Originally Posted by
BuildingMyBento
Having never been to Croatia - nor eaten Croatian food - what are the highlights? Olive oil, seafood, wine? Do they have ajvar and cevapi, too, given the whole Yugoslavia history?
Originally Posted by
JBord
I've only been along the coast, which of course if focused on seafood. I probably had octopus in some form every other day there, the best was thinly sliced into a salad. Overall, seemed similar to Mediterranean cuisine. Definitely olive oil and wine. The Croatian wines are excellent. We're considering opening one we've found here in Chicago tonight for our new year's dinner. While you can get cevapi, I don't think that's as popular as pljeskavica, which is similar to a large seasoned hamburger (served without a bun). I think cevapi availability there is more like poutine here in the US...a Canadian dish but we like it too so it shows up on menus sometimes. There was also a pasta (don't know the name) with thick tube shaped noodles and beef. We saw grilled meats often too, but mostly stuck with seafood.
I would guess that away from the coast, maybe Zagreb, it's less seafood focused.
Yeah, Zagreb is much more meat & potatoes kind of cuisine--we only spent a few days away from the coast, so didn't sample broadly, but I definitely picked up aspects of German and Hungarian influences.
The Istrian fare we liked the best was really seafood heavy, with olive oil, cheese, etc., served as well. There are clear northern Italian influences that I didn't pick up further south along the coast into Dalmatia.