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Seafood Of Croatia : Our Taste Guide
Whether it be luxurious black truffles and grass-fed pork spiced with paprika from Istria, slow-braised beef in red wine from Dalmatia, or fragrant, world-class wines from the fertile valleys of inland Slavonia, Croatia’s four historical regions provide a culinary odyssey for serious gourmands.
You can taste many of these regional delights in our Croatian Culinary & Wine Tours, which allows you to mix and match locations in both Croatia and neighboring Slovenia, stay in boutiques hotels, visit state-of-the-art kitchens, meet local chefs and eat in some of the nations’ most talked-about restaurants, all with your own knowledgable local guide at your side.
In this blog post, we’re going to be focusing on the country’s stunning seafood because when you travel up and down the coast, especially through the regions of Dalmatia and Istria, that’s when the lip-smacking array of dishes that feature fruits from the sea come to the fore.
In these coastal towns and villages, fishing – and eating fish and shellfish – has been a way of life for centuries.
Many seafood restaurants in these regions boast freshly-caught fish and shellfish from the warm waters of the Adriatic, one of the cleanest oceans in Europe, and find their way to dinner tables in restaurants up and down the coast in a matter of hours.
Some restaurant owners even moonlight as fishermen and women and catch the fish they’ll be serving on that day’s menu themselves.
The Dalmatian and Istrian coastlines produce magnificent oily fish like mackerel, sardines, anchovies and tuna, which burst with nutrients and Omega-3 oils. Due to their freshness and abundance, locals tend to cook them simply on the grill with local herbs and spices.
With optional stops on our tour that take in coastal seafood hotspots like Split, Rovinj, Hvar and Pag you’ll see first-hand how important seafood is to Croatians.
One popular dish you’ll find up and down the Croatian coast and in pretty much every seafood restaurant you’ll visit is crni rizo (black risotto), a rich, unctuous rice dish that gets its distinctive coloring from squid ink. The risotto also tends to contain other types of seafood, typically mussels, clams and other shellfish.
Another dish that showcases local shellfish is buzara, a delicious plate that piles up super-fresh scampi, shrimp and mussels or clams after being cooked in garlic, tomato paste, parsley and breadcrumbs.
One of the most traditional ways to eat fish in Croatia is brudet, a hearty and warming fish stew. It’s said that every family and restaurant has its own way to cook this staple, but at its heart is whitefish and shellfish – the type of which varies in every town – slowly cooked with onions, tomato sauce, spices and chilli pepper to give it a bit of warmth.
Another typical fish stew is found in Hvar – one of the stops on our tour – and is called gregada, which is cooked with white wine, parsley, garlic, capers, anchovies and potatoes.
Succulent oysters from Ston; octopus cooked in a traditional peka casserole pot, which is buried beneath glowing embers; grilled fish with Swiss chard; platters of sea bream, sea bass or John Dory… you’ll find all kinds of traditional, rustic seafood dishes available in restaurants along the coast.
When it comes to fine dining Croatia boasts five Michelin-starred restaurants, two of which are located in Rovinj and Dubrovnik. Each one showcases the local seafood in distinctive, creative ways.
Rovinj’s Monte has a signature dish that incorporates sea bass, king prawn, cuttlefish, cauliflower and algae, while 360° in Dubrovnik boasts a salted and smoked mackerel dish served with cauliflower pureé, pickled vegetables and a garlic croquette.
It goes to show that whether you eat in a humble konoba or a Michelin-starred eaterie, seafood is at the heart of the Croatian dining experience.
If you want to find out more about our bespoke tours, which give a true and authentic taste of Croatia, speak to a member of our friendly and knowledgeable team.
