5 MUST-TRY DISHES IN DALMATIA
Peka
Simple is often the best, and peka is definitely back-to-basics comfort food. Under a čripnja, a bell-like lid covered in coal for about two hours, a concoction of meat – lamb, veal, octopus, or chicken – with vegetables, olive oil and fresh herbs, makes up peka This ancient way of preparing food results in the juiciest of juiciest roasts you would have ever come across.
Viška pogača
Another simple bite comes from Dalmatia’s „furthest-out“ island of Vis. The Viška pogača is a focaccia-like sandwich filled with anchovies, onion and olive oil which was put together by housewives as a survival snack for their fishermen husbands who would often be out on the sea for days on end; it was cheap, tasty, and nutritious! The town of Komiža on Vis also has its own pogača variation, with added tomato sauce and it’s up to you to discover which version you like the most.
Pašticada
Pašticada is any blue-collar’s favorite lunch-break meal and a compulsory dish at every Dalmatian feast. This beef stew smothered in a sweet thick sauce oozes with a million flavors, a result of several days of marinating in vinegar, lemon and rosemary and sizzled slowly with carrots, red wine, cloves, nutmeg, and Dalmatian prosciutto (pršut). Every tavern (konoba) will likely have a pašticada on the THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET
The Mediterranean diet, according to scientists, is the golden standard of proper nutrition. It’s characterized by the use of healthy foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, B vitamins and a variety of antioxidants.
In 2013, the Mediterranean cuisine of Croatia, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Italy, Morocco, and Portugal was included in the World Intangible Heritage List. In the mentioned nomination, each of the mentioned countries chose one area, one region through which it presented the Mediterranean heritage in food. Examples of Croatia were the islands of Hvar and Brac.
THE MEDITERRANEAN CUISINE IN CROATIA
Mediterranean cuisine reigns in the coastal areas and on the islands (Kvarner, Istria and Dalmatia). What makes this healthy diet, attributed to Mediterranean cuisine, special is a high intake of fiber, fish, fruits, vegetables, and olive oil. Such a diet is conditioned by the historical and cultural heritage of the Mediterranean, as well as ecological and climatic factors, and is the basis of the identity of the people living in the area.
Mediterranean cuisine is continuously being praised for being the healthiest, with the region being blessed with a wealth of fresh ingredients such as fruits, fish, herbs, and vegetables being available, creating sumptuous concoctions loved throughout the world. Croatian cuisine cannot be defined alone as just Mediterranean, as its influence goes far beyond the azure coastline of the Med. In fact, Croatian culinary traditions have been greatly influenced by its previous conquerors; French, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, and Ottoman and some of the preferred dishes are a melting pot of all these. What to eat? Where to eat? These questions are increasingly being asked by tourists as it is recognized how important culinary experiences are for travelers, bringing them even closer to a local culture, far more so than sightseeing might do. Let’s zoom in on Dalmatia to taste the local favorites and find out who makes the best.
menu served with homemade gnocchi.
Gregada
A stew of Adriatic goodness, gregada is a specialty from the island of Hvar that combines various whitefish, potatoes, white wine, olive oil and garlic into a flavorful pot. The best gregada is cooked slowly and is never stirred, only shaken.
Vitalac
There are also a few dishes that fall into the „bizarre“ bites category, but that doesn’t make them any less tasteful. Vitalac is an ancient dish from the island of Brac where lamb’s offal is fired on a spit, then wrapped to be further grilled; the result is a bacon-crispy sensation with a tender stuffing. Brac is famed for their lamb that has not yet tasted grass, but only their mother’s milk that has grazed off salty pastures abundant with Mediterranean wild herbs. Vitalac came about as an appetizer to nibble on as you wait for the lamb on the spit to be fire up.
SPICE IT UP…
The most important spice in Mediterranean cuisine is certainly olive oil, also known as the liquid gold of Dalmatia. An unavoidable spice of Dalmatian cuisine is most definitely salt. It was used for canning fish, and there were special rooms for this work, out of which the entire domestic fish salting industry was born. In addition to fish, we can mention cattle, sheep, goats, milk, and cheese, which were also kept in brine, as well as the salted pork, or freshly salted bacon. Also, onions and garlic are an indispensable addition to almost any Mediterranean dish.
CHEERS!
In the same way the Mediterranean diet in the Croatian Adriatic knows very specific forms of food preparation within the Mediterranean gastronomic cultural circle, the production and consumption of wine in this area has a recognizable oenological status in which high-grade wines of over 15 vol. percent are especially valued. The offer of autochthonous wines is dominated by some types of red varieties, especially Crljenak, which is an antique variety, described in the early Renaissance literary works of Croatia. It was taken over by other circles, that’s why in Italy it’s called Primitive, and in California Zinfandel. In 2001, the Americans initiated the procedure to declare Zinfandel an American autochthonous variety, but Zinfandel’s homeland was found in Dalmatia the same year, and DNA proved that Zinfandel is an old and almost extinct Croatian autochthonous variety. It ruled Dalmatia and the Adriatic for centuries, until the appearance of phylloxera and other pests when other varieties showed better endurance and almost pushed him out of the vineyards. Today, Crljenak is being replanted all over Dalmatia and is one of the high-quality Croatian grape varieties.
THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET ON THE LIST OF WORLD INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
The Mediterranean diet has been included on the UNESCO Representative List of World Intangible Heritage.
A typical example of a specific intangible asset that combines Mediterranean heritage and experience brought from the ancient homeland is soparnik. In the past, soparnik was a dish that was prepared on fasting days, and today it is often prepared on festive occasions. It is prepared from chard, a typical Mediterranean vegetable from the menu of a large number of Mediterranean countries, which was also mentioned by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Chard is cooked in a dough covered with ash and embers. This way of preparing food belongs to the Slavic nomadic custom of preparing food on open fireplaces from the time before the beginning of the sedentary lifestyle, because after that the food was prepared in an oven or under a clay domed vessel called peka. Soparnik is a unique ethnographic contribution of Croatian culture to Mediterranean cuisine.
GASTRO EXPERIENCE
If you like to discover new tastes and feel the touch of the history and present, join us on our Split Gourmet & Gastro Walking Tour. On this tour you get an opportunity to eat like a local and feel like a local for a day, enjoying the lunch made especially for you from the fresh ingredients you chose on the market. It’s the kind of personalized experience you never forget.