Croatian Foodie Tour

Ok, here we go, a foodie tour of Croatia! I think it will be best summed up by a sign that I saw at a restaurant in Hvar that said, “eating healthy makes you happy, so eat here”. Everything here is fresh, period. I laughed when our guide Dani said, “if there is lemon served with your fish it is not fresh, it’s 2 day old fish”.  He has no idea that in Colorado the only day old fish would be trout that you caught and didn’t put back in the stream or maybe a crawdad from the South Platte river (ick).  What a huge difference fresh is. That being said, pretty much everything is grilled, Peka style (more later), they do like their french fries and lightly fried calamari or sardines, fruits, veges and herbs picked off a tree or straight from the garden.  We ate lamb and chicken for meat. I don’t think I saw beef anywhere, so I’m not sure it’s part of their diet. If it is, we didn’t eat it. I didn’t see one fast food restaurant or a Walmart for that matter. It’s a simpler way of eating and just good. Nema Preblema!

Most of our meals were at Konoba’s. A Konoba is basically a restaurant, but it’s really a family’s  home where they cook your meals, serve you lot’s of their home brewed wine and occasionally sing for you! In Croatian tradition any guest who comes to your home gets to taste their grappa and eat a fig. I had never had grappa before, so it was a new experience. I can’t really describe it because it can taste like jet fuel, but most of it was flavored various ways. My favorite was the walnut grappa.  Eat a fig, swig the grappa. The whole process it actually quite good and a nice way to start a meal. I think they do this so you eat more! I got a recipe, so I’ll try it and if it works,  I will share with you later this summer!

It’s customary to give your guests grappa in Croatia. This was our first experience and Dani trying to explain why. I’m not sure it needs an explanation!

This is probably the best grappa that we tasted. The walnut grappa was superb! Eat a fig, take a shot of grappa. I’m ok with that!

I can’t remember these flavors but my handy Croatian translator says, walnut, bitters and carob!

You will hear me say this a lot. The olive oil is hands down the best olive oil that I have ever had. I brought some liquid gold home with me and so happy I did. I have become a convert and need to figure out how I can get it shipped to me. Croatian olive oil is really smooth and not bitter at all. The olive oil in Italy was really strong and made you raise an eyebrow when you would eat it. Not this stuff. Pour it on my friend. As you can see, we were not shy!

A little somthin, somthin before lunch. Fresh anchovies, olives, fish pate, bread and oh yeah, olive oil! OMG!

Serious perfection here. Clean and simple food, with more olive oil….  Again everything is really simple.

Good thing I like ham and cheese sandwiches. For some reason they just tasted better over there. Could it be because it’s doused in olive oil or the tiny amount of fresh onions? Whatever, it was good!

Dried ham (delish), Croatian bacon (it’s not cooked, tough to eat) and this heavenly sheep’s cheese. Typical on any Croatian’s table.

This is a Croatian Ham. I can not begin to tell you how good this was. I’m glad we sampled it many times!!

Now for the Peka. What is a Peka, you might ask? Well you know I’m going to tell you! It’s brilliant. That’s all I can say! It’s a way of cooking meat and vegetables and it’s so easy, it’s brilliant! Basically, you make a hot fire with wood, let it settle so you have a nice hot pile of ash, you fill a large flat bottomed pan with whatever meat and veges that you like, season with salt, pepper fresh herbs and pour olive oil all over the top. Cover the pan, place it over the coals and more coals on top of the pan. Let it cook for about an hour and a half.  That’s it. Peka is so good because whatever you decide to put in, all the flavors develop into something quite amazing. I’ll figure out how to make it at home and let you know. I think it would be kinda perfect to make on a camping trip!

The octopus peka, cooking away over the coals!

Another peka. This peka of lamb shanks and veges was to die for!

Our first taste of “peka”, octopus style! My first octopus, ever.

We seriously ate like kings. Check out the cabbage. We ate it at pretty much every meal. Raw green cabbage with vinegar and oil. Who knew it would be so addicting!

Let’s talk wine! It’s not a hard subject for me to talk about! LOL! The wine in Croatia is most excellent! We were lucky enough to visit the Zlatan Otok vineyard by the sea. What a beautiful setting! The pictures from my last post were some of the vineyards that we saw on our walk. Just breathtaking! Croatian wine is a little known gem and this producer is particularly well known for making top quality, award winning wines. If you can get your hands on some, by all means don’t be shy. It’s the good stuff. Other than this, many land owners has some grape vines and they brew their own. It’s all really lovely and enjoying at lunch made for some really nice afternoon naps!

Wines that I brought home from Zlatan Otok Vinyard. Such a beautiful winery on the sea!

Check out this beautiful glass of plavac wine. So delicious! I brought home five bottles, would have brought more but it’s all that I could fit in my suitcase!

So to finish up, just a few more pictures of some really great food that we had! The funny thing is that we keep saying is I’d really like a big bowl of fresh arugula and tomatoes with olive oil please! Neme Preblema!

Slowly braised meat with home made gnocchi. Yes please! Another one of our beautiful lunches! Psst, don’t tell anyone, it’s better here than in Italy!

See they are really not crazy healthy people! They do fry their fresh calamari and sardines! It’s gonna be hard to eat calamari in the USA again. This was way too good!

I’m not sure I saw more ice cream consumed anywhere. I saw people at 9 AM noshing on a cone! That’s dedication!

Imagine sitting sea side, listening to the waves crash on the beach and cracking open a few of these little gems!

Another version of lunch by the sea. This one with mussels, baby clams, prawns cooked in a wine bath. Words can hardly express how freaking amazing all this was!