Bread, pasta, pizza, seafood, and beef choices in four languages populate the typical Croatian restaurant menu that might, even by chance, serve a tourist. Place to place, the prices seem to vary more than the choices.
Big white slabs of thick, golden crusted bread arrives shortly before most non-pizza entree choices. If the bread has that bland cardboard like taste and feel, olive oil is the only option. The small oil bottle is often slotted in with a red wine vinegar bottle, salt, pepper, and toothpicks in a small carrying tray delivered to the table along with a small bread plate holding a napkin and utensils. Otherwise, the table would be bare except for the ashtray placed carefully in the center. Bread seems to be play the starring role at typical breakfasts. If a lodging place offers breakfasts, the thick slabs are served with a choice of butter, cream cheese, or jam. The nicer place may offer cheese and some meat slices.
Due to the Roman empire and the later 700 year Venetian rule over the Croatian coast, the Italian influence is strong on Croatian cooking. Hence, the pasta choices are Carbonara,Milanese, and Boulanaise (sp?). Closer to the Italian border in Istria, gnocchi was popular too. Risotto often providentially appears, usually cooked with squid, mixed seafood, or mushrooms. The squid with black ink risotto is a Croatian specialty which didn’t taste that special to me. The mixed seafood risotto, though, comes with delicious, strongly flavored bright orange mussels, scallop morsels, and shrimp and sprinkled with parsley. Garlic never plays an overpowering role in any dish and sometimes doesn’t come near it.
Eating Croatian pizza is more difficult than eating American pizza. For one, you have to use a fork and knife as the pizza crust is very thin and so the middle would just collapse. Second, the pizza is served whole in either a small (about 50% bigger than a pan pizza) or large version so no slice grabbing allowed. Croatians use less cheese and only mozzarella and more bland red sauce on their pizzas. They also often avoid more than three choices on a pizza although extra topping choices are available. Not too many exotic topping choices except anchovies and capers figure more prominently. In Opatija, I ordered a “four flavor” pizza once where the pepperoni, green pepper, caper, and mushroom were carefully segregated into their respective quarters and desegregation was not successful due to the cheese. In less than two weeks, I’ve eaten more pizza that I have in two years and so I’m done with pizza for a while. Pizza is relatively cheap here at about US$7 for a small with three toppings.
Whole grilled fish served with a lemon on the side and some olive oil is a popular although expensive choice in Croatia. As a solo diner, it is hard to estimate the cost and size when the menu choice lists the cost per kilo of the fish but brem (a very bony, small fish), red mullet,bass, and tuna are the typical options. The restaurants have nailed grilled squid every time I have eaten it but don’t know about the calamari as it looks too breaded to me.
Starting in the early 19th century, the Austrian Hungarian empire began to rule much of coastal Croatia and unfortunately began to influence Croatian cuisine. Wiener schnitzel, breaded veal, pork loin, rump steak, and other heavy Germanic type food served with french fries, boiled, or mashed potatoes dominate the meat choices. There are some grilled pork choices but with the same sides. The pork loin in Rovinj was startlingly bland. I’ve seen chicken on the menu occasionally but usually served cordon bleu.
Salads are usually just a side dish although some restaurants do offer a main entree choice with either chicken or tuna. The side salads usually are either green, tomato, cucumber or mixed which is the combined version. Unfortunately, the dreadfully bitter red raddiccio seems unavoidable in most salads – even in the green salads! No choices in salad dressing beyond the olive oil and the red wine vinegar.
On the whole, the dining experiences have been quite pleasant in Croatia. My favorite dining experience by far was after a trying 7 hour bus ride (1:30 to 8:30 pm) from Trieste, Italy down to my present location in Zadar, Croatia on Friday. I went to eat about 9:30 pm to the place the taxi cab driver to the hostel had recommended and later found in snooty Fodors. It was packed with two large parties but they squeezed me into a two top off to the side of a U shaped arrangement for a large group. Ten Croatian men singing Croatian songs to the accompaniment of a guitar and a smaller, banjo-like one had their backs to me as they serenaded the U-shaped group of 30 people – many of whom sang quietly along as did the other diners. The quality of the singing was surprisingly good with one strong baritone conducting the various harmonies and supplying the missing words on some of the later stanzas. They really got into the singing with two of the guys falling to their knees to sing to each other at one point. When the appetizers came, they stopped singing and rejoined their group although they sang again later. Since it was so late, I had the restaurant’s “combo” platter of their appetizers which featured some famous Croatian specialties. My plate included Dalmatian ham (like a smokier prosciutto), Pag cheese named after the town of Pag (like a stronger parmesan), tuna pate (which has become quite my favorite option when available), octopus salad, and some spinach with garlic.
As they ate, the diners in the larger group didn’t really interact much at all which I found rather strange. My extremely nice waiter told me that they were all from a Honda dealer which had just opened a store in Zadar and the baritone singer was actually quite well known in Croatia. Who knew? I left at about 11 and some of the group’s diners had that glazed “when can I get out of this business dinner?” look to their faces but the main entrees were just arriving! Popular dining hours are after 8 here (most restaurants are deserted until then) for dinner and restaurants never seem crowded at lunch hour.
Wait staff is attentive and usually speak enough English to answer any questions. They don’t try to upsell the diner by asking if there will be any sides, coffee or desserts nor will they provide the bill until the diner requests it. I haven’t had much success in identifying a good Croatian white wine but I can vouch for the smooth Croatian vodka. Based on various samplings, Croatian beer doesn’t have much of a chance to become a global phenomena.
Croatian menus probably need to have the global languages on their menu since 20% of their GDP is from tourism and Croatian isn’t exactly lingua franca of the world. Each dish has the Croatian name and then followed in varying order but usually starting with the country flag of Germany, Italy, and Great Britain and, very rarely, Russian. Clearly, history and economics play a role in the what and how you eat in Croatia. Too bad the Chinese never got around to Croatia during their long history!
