture with its focus on
fresh vegetables, olive oil and wine production. The country is indeed a proud
wine producer and it is here, where Eastern European beer culture meets
Southern wine culture. Croatia is famous for the Zinfandel grape, which
originates there and is grown in large parts of the former Austrian-Hungarian
empire. Now it is a major grape grown in the Californian Napa Valley. The
Croatian name for it is Crljenak Kaštelanski, rather complicated for foreign
tongues. I can recommend however a cross bread of the Zinfandel that I became
enthusiastic with during the trip called Plavac Mali.
We ate very
well in Croatia and I give you here a few highlights, which can be taken as
recommendations for your future visit. Coming from Germany, we first arrived in
sunny, or better scorching hot, Zagreb, the capital in central Croatia. During
our first night out in the city, we had dinner at Vinodol (link), which is a rather upscale, but
popular restaurant with plenty of space. I very much enjoyed that they had a
half-open terrace where smoking was prohibited. We shared one dish of lamb with
potatoes and cabbage, because we also wanted to try the cheese platter. I liked
the lamb, but the cheese was the absolute highlight. One of the best platters I
ever had – nicely decorated and great strong cheeses. We also enjoyed our first
bottle of Plavac Mali there.
A second
great food place in Zagreb was Batak grill (link), which was heavily advertised
in the city but indeed did not disappoint the promises. We had some great ćevapčići
with the traditional ajvar dip. My wife was also enthusiastic about the Balkan-typical
Šopska salad, which is very simple – just tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, oil and
feta cheese - but with fresh ingredients this is really tasty. After exploring
the capital a bit, we had a long bus journey coming that took us to the
coastal region.
The first
stop on the Adriatic coast was Zadar, which is a small Venetian-style town on a
charming peninsula. It is most famous for its sea organ, where the water tides
flood into an architectural design that creates sounds. This was pretty cool,
but our food was also amazing, which is why I enjoyed the place very much. At
the coast, there is of course very good seafood. I like especially fish very
much and so I tried a nicely grilled sea bass in a restaurant called 2Ribara (link). The fish was fresh and came
with an excellent swiss chard on the side. Secondly, we had a wonderful evening
at Harbor Cookhouse & Club (link), which
is a fine dining barbecue located on the water front of the harbor. It is more
on the pricey side for Croatia, but very much worth it. I had a tuna steak done
to perfection with some spicy wasabi. Of course, the bottle of Plavac Mali was
fantastic as well.
After another
long bus ride, where at least one could enjoy the fimpressive landscape of the
Dalmatian coast, we finally arrived in Split. The city is incredibly touristy,
but we nonetheless found some great restaurants. For both dinners, we visited
something called a konoba, which just means shop/diner in Croatian, but hear
specifically means seafood diner. Both places were located near each other in
something of a small restaurant area. Despite many tourists in these places,
the flair was great, the service friendly and food fantastic. The first one was
Konoba Matejuska (link), where
I had calamari with swiss chard on the side – and a great bottle of Plavac
Mali. The second place was Konoba Varos (link), where I wished I was
hungrier. They had really great seafood on the menu. I enjoyed an excellent
seafood risotto with scampi and mussels – and we had of course a great Plavac.
To sum up, my
advices are 1) don’t go in August and avoid the tourist crowds 2) eat ćevapčići
for fast food lunch and seafood for dinner especially at the coast 3) dink
Plavac Mali wherever and whenever possible.
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