Croatian food and drinks

What to eat

Any list of starters should begin with pršut, a home-cured ham from Istria and Dalmatia, which, at its best, is a real melt-in-the-mouth delicacy. It's often served on a platter together with cheese: paški sir from the island of Pag is the most famous – a hard, piquant cheese with a taste somewhere between parmesan and mature cheddar; sir sa vrhnjem (cream cheese) is a milder alternative. Kulen, a spicy, paprika-laced sausage from Slavonia, is also worth trying. Soups (juha) are usually clear and light and served with spindly noodles, unless you opt for the thicker krem-juha (cream soup).
One starter that is stodgy enough to serve as a main course is štrukli, a pastry and cheese dish, which is common to Zagreb and the Zagorje hills to the north. It comes in two forms: kuhani (boiled) štrukli are enormous ravioli-like pockets of dough filled with cottage cheese; for pečeni (baked) štrukli the dough and cheese are baked in an earthenware dish, resulting in a cross between cheese soufflé and lasagne.
For a comprehensive list of Croatian food and drink terms, see "Food and drink".

Meat dishes

Main meat dishes normally consist of a grilled or pan-fried kotlet (chop) or odrezak (fillet or escalope). These are usually either pork or veal, and can be prepared in a variety of ways: a kotlet or odrezak cooked na žaru will be a simple grill, bečki odrezak (Wiener schnitzel) comes fried in breadcrumbs, pariški odrezak (Pariser schnitzel) is fried in batter, and zagrebački odrezak (Zagreb schnitzel) is stuffed with cheese and ham. Mješano meso (mixed grill) appears on all menus and will usually consist of a pork or veal kotlet, a few ćevapi (rissoles of minced beef, pork or lamb), a pljeskavica (a hamburger-like mixture of the same meats) and maybe a spicy kobasica (sausage), served alongside a bright-red aubergine and pepper relish known as ajvar.
Lamb is usually prepared as a spit-roast. In sheep-growing regions (Cres, Rab, the hinterland of Zadar and Split) it's quite common to see roadside restaurants where a whole sheep is being roasted over an open fire in the car park to tempt travellers inside. One way of preparing diced lamb that's typical of Istria and the Adriatic islands is to cook it ispod peke – placed under a metal lid that is covered with hot embers and slowly baked. Stewed meats are less common than grilled or baked ones, although goulash (gulaš) is frequently employed as a sauce served with pasta. A main course associated with Dalmatia (where it's traditionally considered a special-occasion food eaten on the big holy days, although it's perfectly common in restaurants) is pašticada (beef cooked in vinegar, wine and prunes). The most common poultry dish is purica z mlincima (turkey with baked pasta slivers), which is indigenous to Zagreb and the Zagorje. Other meaty mains include punjene paprike (peppers stuffed with rice and meat) and sarma (cabbage leaves filled with a similar mixture). Arambašica, a version of sarma found in the Dalmatian hinterland, contains more meat and less rice.

Salads, accompaniments and desserts

You'll usually be offered a choice of accompaniments with your main course: boiled potatoes, chips, rice and gnocchi are the most common. Indigenous forms of pasta include fuži in Istria, šurlice on the island of Krk and mlinci in Zagreb and the Zagorje – the last are lasagne-thin scraps of dough which are boiled, then baked. Additional vegetables can be ordered as items from the menu. Croatians eat an enormous amount of bread, and you'll be expected to scoff a couple of large slices with your meal regardless of whatever else you order.
The most common salads are zelena salata (green salad) and mješana salata (mixed salad). Other popular side dishes are gherkins (krastavci) and pickled peppers (paprike). Fish dishes are usually accompanied by blitva (mangelwurzel), a spinach-like plant indigenous to Dalmatia, served with boiled potatoes and garlic.
Typical restaurant desserts include sladoled (ice cream), torta (cake) and palačinke (pancakes), which are usually served sa marmeladom (with marmalade), s čokoladom (with chocolate sauce) or s oresima (with walnuts). In Dubrovnik, try rožata, the locally produced version of creme caramel. A slastičarnica is another place to find ice cream, cakes and pastries, including baklava, the syrup-coated pastry indigenous to the Balkans and Middle East.

Breakfast and snacks

Unless you're staying in a private room or a campsite, breakfast will almost always be included in the cost of your accommodation. At its simplest it will include a couple of bread rolls, a few slices of cheese and/or salami, and some butter and jam. Mid- and top-range hotels will offer a buffet breakfast, complete with a choice of cereals, scrambled eggs and bacon. Few Croatian cafés serve breakfast of any kind, and they don't usually mind if you bring along bread buns or pastries bought from a nearby bakery and consume them alongside your coffee.
Basic self-catering and picnic ingredients like cheese, vegetables and fruit can be bought at a supermarket (samoposluga) or an open-air market (tržnica). Markets often open early (about 6am) and begin to pack up in the early afternoon, though in well-touristed areas they sometimes keep going until late evening. Bread can be bought from either a supermarket or a pekarnica (bakery). Small outlets may offer a simple white loaf and little else, although you'll usually be offered a wide choice of breads, ranging from French sticks through wholemeal loaves to pumpernickel-style black breads. You'll have to point at what you want though: names of different loaves differ from one place to the next. A pekarnica may often sell sandwiches – filled most commonly with ham, cheese or pršut, Croatia's excellent home-cured ham.
For snacks, look out for slastičarnice selling burek, a flaky pastry filled with cheese; it's delicious when fresh, although it can be stodgy and greasy if left standing for too long. For a more substantial snack, try the traditional southeast European repertoire of grilled meats: ćevapi, ražnjići (shish kebab) or pljeskavica, all of which are often served in a somun – a flat bread bun which is rather larger than a standard Western-style burger bun. Although these basic grill snacks will be on the menu of all but the grandest restaurants, they're at their best in the unpretentious fast-food places you'll find clustered around markets and bus stations. For an excellent light lunch, look out for the traditional working-man's food of inland Croatia, grah (or fažol in Dalmatia), a delicious soup of paprika-spiced haricot beans (grah literally means "beans") with bits of sausage or pljeskavica added. While in Istria, look out for maneštra, a rich bean and vegetable soup which often includes sweetcorn.

Drinking

Drinking takes place in a kavana (café) – usually a roomy and comfortable place with plenty of outdoor seating and serving the full range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, as well as pastries and ice creams – or in a kafić (café-bar), essentially a smaller version of the same thing, although usually catering to a younger clientele. The word "pub" is frequently adopted by café-bars attempting to imitate British, or more often Irish, styles; these places will probably have Guinness adverts on the walls and a familiar range of Irish brews on tap. Both cafés and café-bars open extraordinarily early (sometimes as early as 6am) in order to serve the first espresso to those going to work, although alcohol isn't served until 9am. Closing time is usually 11pm, although regulations are often relaxed in summer, when café-bars stay open much later. You can also find coffee and soft drinks in a slastičarnica (often also the best place to find freshly made lemonade), although they're often less atmospheric than a kavana or a kafić and may close earlier in the evening. Few Croatian cafés of any kind serve substantial food except for the odd sandwich.
Most Croatian beer is of the light lager variety. Karlovačko and Ožujsko are the two most common brands, although the less widespread Velebit from Gospić is probably the best. Domestic dark beers include Tomislav from Zagreb and Osiječko Crno from Osijek. Certain foreign brands – Stella Artois, Tuborg and Laško (from Slovenia) – are made in Croatia under licence. Guinness and Kilkenny are the most common foreign beers you're likely to find served on tap in café-bars and pubs. Whether you're drinking beer in bottles or on tap, a malo pivo (small beer) usually means 30cl and costs 12–15Kn, a veliko pivo (large beer) is a half-litre and will set you back 15–25Kn. Bottled beers are slightly more expensive.
Croatia produces an impressive range of red and white wines, few of which find their way onto Western supermarket shelves. Among the dry and medium-dry whites, look out for Vrbnička Žlahtina from Vrbnik on Krk; Vugava from Vis; Semion and Malvazija from Istria; and Kaštelet, Grk and Pošip from Korčula. Of the reds, the dark heady Dingač from the Pelješac peninsula has the best reputation and is the most expensive, although Babić from Primošten and Viški plavac from Vis are frequently as good, as is Teran, a fresh, light red from Istria. In shops and supermarkets table wine sells for about 25–50Kn per litre bottle, while a decent Dingač will set you back about 90Kn. Popular wine-derived drinks include bevanda (white or red wine mixed with plain water), gemišt (white wine and fizzy mineral water), špricer (white wine and soda water) and the eternally popular summer tipple bambus (red wine mixed with cola).
Local spirits (žestoka pića) are commonly consumed as an aperitif before meals and are usually produced from grapes (in which case they're called loza or lozovača) or from other fruits – the most common of these being plum brandy (šljivovica) and pear brandy (vilijamovka). Grape-based spirits are often given additional flavours and have health-giving properties, notably as travarica (herb brandy), medovina (honey brandy) and orahovača (walnut brandy). Pelinkovac is a juniper-based spirit similar to Jaegermeister, vinjak is locally produced cognac, and maraskino is a cherry liqueur from Zadar in Dalmatia. Biska is a mistletoe-flavoured aperitif from inland Istria. Foreign brandies and whiskies are available pretty much everywhere.
Apart from the vast urns of overstewed brown liquid served up by hotels at breakfast time, coffee is usually of a high quality. It is served as a strong black espresso unless specified otherwise – kava sa mlijekom comes with a drop of milk, kava sa šlagom comes with cream, and bijela kava (white coffee) is usually like a good caffe latte. Cappucino is also fairly ubiquitous. Tea is usually of the herbal variety; ask for indijski čaj (Indian tea) if you want the English-style brew. Čaj sa limunom is with a slice of lemon, sa mlijekom comes with milk.
In the best cafés coffee is served with an accompanying glass of water; otherwise feel free to ask for one. Mineral water and other soft drinks are often served in multiples of 10cl or dec (pronounced "dets"). If you want 20cl of mineral water ask for dva deca, 30cl is tri deca. If you want fruit juice, note that the word đus ("juice") usually means orange juice.

(Source: The Rough Guide to Croatia by Johnatan Bousfield)