Definition: Croatia

© Gallimard Guide to Croatia

Croatia offers a wide variety of food due to the influences of neighbouring countries and successive occupiers: Austrian cuisine, with its breaded veal, chicken, beef, fish, suckling pig and spit-roasted lamb dishes, is prepared throughout Croatia. Seafood and vegetables are more commonly eaten in coastal regions.

One of the specialities is strukli (baked cottage cheese dumplings). Meals prepared in the countryside are hearty and made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. The main meal of the day usually consists of meat or fish, potatoes and rice or corn. Beer is very popular with Croatians, but wine is the most common drink to accompany meals.

Croatia produces many regional wines, the most famous of which are Frankovka and Dingac. Breakfast is light and often accompanied by black coffee. Lunch is the main meal of the day, consisting of soup, meat, salad, bread or potatoes and dessert. In urban areas, dinner is often cold, consisting of bread, cheese and eggs, while in rural areas it is usually cooked. Cuisines vary by region, with dishes in the north being richer and spicier than in the south. In coastal regions, there is a mid-morning break to eat marenda, a light meal of fish, cheese and bread. Light snacks are also eaten in the middle of the day in other regions.

© Encarta Encyclopedia, 1998 Microsoft

This crossroads region, where the Latin, Slavic, Byzantine and Finno-Ugric worlds meet, has been influenced by several civilisations. Everything to whet the appetite. Hungary is represented by goulash with wine or rabbit, dumplings stuffed with meat or cheese, and a few desserts, such as a cake made with cottage cheese and poppy seeds. The Ottomans left behind a legacy of spices, minced meat seasoned with garlic and stuffed onions (cevapcici, pleskavica) or cooked on a spit like raznici. In addition to breaded dishes and cabbage, Austria has of course made its mark in the realm of pastries: strudel, cream puffs, doughnuts, rolled cakes, filled cakes and nut pastries. And the incongruous presence of cod in Dalmatian cuisine reflects the curiosity of sailors for this fish from elsewhere.

Dalmatia's wine industry: sun, soil and people have combined to make this region one of the most suitable for producing full-bodied, subtle wines. With its reputation still to be established, now may be the time to start a wine cellar.

It's written in the landscape: the islands of Dalmatia and the Peljesac peninsula seem made for wine. Stony, impossible soil that inevitably limits yields, just enough wind to avoid excessive use of chemicals, plenty of sunshine for aroma and power – all the conditions are in place to produce quality wines here. Especially since the cultivation of vines, brought by Greek colonisation, is nothing new. However, although each island celebrates its white or red wine as if it were worthy of a grand cru classé, Croatia's reputation in this field is yet to be established. It has not yet gone beyond local enthusiasm. On this arid, sun-drenched land of Dalmatia, winegrowers are now taking great care to produce quality wine. The years of "self-managed socialism", which prohibited winegrowers from setting up their own businesses, did not promote quality: "Apart from what we kept for our own consumption, we sold all our grapes to two cooperatives that had a monopoly," recalls Zlatan Plenkovic, a winegrower on the island of Hvar. It was not until the late 1980s that legislation was relaxed and winegrowers were able to try their hand at winemaking. On the island of Korcula, famous in the country for its white wine made from grk (pronounced "geurk"), a local grape variety produced in the village of Lumbarda, Branko Cebalo, a former telecommunications engineer, switched to winegrowing about ten years ago. His white wines with mineral aromas are very successful.

In Vis, a former emigrant who returned from Australia with his wife and children took over the family vineyards to create the Roki's "estate" and open a cellar in Zagreb to market his red and white wines. In Hvar, Zlatan Plenkovic taught himself how to blend wines and experimented with ageing red wine in Croatian or French oak barrels: "I knew that whatever I did, the wine I produced would be better than the plonk from the cooperatives," he says. He has been quite successful: today, he cultivates eight hectares and buys grapes from all the local farmers (80 hectares) to meet demand. While the white wine is not particularly memorable, some of the red vintages show great promise. Ageing in French oak suits it perfectly, the tannins are present but velvety, and the floral aroma is reminiscent of some exotic New World wines. Moreover, Zlatan Plenkovic is keen to point out the interest shown by European oenologists and geneticists in Plavac Mali, the local grape variety said to be the ancestor of Zinfandel, the Californian grape that produces wines that are instantly recognisable. Research is ongoing and opinions are divided, but this supposed kinship is good for marketing.

The owner of the Grgic winery, located in Trstenic on the Peljesac peninsula, the region of choice for Plavac Mali, has returned from California. His red wine, with its blackberry aromas and beautiful balance, is one of the best in the country. It is also one of the most expensive. Nearby, the wines of Skaramuca and especially the Dingac of Potomje, both white and red, suggest that Dalmatia may soon become one of the new wine El Dorados. As for the traditional warnings about "dangerous abuse", they are unnecessary: with wines all titrating between 13.5 and 15 degrees of alcohol per litre, moderation is a given.