Every town in Croatia has at least one marketplace to which the rural homesteads from the surrounding areas bring their fresh produce.
As recently as the end of last century it seemed that cheap food of dubious quality, arriving from the world markets, would spell curtains for the small producers of quality products. Instead, it has become apparent that the number of people willing to pay more for fresh local products is steadily growing.
Alongside enduring treasures, like fresh cottage cheese and cream, free-range eggs, or grincajg (from the German Grünzeug) – bunches of root vegetables and greens for traditionally prepared soup, ever increasing numbers of customers are seeking indigenous types of fruit and vegetables, wild edible plants, forest mushrooms and many other foodstuffs, the high quality of which can be ensured only by small breeders and grower-gatherers.
One of the permanent tasks of the nationwide care for our gastronomy is the need to preserve such markets, to safeguard small grower-gatherers and breeders, as well as the country’s traditional dishes.

Today, there is a veritable pleiad of new culinary stars of the younger and middle generations in Croatia. Their number is directly related to the very dynamic national gastronomic stage which permits them a wide scope of research and experimentation. It also prompts them to reassess the culinary heritage of these parts, to seek new ways of revitalizing traditions and to test methods of utilizing top quality local ingredients in the contemporary gastronomic trends prevailing in the world.
In other words, what we have here is a deep understanding of the genesis of local gastronomy: it has always been a place of fruitful meetings between different cultural patterns. It has to be underlined, however, that this new generation of Croatian chefs is facing a task greater than any of its predecessors: their aim is to demonstrate to the world that one of the greatest national assets of Croatia is her gastronomy.

The entire Adriatic area is inhabited with people who find it hard to imagine life without Swiss chard, so much that some have, in fact, suggested (not entirely tongue in cheek) that this plant is of such importance for the Croats, particularly those living by the sea, that it should form part of the new Croatian coat of arms.
Blitva is best when young, when its leaves are thin and soft, of a bright green colour, and only some 10 cm long. Preparation of this much revered plant is simplicity itself: immersed in boiling water and allowed to cook for a brief spell, carefully drained and sprinkled with olive oil. It is often served with boiled potatoes, and sometimes they are cooked together, particularly when chard is no longer quite so young and tender. Thus prepared, it is most commonly eaten with fish.
New generations of Croatian gastronomes are using chard in new, more imaginative ways, often inspired by old and almost forgotten recipes. Savoury strudels and pies prepared with Swiss chard and fresh cheese; sauces for pasta made from boiled chard and basil; minced meat rolled into large leaves of chard and cooked gently in an oven; larger fish stuffed with chard and herbs…

The majority of gourmands regard food prepared under a peka as the ultimate in grilled dishes. This simple accessory – a simple domed lid – can be made of metal, thinner or thicker, often of cast iron, but true connoisseurs are particularly appreciative of the earthenware peka.
Food cooked under peka, be it in a fireproof pot or directly on a stone slab, comprises meat with vegetables, usually veal, lamb and yearling beef, covered with potatoes and other vegetables. Larger poultry is also prepared in this manner, especially in the mountainous part of the Kvarner region. Even if catering establishments provide only bread baked in this way, their ratings are usually elevated.

Although somewhat less varied than grilling, the spit also allows for the preparation of many dishes: from small ones of poultry to massive ones of oxen. Spit roasting is common all over the country and is the main feature of catering establishments along the arterial roads, where spits function as a form of live advertising. Most commonly spit roasted are suckling pigs, lambs and, less frequently, kids.
This is a very ancient method of preparing food, being imported to these parts from the East. But, in the old times, it was not young animals that were spit roasted, because the scarcity of meat dictated that an animal should reach its full adult size before being slaughtered. Traces of this ancient tradition are still seen in Croatia in the custom of spit roasting oxen, particularly for popular festivities. Central parts of the Slavonian region are renowned for their masters of spit roasting an ox. However, folks from certain large villages in Slavonia, such as Gundinci, prefer a heifer since they know from much enjoyed experience that its meat is considerably juicier.
Gentle heat and good meat are the keys to every successful spit roast. Bearing in mind that there are practically no spices involved, the genuine quality of meat is necessarily a major factor. Spit roasting is always a slow process, its rotation being slow and steady. It takes an experienced cook to salt an animal for the spit, while during roasting it is basted only with oil, or melted pork fat, and sometimes with stock, wine or beer.

There is practically no food which Croats would not prepare on a grill (roštilj) in the continental part of the country, or on gradele – its counterpart on the coast. And preparation is equally varied everywhere.
All the better parts of meat are grilled, the meat coming from practically all kinds of animal: poultry, pig, yearling beef, beef, lamb, kid, game small and large, snails, frogs, fish, crabs, shellfish, molluscs, even vegetables and cheese. Bread itself is improved on the grill to keep hunger at bay until the main attractions are ready.
Traditionally, the grill is tended by men who like to boast of their skills in this department, everyone having some special nuance or personal method which sometimes goes into meticulous detail, like the selection of the right kind of wood and, of course, the heat of the live coals. Highly sought after is dry grape vine, while some grill masters collect veritable boutiques of different dry woods, which are then further enhanced through the addition of aromatic plants, such as rosemary sprigs.
Generally speaking, grilling is best when done over plenty of live coals which produce a gentle heat, whereas grilling over a fire is regarded as barbaric, or at least demonstrating a certain lack of good taste and manners.

The meal taken between breakfast and lunch is a very important and much cherished Croatian custom. In the Zagreb region and in some parts of the central region this meal is called gablec, along the Adriatic coast – from the Istrian peninsula to the Dubrovnik region – this vital social institution is known as marenda. Since this mid-morning meal is a widespread custom, the dishes served are also the most popular and mostly cheaper ones, eaten with a spoon and fresh bread which is usually dunked, and when food is especially tasty the plate is finally cleaned off with a piece of bread.
Popular restaurants and inns frequently have special menus for marenda and gablec, and these dishes are only cooked and served in late morning hours: bean soup with pieces of bacon, off-cuts of prosciutto left on the bone, sausages (somewhat less common is dried mutton). This is a classic dish which comes in countless variations and is just as popular as gablec as it is as marenda.
The second on the list of popularity is tripice, or fileki, or as some would call it, tripe. Lamb tripe, which spread to continental parts from the coastal areas, is more infrequently met but more highly regarded than tripe from yearling cattle. Kid tripe is a real rarity and a cult dish.
Paprikash and goulash occupy the third place in popularity. Although cod is not dried in Croatia it also enjoys a cult status among Croats, literally a must for meals on Christmas Eve.
As far as marenda is concerned, it is served mostly on Fridays, usually as a thick soup with potatoes, spiced with garlic, a la white or a la red – the difference being the addition of tomato. Marenda is normally accompanied with bevanda – wine diluted with water so as to be able to continue one’s labours to the end of the working day. Inland, white table wines with a higher content of acidity are diluted with mineral water and known as gemišt, and if soda water is added then it is called a špricer.

Among the most successful revivals of ancient agriculture is the regeneration of olive production. There are olive groves extending from the westernmost areas of Istria, down the length of the coastline, including both large and small islands, down to the eastern borders of the Dubrovnik region, with new groves being planted every year.
Young experts are winning prestigious acclaims, both at home and abroad, for their oils, like that produced by multiple prize-winner, Sandi Chiavalone from Vodnjan, who is at the very peak of the Mediterranean olive growing industry. And it has been proved that the best olive oils in Croatia come from relatively small olive groves, where literally every tree receives special attention and care. Certain customs and practices, like washing the olives in the sea, make Croatian olive oils even more special.
The most common and widespread varieties of olives in Croatia are indigenous: buža and oblica. Although the practice of mixing different varieties is common, domestic olive rowers recently began supplying a variety of oils, and this is where the indigenous varieties come into their own. The best oils are often on offer in prestigious wine boutiques.
Among purist connoisseurs an increasingly favoured hors d’oeuvre is fine olive oil, freshly baked top quality bread and salt, nowadays becoming ever more popular even in exclusive restaurants. Possible additions to this magnificent simplicity could be capers and highly appreciated fillets of salt-pickled fish in olive oil, with few drops of good wine vinegar and a few slices of onion. Marinades made with raw fish in top quality olive oil, in particular anchovies, sprinkled with the juice of home grown lemons, are especially popular in the Split and Zadar clusters. Baking is the old, traditional way of releasing the bitter elements from olives. The baked olives are then kept in olive oil and aromatized with Mediterranean herbs, primarily rosemary, which is also the best way of enjoying them.
Another old custom is being revived, this time among bakers: pieces of olive are mixed into bread dough, the result being deliciously piquant bread. Green and black olives are used to produce a spread, usually for bread, but smart chefs use it as a condiment for filleted fish and a variety of meat escalopes.

No mushroom hunting adventure is more exciting than the hunt for morels, and he who hunts the morel, this magnificent mushroom, is a very special person. In order to succeed, he is prepared to do what other mushroom gatherers don´t even think of.
This is a strange mushroom which likes the places that the other members of its family do not like, and is gathered with great passion and with a certain inexplicable feeling verging with sensuality. Every gatherer has his own secret hunting grounds which he guards jealously.
Spring is the season which makes the hunter feel restless, and as soon as he feels the time has come, off he goes, for if he is only a few days too late there will be nothing to find. It is a true pleasure to join the mushroom gatherers of Me?imurje or Gorski kotar, who organize traditional events and compete for the “Golden Morel”, i.e. the largest and most beautiful specimen. Last year, the first prize was won by a 43cm high morel of 600g, found around Delnice.
One of the ways of conserving these mushrooms is drying them.

Horn of plenty is a mushroom which practically cannot be mistaken for any other. This mushroom is difficult to find, but once you do find it, you realize a funny fact – you are, actually, surrounded by them, as if on a large, black carpet. The Swiss call it “Poor man’s truffle”, to the English it is “Horn of plenty”, while Germans see it as a “Deadly trumpet”. Regardless of its name, however mythical or bizarre it may be, it still smells divinely and is perfect when pickled or eaten cold as salad. This mushroom is at its best when dried and ground into a powder. This magic powder is then used as a spice, that secret ingredient that every mushroom expert and mushroom lover simply must have in his or her kitchen.