Croatian coastal cuisine

G'day Masticators,

I have just finished a week sailing along the Southern Dalmatian islands and coastline of Croatia... and it was as tough as it sounds.
Eat, read, sunbake, eat, swim, read, drink, eat. Repeat.

Cuisine from the Croatian coastal region is strongly influenced by Mediterranean Italy with the widespread use of olive oil (++), garlic, fresh seafood and herbs. The amount of variety of pizzas & pastas available are almost as common as anywhere within the Italian borders, however seeing as I was on the coast (and had already OD'd on pizza & pasta in Italy - see previous post!) I was determined to make the most of the fresh & varied seafood on offer.

Dalmatian cured ham & local cheeses - obviously very similar to Italian antipasti

Octopus salad

Seafood Spaghetti - including prawns, scampi & mussels - so fresh, so tasty!

Stuffed squid with vegetables & chips (they were stuffed with a crab meat and rice filling - yummo!)

Grilled squid served with swiss chard (Silverbeet) & potatoes

Grilled sea bream and potatoes

Seafood platter

Fruit and fish markets in Omis

Soparnik - a Croatian swiss chard pie baked under hot ashes and rubbed with olive oil and garlic, often prepared for special occasions i.e. weddings.

Apple Strudel - Austrian influence continues to be strong within the pastries, as Croatia once belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire (1867–1918).

Pivo = beer. I might have sampled one or two.

Red wine and sunset, Mljet National Park

I am en-route to Greece tomorrow so get yourselves ready for some mezze, moussaka & feta overload!
- CW x

Ingesting Italia

G'day Masticators from sunny Split,
Apologies for the lack of postings lately, but after a few computer hiccups I am finally back online and ready to go.

Italian cuisine (which I'm sure needs no introduction) is noted for its regional diversity, abundance of difference in taste, and is known to be one of the most popular in the world, with influences spreading to all corners of the globe.

Ingredients and dishes vary by region. Many dishes that were once regional, however, have proliferated with variations throughout the country. Cheese and wine are a major part of the cuisine, with many variations and Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) (regulated appellation) laws. Coffee, specifically espresso, has become important in Italian cuisine.

After my Sicilian chow-down, I spent 2 weeks wandering around Naples, the Sorrentine peninsula, the Amalfi Coast and finishing up in Roma for 4 days.
Here is the fruits of my labour after trawling through the many trattorias, ristorantes, pizzerias, pasticcerias & enotecas (wine bars).

Colazione - (Breakfast)
Italians don't tend to eat a sit-down breakfast, perferring instead a cappacino and cornetto (croissant) at a bar.


Pranzo - (Lunch) & Cena - (Dinner)
Lunch is regarded as being the most important and is the heaviest Italian meal. Most shops close down in the pausa di pranzo (lunch break) between 13.00 and 16.00, and most people, even workers, come home to have a meal with their family, often inviting friends and relatives to come along. Dinner is usually a lighter meal (traditionally) in Italy, and locals usually dine out at dinner in Italy rather than at lunch time.

Traditional structure of Italian meals

Apertivio
The aperitivo opens a meal, and it is virtually the same to an appetiser or drinks given at the beginning of a meal. Many bars in Rome provide spreads of apertivio with the purchase of a beverage.

Antipasto
The antipasto is the slightly heavier starter course. It is usually cold (not in all cases) and lighter than the first course, but heavier then the apertivio. Cold meats and hams (salami, mortadella, Parma ham etc.), cheeses (mozzarella, scamorza), sandwich-like foods (panini, bruschette) are usually eaten.

Procuitto & mozzarella

Bruschetta pomodoro

Toast with mozzarella, anchovies & cherry tomatoes

Seafood Antipasti platters

Primo
The primo is the first course. It is hot food and heavier than the antipasto, but lighter than the second course. It usually consists of non-meat or fish like foods. Examples of things which would be eaten at a primo could be risotto, pasta and spaghetti, soup and broth, gnocchi, polenta, crepes, casseroles, vegetables, vegetarian-like lasagnas, pizza, or grilled/fried courgettes/aubergines/artichokes.

Pasta
Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Orichette with spinach

Penne with tomato & aubergine

Spaghetti vongole (with clams)

Pizza
Pizza is the most popular and best known creation of all Neapolitan cuisine.


Real Neapolitan pizza must be cooked in a wood-fired oven, hand-made by an able pizziaiolo who makes the dough disk thinner in the center and thicker in the outer part; the ingredients and olive oil are rapidly spread on the disk, and with a quick movement the pizza is put on the shovel and then slid in the oven where it is turned around a few times for uniform cooking.

Woodfired pizza oven (forno a legna)

Proscuitto & funghi pizza

D.O.C. pizza - essentially Margherita pizza (Mozzarella di Bufala , basil & tomato base)

Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are typically made with tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese. They can be made with fine ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius, and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, made with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio in a semi-wild state (this mozzarella is protected with its own European protected designation of origin - D.O.C).

In 1889, during a visit in Naples, Queen Margherita of Savoy was served a pizza resembling the colurs of the Italian flag, red (tomato), white (Mozzarella) and green (basil). This kind of pizza has been named after the Queen as Pizza Margherita.

Primavera pizza

Neapolitan tuna & olive pizza

Secondi
The secondo is the heartiest and main course of an Italian meal, sometimes called the piatto principale or the main course/meal. It is made up usually of meats and fishes, including turkey, sausage, pork, steak, stew, beef, zampone, cod (baccala), salmon, lobster, lamb, chicken, meat lasagna or a roast.

Tuna steak

Rack of lamb

Insalata
Tomato & rocket salad

Dolce
After the secondo there is the dolce, or dessert. It is popular, and meals eaten here depend by region and occasion. Common ones include tiramisu, panettone, pandoro, zuppa inglese or panna cotta. Gelati or granita can be eaten too.


Tiramisu - one of the most popular Italian desserts, made of cake dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks and mascarpone, and flavored with liquor and cocoa.


Sfogliatelle - a flaky pastry filled with sweet cinnamon ricotta native to Naples.


Panna Cotta - an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. It is generally from the Northern Italian region of Piemonte, although it is eaten all over Italy, where it is served with wild berries, caramel, chocolate sauce or fruit coulis.

And guess what... MORE gelati!

Vino
Red wine served chilled in carafes... who can say no?!



Phew! I guess there's a reason I'm feeling a little bit chunkier after all that! Croatian post coming in the next day or so.
Until then, CW xo

Scrumptious Sicilia

Just over a week in Sicily means been thrown head first into the guts of raw, honest & incredibly fresh Italian cuisine. Much of the island’s cuisine encourages the use of fresh vegetables such as eggplant, peppers & tomatoes, and fish such as tuna, sea bream, sea bass, cuttlefish and the ever-impressive swordfish.



Sicilian cuisine as a whole shows traces of all of the cultures who at one point or another over the last 2 millennia have called the island their home. Although its cuisine has undoubtedly a predominant Italian base, Sicilian food also has Spanish, Greek & Arab influences.

Supermarkets in Sicily are usually devoid of any fresh produce whatsoever, with locals preferring to visit the daily markets to choose the freshest ingredients to take home.

The markets in Catania (Sicily’s 2nd largest city) are commonly known as the largest on the island. As Catania features a large port, the majority of produce for sale at this daily market is seafood with huge varieties of the catch of the day. Its outer edge is populated by vendors selling fruit, vegetables, delicatessens displaying all manner of cheeses (pecorino, parmesano reggiano, ricotta, mozzarella etc) and meats.

The hustle and bustle of the fish market

Sardines
Octopus
Sea Urchins



Swordfish (Pesce Spada) - the tail end is cut into thin steaks for crumbing and frying with a smidge of parsley and lemon. Yummmmm.


The Ortigya market, although on a smaller scale, is also worth a mention. It features a throng of shops offering a similar range of products for sale similar to Catania, however the stallholders definitely do not hold back in asking you to taste test some of their goods. Huge chunks of cheese of differing types and ages (with little plastic cups of vino blanco in between to help cleanse the palate – of course!), incredibly sweet & juicy cherry tomatoes, a lesson in where to find the best cut of prosciutto straight off the bone, sampling freshly made pesto and capsicum relish on bread… let’s just say we went a little AWOL with the market purchases and definitely did not need lunch after. However the fruits of out labour were dutifully transformed into a fantastic rooftop terrace antipasti spread.

Proscuitto off the bone



Amaaazing tomatoes



Mozzarella
Ricotta


Our market buys...


... turned into antipasti with a view (credit must go to Amy & Alana for amazing presentation, and to Matt for doing the dishes!)

A common Sicilian primi (1st course dish) is Pasta all Norma. This is a regional dish from the Catania area and features some of the fresh produce grown in the region. The basis of the sauce is tomato, basil, eggplant and ricotta.


So simple & tasty that I even tried to have a go in making (although in true backpacker style in using what I had, mine unfortunately excluded the basil & ricotta but included marinated local olives and tuna!)



Another area the Sicilians seem to know a thing or two about is street food – and it seems everything delicious available on the street tends to end in an ‘I’.

Cannoli – not to be confused with the pasta dish Cannelloni, these are biscuit pastry tubes, filled with sweet ricotta cheese (ever-so-slightly flavoured with cinnamon) and decorated on each end with candied fruit of some sort.


Aranchini – hardly need an introduction I’m sure. The Ionian coast (eastern coast of Sicily) serves them in a large conical shape, the most common flavour available is ragu – with portions of melt-in-your-mouth beef, Bolognese sauce with vegetables and to top it off chunks of melted cheese scattered throughout. A meal in itself!



Gelati – De.Lic.Ious. Trying to limit myself to one per day which I know sounds a bit OTT but when in Rome... or Sicily! Gelaterias advertising ‘produzione propria’ are the ones to go for – meaning the gelati was made on the premises. A somewhat different but very common way of eating gelati in Italy is in a brioche (sweetened bread) roll. Not bad!





Granita – (I know doesn’t end with an ‘I’ but close enough) is a semi frozen dessert of sugar, water and flavourings originally from the island. Granita is closely related to sorbet and very refreshing in the summer heat.

Coffee granita

I now head to Naples (the birthplace of pizza) and the Amalfi Coast to sample some Southern Italian deliciousness, and then to Rome to hopefully get a cross section between the north and the south.
Until next time, ciao! x