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Croatian cuisine is heterogeneous, and is
therefore known as "the cuisine of regions". Its
modern roots date back to Proto-Slavic and ancient
periods and the differences in the selection of
foodstuffs and forms of cooking are most notable
between those on the mainland and those in coastal
regions. Mainland cuisine is more characterized by
the earlier Proto-Slavic and the more recent
contacts with the more famous gastronomic orders
of today - Hungarian, Viennese and Turkish - while
the coastal region bears the influences of the
Greek, Roman and Illyrian, as well as of the later
Mediterranean cuisine - Italian and French.
 A
large body of books bears witness to the high
level of gastronomic culture in Croatia, which in
European terms dealt with food in the distant
past, such as the Gazophylacium by Belostenec, a
Latin-Kajkavian dictionary dating from 1740 that
preceded a similar French dictionary. There is
also Beletristic literature by Marulic,
Hektorovic, Drzic and other writers, down to the
work written by Ivan Bierling in 1813 containing
recipes for the preparation of 554 various dishes
(translated from the German original), and which
is considered to be the first Croatian cookery
book.
Food and traditional
festivities
Many Croatian traditional festivities are
distinctly linked with food independently of
whether they are related to strenuous labour (crop
harvesting or threshing, the grape harvest and
Christening of wine, the completion of a house),
religion (mostly Catholic - Christmas, Easter,
pilgrimages, local saints days), or to memorable
moments in an individual’s life (baptism, wedding,
birthday, name-day, funeral wakes, etc.) Some
festivities are typically of a public character,
such as the Dionysian St. Martin s Day, celebrated
in private farmhouses, wine cellars and
restaurants; others are almost exclusively family
reunions (weddings, baptism, Christmas Day, New
Year’s Day, Easter, etc.)
Every holiday has its typical dish. Pork and
potato stew is eaten on pilgrimages and at fairs;
cod is prepared for Christmas Eve and Good Friday;
pork is eaten on New Year s Day; doughnuts are an
inseparable part of carnival festivities, and in
the south they prepare a similar fried sweet dish
known as hrostule. Ham and boiled eggs with green
vegetables are served at Easter, while desserts
comprise traditional cakes (e.g. pinca). Kulen
(hot-pepper flavoured sausage) at harvest time,
goose for St. Martin s Day, turkey and other fowl,
as well as sarma (meat-stuffed cabbage leaves),
are served on Christmas Day. At weddings, a
variety of dishes with dozens of cakes and
biscuits are served, including breskvice,
shortbread bear paws, gingerbread biscuits,
fritule - plain fritters, etc.
The favourite meals of very many people on all
occasions include spit-roasted lamb and suckling
pig, grilled fish, calamari cooked in various
ways, barbecue dishes - raznjici, cevapcici and
mixed grill - prosciutto and sheep’s cheese, or
smoked ham and cottage cheese with sour cream,
fish stew, venison…
Croatian
Wines
Croatia is justifiably proud of its broad palette
of high quality wines (up to 700 wines with
protected geographic origin) and brandies, fruit
juices, beers and mineral water. In the south,
people drink bevanda with their food (heavy,
richly flavoured red wine mixed with plain water),
and in north-western regions, "gemisht" (dry,
flavoured wines mixed with mineral water).
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The Cuisine
by Regions:
Istra
i Kvarner
Selection of cheeses and cold dishes of Istria.
The cuisine of Istria and the Kvarner regions
represents a special Croatian style of cooking, a
blend of inland and coastal. These regions are
rich in excellent fish and seafood, most notable
among them being found in the northern Adriatic:
scampi (prawns), calamari and shellfish from the
Limski Kanal (Fiord). After an excellent
prosciutto, and cheese and olives, many
traditional wine cellars offer fish soup, fish
stew, boiled prawns, black and white frutti di
mare risotto, as well as other dishes typical of
the central part of the Istrian peninsula -
traditional wine soup, ragout (jota) similar to
Italian minestrone (manistra, menestra, menestra),
and also pasta and risotto dishes cooked with the
famous truffles of the region - a self-sown
precious mushroom species, unearthed by specially
trained dogs and pigs; these fungi have the
reputation of containing aphrodisiac properties.
The excellent Istrian wines include Malmsey of
Buje, Cabernet of Porec, Sauvignon and Merlot, as
well as Terrano of Buzet, Zlahtina of Vrbnik, and
sparkling wines - Bakarska Vodica, etc.
Fine restaurants abound in Istria, especially on
the Opatija, Crikvenica, Rovinj and Porec
littorals, both in the interior and on the
islands.
Dalmatia
The cuisine of Dalmatia and the islands follows
the trend of modern nutritional norms. The brief
thermal preparation of foodstuffs (mainly boiling
or grilling) and plenty of fish, olive oil,
vegetables and self-sown herbs found near the sea
is why this cuisine is considered to be very
healthy.
Dalmatian wines, like olive oil and salted olives,
have been highly esteemed since ancient times,
which the present names of some of the indigenous
grape sorts reveal (Grk : Greek, from the island
of Korcula; Prc from the island of Hvar). Famous
wines include Dingac and Postup from the Peljesac
Peninsula; Babic from Primosten; Vugava and
Plancic from the island of Hvar... then there are
Posip and Grk from Korcula; Marastina from the
island of Lastovo; Malmsey from Dubrovnik, etc.,
and also Prosecco (a sweet dessert wine), the very
strong grape (loza) and herbal brandies
(travarica, grapes with medicinal herbs) and
liqueurs (Maraschino, Vlahov).
Although even today every area has its own way of
preparing certain dishes, the cuisine of the
islands represents a separate world, their
distinguishing features having been discovered
only recently, such as the cuisine of the islands
of Hvar, Korcula, Brac (vitalac, a dish made from
lamb offal wrapped in lamb gut and spike-roasted),
Vis (spike-roasted pilchards, as during the
Ancient Greek period; flat cake with pilchards
from Komiza and Vis, related to the modern-day
pizza). Fresh sea fish (dog's tooth, gilthead,
sea-bass, grouper, mackerel, pilchards) grilled,
boiled or marinated; then there are molluscs
(squid, cuttlefish, octopus), crustaceans
(shrimps, lobsters) and shellfish (mussels,
oysters, date-shells) boiled in a fish stew or as
a risotto. Of the meat dishes, prosciutto is
unarguably unrivalled - pork leg smoked and dried
in the bora (from Drnis), served with dry, mostly
sheep’s cheese (famous sorts of cheese are those
from Pag and Dubrovnik) and salted green and black
olives, capers and pickled onions. Lamb is also
very highly valued, especially boiled or baked on
an open fire (Franjevacka begovica from Visovac,
or lopiz from the island of Iz); also, dried
mutton (kastradina), roast beef, Dalmatian stew
(pasticada) with gnocchi, offered by many
restaurants.
Lightly boiled vegetables are also favourite
dishes (Swiss chard with potatoes, tomato sauce)
often a mixture of cultivated and self-sown
vegetables, spiced with olive oil and wine
vinegar, or served with meat (manestra - pasta
with minced meat; arambasici - stuffed vine
leaves). Regions with an abundance of fresh water
are famous for their frog, eel and river crab
dishes (the Neretva valley, Trilj and the Cetina
basin). Typical Dalmatian desserts win the heart
with their simplicity. The most usual ingredients
include Mediterranean fruit, dried figs and
raisins, almonds, honey, eggs (rafioli, mandulat,
smokvenjak, the gingerbread biscuits from the
island of Hvar - rozata).
Gorski Kotar and Lika
The cuisine of Gorski Kotar and Lika reflects
living conditions in the forested highlands and
pastures, where summers are short and winters
long, which limits the availability of foodstuffs.
It is recognized by its simplicity (open-fire
cooking and baking), as is the case with regions
closer to the sea (Dalmatinska Zagora and central
Istria), but everyday meals include predominantly
continental products - pura (or palenta) - boiled
maize, boiled potatoes, or potato halves baked in
their skin, pickled cabbage, broad-beans and
runner beans, cow’s and sheep’s milk and delicious
cheeses (fermented cheese known as basa, and dried
cheese), meat, fresh and smoked lamb, mutton and
pork, as well as venison.
These regions are also rich in mushrooms and
self-sown herbs, but there are also delicious,
strong plum brandies and brandies made from forest
fruits, or mixed with honey. The cuisine of Lika
is found in the region of the Plitvice Lakes, and
fine homemade cheese can be bought from roadside
stalls when driving through Lika.
Northwest Croatia
The cuisine of northwest Croatia is characterized
by many simple, delicious dishes. Bread is mostly
made from maize, barley, or a mixture of the two,
and cakes are often similar in texture to bread
(kukuruznjaca - made from maize; periaca,
zelevanka, buhtli, doughnuts, walnut and
poppy-seed loaves). A profusion of pasta dishes,
dairy products (made mostly from cow’s) milk, as
well as plenty of vegetables (beans, potatoes,
cabbage, etc.), often mixed with meat to form a
broth (zucchini, cucumbers, runner beans, broad
beans, peas in the summer, and beans with pickled
cabbage in winter, beans with barley porridge) and
salads (fresh cucumbers with sour cream and
garlic, lettuce, tomato salad, peppers and
onions). This is where food provision for the
winter is still made in the traditional manner
(pickled cabbage, cucumbers boiled in vinegar,
pickled peppers, red beet, as well as sweet dishes
- plum jam, rosehip jam, bottled fruit, etc.). In
the same way that southern cuisine differs from
island to island, so does the cuisine in this part
of the country differ from one region to the next.
In the region of Medjimurje one really must sample
buckwheat porridge with meat from fat meat or
blood-sausages, as well as side dishes of baked
beans or potatoes, formed in cones, with rich
spices, or smoked or dried cow’s cheese turas,
known in the region of Podravina as prge. Turkey
with mlinci (a boiled pasta dish), strudels of
various kinds, as well as pumpkin cake with poppy
seeds, have spread from the region of Zagorje
throughout Croatia. It is hard to find more
delicious geese and ducks than those from the
region of Turopolje, or baked carp (krapec na
procep) than those from the regions of Moslavina
and Posavina. The region of Banovina became famous
for its winter salami (Gavrilovic salami).
blood-sausages, garlic-sausages and other special
sausages, for baking with pickled cabbage, boiled
smoked pork leg with potato or bean salad with
onion, are favourite dishes almost everywhere.
Samobor, a small town near Zagreb, is an ideal
venue for a gastronomic excursion. Its picturesque
restaurants offer Samobor Steak, Samobor custard
slices, salami and kotlovina - port and potato
stew - hermet (sweet, spicy wine) and mustards
which have been prepared here for almost two
hundred years.
The
cuisine of Varazdin, and in particular of Zagreb
represents urban, metropolitan cuisine, related to
the more famous cuisine of Venice. Of course,
Zagreb has also its steak (bread-crumbed veal
stuffed with cheese), and it also offers a variety
of roast dishes (beef, pork and fowl) served with
potatoes, vegetables and horseradish, as well as
various stews (wine goulash, bacon and tripe,
lungs "sour art"), grilled meat, pasta… Delicious
sweets continue a tradition hundreds of years old
– a tradition of the "baking woman of Gric" and
bishops’ pastry-cooks, revealing Croatian dessert
cuisine in its entirety (Croatian pancakes,
Zagorje strudel, strudel stuffed with cottage
cheese, or apple strudel, bucanica, various cakes,
ice-creams).
Zagreb’s contemporary cuisine is international,
with the finest Italian cuisine widely
represented. Restaurants frequently offer better
quality fish than those available on the coast,
more delicious lamb than in the region of Lika,
and better kulen than in Slavonia.
One should savour the following wines from this
region: Portugizac from Plesivica and
Jastrebarsko, Rhine Riesling, Chardonnay from
Strigovan, Muscat Otonel, Turk's sparkling wines,
as well as wines from the wine-cellars in
Bozjakovina, Pinot Blanc from Sveti Ivan Zelina,
Moslovina Skrlet from Voloder, as well as many
other wines, but also the traditional drink, gvirc
(gvirc, mead) sipped with gingerbread biscuits.
Slavonia and Baranja
Slav Rich and fertile Slavonia and Baranja
comprise the bread basket of Croatia, and so white
bread, flat cakes and many other cakes filled with
walnuts, with poppy seeds or plum jam, have been
baked here since ancient times, made from the most
representative pastry made from green wheat.
Pasta, potato, beans, dairy dishes and fat meat
dishes (cottage cheese with sour cream, dried
cheese) and fattened fowl and pork dishes are also
prepared here. Such types of food were once cooked
to provide the energy required for heavy work,
although these days their preparation is
considered too time consuming, and requiring too
much effort. In these regions hot goulash (beef,
venison), regos (several meats with pasta), fish
paprika-flavoured stew (with various fish: carp,
pike, sheat-fish, etc.) are typical. Smoked and
dried pork ham, sausages, as well as kulen are
also firm favourites, especially when served as a
delicacy with cottage cheese, peppers, tomatoes
and green onions or pickled vegetables (tursija).
The plum brandy made in this region is very
smooth, and wines, such as Kutjevacka Grasevina
and Kutjevo Chardonnay, the Rhine Riesling of
Enjingi, and also the Grasevinas of Krautheker and
Zdjelarevic, Ilok Thaminer, Pinot Blanc from
Pajzos and Endent Riesling from Belje are greatly
appreciated the world over. Wines from the wine
cellars of the Djakovo diocese, famous for the
production of wines used in liturgical services,
are equally well known.
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