Dalmatia – food and drinks

As usually in all our trips, Dalmatia was no exception. Enjoying local food and drinks was an essential part of the trip.

We did this both ways by preparing at home products we bought on the market, sea urchins caught by ourselves in the sea, and also by visiting restaurants, cafes and vineyards.

Testament drink producers

It sounds strange – to go to Croatia to visit a business run by Scandinavians. But as it turned out later, the drink we had bought there ended up being the best on the trip.

Testament winery is located about 3 kilometres from the main road of the region D8, the nearest town is Zaboric. The basic idea of the winery is to combine technology with the knowhow of the best winemakers to create rich and complex drink from the Dalmatian region.

We had written down their address before travelling, just in case, but we did not plan to visit it; the tasting of three drinks costs more than 13 euros, which is not that little money at all. However, it happened to be the only chance to buy something to drink with dinner in the late afternoon.

The drink was of very good quality, we took it without tasting; just told the sellers what we are planning to cook for dinner. As it turned out, our purchase was very successful. In any case, we liked the grapes grown in northern Dalmatia better than the ones cultivated in the middle part, although, probably, a lot depends on the method of fermentation (more on that below).

Saricevi Dvori country pub

For a special and more substantial dinner, we chose the Saricevi Dvori country restaurant, which is located further from the sea between Grebastica and Rogoznica (you have to drive at least three kilometres along mountain roads with a beautiful view towards the Adriatic coast).

Like most restaurants in Croatia, this is a family restaurant. It prepares Dalmatian dishes according to traditional methods, using cooking recipes proven over the centuries. And of course, hot dishes are prepared in the large ovens that are found in every self-respecting restaurant in Croatia.

The restaurant is proud of the gold medal won for the particularly high quality of the food. And what’s positive, high quality in this case does not mean a high price – after a well-enjoyed dinner, the bill was very reasonable.

It is offered to wash down everything eaten with the local famous Babic red fermented grape juice, but we were not particularly excited about it.

Two things I especially like about the Croatian menu – they eat a lot of seafood, a lot of meat and even more meat. The main dishes are prepared (fried) in the oven in large dishes, the name of the dish would normally include word ‘peke’ at the end.

If you happen to be nearby, I recommend you to try the oven-baked octopus (‘Hobotnica ispod peke’ in their language), veal (Teletina ispod peke) or mutton (Janjetina ispod peke). The mutton has a lot of fat, this should be taken into consideration if you want to order it; pork is also tasty, of course, but you can’t get octopus everywhere across the country. Usually you can order fried or grilled squid and mussels – almost in every restaurant in Croatia.

You can also taste different types of goulash and meat platters, but it’s all too much for one occasion, unfortunately. This restaurant also does their best for the well-being of the vegetarians (but not vegan) audience by including a couple of appropriate dishes in the menu, although we didn’t even notice such audience in Croatian restaurants – majority are enjoying seafood and meet dishes.

Matosin vineyards

Of course, it depends on everyone’s taste and habits, but we prefer French and Italian drinks. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try something else, so we went to the mountains for a drink tasting.

In one of the evenings, we decided to go to the Matosin vineyards, which are located quite far in the mountains and the driving is on country roads, even with only one lane in both directions. The place is remote, so we didn’t even meet anyone driving towards us.

This was probably the longest trip away from the regional D8 road, more than 10 kilometres. I have to say right away – the drink is okay, but not in our style. However, the place is fantastic. We also saw the sunset there. The sun setting in the Adriatic Sea over the grape gardens – something fantastic to watch. It also contributed to the positive memories about this place.

I mentioned earlier that I would say something more about the drinks of this region. The main difference is that local Babic grapes are grown there. They may be very good, but as we found out, the juice fermentation methods differ from those usually used in Europe. The main difference – the juice fermentation process takes place in barrels, which by its nature is a closed container (I don’t remember what this method is called).

As a result, the drink smells and tastes a bit like hydrogen sulphide. To be honest, it only has been worse in Japan, where the drink had a definite acetone smell.
As I said, it’s about personal taste preference. I know there are people who really like this type of drink.