Meals from Dubrovnik, Croatia

I have been in Croatia for about a week now. I was expecting a bit more Mediterranean vibes with the food. But there was a lot of hearty Eastern European styled things. A lot of cheese. A few observations:
1. I was in a hotel and ate breakfast and lunch there pretty much daily (here for a work event). The hotel breakfast was amazing. There was smoked salmon, mackerel, and anchovies daily. There was also a little salad bar with radicchio, arugula, green leaf or mâché.
2. Balsamic and olive oil were on every table
3. Fish was typically served with potatoes. A traditional side was a mash with spinach or chard and potatoes. I’ve got that with the octopus.
4. Croatian restaurants generally all have the same foods. Some combo or pizza, a few pastas (typically a seafood one, a tomato sauce one, and the 3rd was highly variable. There were usually 3 risottos – the cuttlefish one (black risotto), a seafood one (most often shrimp) and a veggie one. Then a couple of grilled fish options. And a steak and lamb chops. And a chicken fillet.
5. I missed my hot sauce. It was nonexistent.
6. Croatian bread is tasty. A soft fluffy texture with a firm crust was most typical. There were sometimes whole grains. And sometimes seeds. Not a sour bread.
7. The food from other parts of Croatia were very very hearty. Lots of phyllo like pastry stuffed with cheese and meat or potatoes (burek). And Cevapi are a grilled ground meat like sausage thing from Bosnia. Quite yummy. And served with Kajak which is some clotted cream like cheese and Ajvak – a red pepper sauce. The Bosnian grilled breast I had was amazing.
8. Lots of steps in the old city. Not ADA friendly at all.
9. I got giant figs. There was a lovely mini farmers market in old town with peaches, apricots, cherries, strawberries, tomatoes, and figs.

I mostly enjoyed the food, but didn’t realize how limited farm land is here. There wasn’t much variety in the available produce. The portions were also giant. And way more cheese than my system is used to. Looking forward to coming home and having less dairy. 🙂

These are in no particular order, just a few stills I took this week.