CROATIA: MY FAVORITE MEAL, Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Dubrovnik, Croatia

My friend and fellow children’s writer Caroline Hatton visited Croatia in May of 2012 and has graciously written this article about her trip. You can find out more about Caroline and her books and at her website, www.carolinehatton.com . She took all the photos in this post.

BREAKFAST

At the first hotel where my husband and I stayed, the room price included a hearty breakfast. We had omelets cooked to order, skipped the ham and salami, and admired the mystery packets of what looked like vanilla or chocolate pudding, liverwurst, cream cheese, jam, and butter. While exploring Croatia with a couple of American friends for two weeks, room prices included similar breakfasts, except for rooms rented out by private citizens.

For lunch, we shared a sampler of typical Croatian food, i.e., meat:

MEATLOVERS LUNCH

The finger-sized sausages were the famous, delicious, vigorously seasoned ćevapčići. The spiral sausage was the chef’s specialty. The meat chunks were chicken, pork, and beef, the standard components of the ubiquitous “mixed grill” menu item. The beans, we never saw anywhere else, a noteworthy fact for vegetarians. The red delicacy was ajvar (a red bell pepper and garlic relish that most Croatians are crazy about).

Fortunately for our waistlines, we walked for hours through the old Zagreb, up and down medieval stone stairs and streets. By dinner time, we could fathom trying another meat dish:

CHEESE STUFFED GROUND MEAT

This was punjena pljeskavica (cheese stuffed ground meat, enthusiastically seasoned). The grilled vegetables were available as a separate item on most menus, and often included carrot, eggplant, bell pepper, onion... whatever looked good at the market.

SIBENIK WALLET

Stuffed pork came in different varieties. The above “Šibenik wallets” were stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, and named after their hometown. There, the medieval pedestrian center was a captivating place to walk off calories.

Fish and seafood were widely available, often with a side of mangold (Swiss chard) and potatoes, as seen in this sea bass entrée:

SWISS CHARD POTATO SIDE

Below: a mussel; the closed and open pair was kunjka (Noah’s Ark shellfish) found only in the Adriatic and Mediterranean; and the clam was brbavica or šarga (warty venus).

SHELLFISH

For picnics on long mountain hikes, we loved to buy bùrek (filo pastry stuffed with cheese, spinach, or ground meat) from bakery shops. Lightly sweetened varieties contained a smear of fruit mush:

BUREK SWEET

We saw many garden-shed-size roasters outside of food shops, for whole pigs, but we never saw any roast pork, perhaps more common in the high summer season.

For vegetarians, commonly available proteins were eggs for breakfast and cheese any time. Beans, we saw only once on our first lunch plate, in Zagreb.

My second-most favorite meal in Croatia was in the medieval walled city of Dubrovnik on the Adriatic. Stone-paved pedestrian streets were lined with restaurant tables, leaving only a narrow lane for waiters and passers-by.

Octopus salad was on my must-try list. We saw it on the menu for the first time on our trip. We ordered it.

Before letting our waiter, a man perhaps 18 years old, walk away, I asked him to take a photo of my husband and me. As I handed him my point-and-shoot digital camera, I said, “Press this button to turn it on.” He said, authoritatively, “I know. I am young.”

Then he brought the octopus salad:

OCTOPUS SALAD

 

A minute later, the restaurant owner, a man perhaps 50 years old, brought a serving spoon and said, “Excuse my son. He is young.”

The octopus was tender, delicate, and distinctive. The balance of tomato, lettuce, and onion, and the small amount of vinaigrette and herbs, was perfect. This gourmet dish was offered at Konoba Nava in Dubrovnik Old Town.

MLJET ISLAND

My favorite meal in Croatia was on the Adriatic island of Mljet http://www.mljettravel.com/, in the hamlet of Soline, a row of about six contiguous stone houses. Between the one-lane road and the shore of the salt water lake, Veliko Jezero, the locals had set up tables and chairs on shaded patios. We were told that the lady “in that house” (I forget if it was number 3 or 4) served dinner.

We poked our heads in her open door, into a kitchen with a jolly group at a table. The lady greeted us. We asked about dinner.  She bent down to pick up a plastic bucket, from which she lifted freshly dead fish, one at a time—the day’s catch. There was only one of each kind, each one a different mottled grey.  The eel wasn’t our friends’ idea of food. So we pointed at two other big fishes, which the lady identified as škaram (barracuda) and cipal (mullet).

She brought local wine to the patio table. While we enjoyed the balmy evening, she got busy chopping a little wood for her outdoor brick barbecue, getting a fire going, preparing the fish, and grilling it to perfection. She also served a tomato salad, boiled potatoes, bread, and homemade goat cheese, and put the customary bottle of local olive oil on the table.

This was my best meal in Croatia because the fish, friendship, and serene setting were exquisite, and also because I love how the cook presented the menu choices!

Caroline is working on a horse story set in Croatia at a location similar to Linden Tree Retreat and Ranch http://www.lindenretreat.com/ where she went on an unforgettable horse ride with owner and guide, Bozidar Bruce Yerkovich.