Croatia | Sea | Kayaking | Tours | Lifejacket Adventures - Adriatic Expeditions

Time for another Dalmatian dish and appropriate wine. This month’s serving comes from Vis Island - another stop on one of our kayaking tours.
One of the remotest Dalmatian islands, Vis is proud of its fishing heritage. Komiža Pie was a staple of the men sailing their falkuše to the rich fishing grounds surrounding the islet of Palagruža.

Komiža Pie – “Komiska Pogaca”
Dough
1 ¼ cups of warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 ¼ tablespoons sugar
3 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons olive oil
(roll dough out to be 1.5cm thick)

Filling
2 medium onions – cut in thin rings
4 garlic cloves – finely chopped
pinch salt, pepper and crushed chili to taste
fresh basil roughly chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
400g chopped tomatoes - 1 tin
1 cup tomato puree
2 tablespoons capers
4 tins sardines in olive oil and lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
Serves 6 people

In a glass bowl dissolve sugar and yeast in the water – set aside for 15 minutes.
Add flour, salt and olive oil to the mixture above – knead for 10 minutes (adding flour if necessary) – use a rolling pin, roll out on flat floured surface.
Roll dough mixture into a ball and place in glass bowl – coat dough surface lightly with olive oil and cover with a damp cloth, set aside for 1 hour.
Mix together in a small bowl, garlic, salt, pepper, chili, tomato paste, tomato puree, chopped tomato’s, olive oil and capers.
Split dough mixture into 2 portions (one portion slightly larger – for top piece of pie).
Roll dough mixture out on flat floured surface.
Coat bottom of tray with thin layer of oil - place rolled dough on flat tray.
Spread tomato mixture onto dough.
Add sardines – breaking into pieces.
Add onions.
Add extra tomato puree if necessary.
Cover with remaining portion of rolled out dough mixture.
Pierce with fork and seal edges.
Baste top of dough with a little oil.
Bake for 30 minutes @ 180 degrees Celsius or until golden.

Vugava (also Bugava)
A long, fertile valley runs down the centre of Vis Island. Winemakers produce the ubiquitous Dalmatian red, plavac, as well as the indigenous white, vugava. The numerous micro-climates of the valley mean good quantities of similar high quality grapes can be hard to grow. Vugava was discovered on the island by the Romans when they arrived. They enjoyed it so much they took vines to France with them - where it became known as viognier.

Wine Maker – Antonio Lipanović
Colour – Honey, lemon, apple juice yellow
Bouquet – Light apricot
Palate – At 14% alcohol, this is a solid yet dry wine with just the right amount of acid to add an edge to the long, clean finish.

We encountered a small problem, yesterday, as we tried to shift the boat into the shed at the boatyard. Welded to the bottom of the trailer we built are 10 trolley wheels. They are rated to 300kgs each. The boat we judged to be 5 tons. But of course 10 x 300 doesn’t equal 5000. We assumed that the wheels’ manufacturer had allowed a large safety margin with the rating. Well, we were wrong - and the wheels buckled as the forklift tried to pull the boat in. We will now have to lift the boat off and drag her in the old way - Egyptian style - on about 20 sections of pipe.

I guess there is a moral to this story…

Its a laugh when Aussies or Yanks start talking about heritage. The moment we step out the door of our apartment we are breathing the same air Roman Emperor Diocletian (236 - 316) did 1 700 years ago.

To try an give Aklie some perspective we took him, with our friends, the Smalbys, to the Split Archaeological Museum and Salona, site of the 1st Century Roman city.

The Archaeological Museum, a 10-minute walk from Diocletian’s Palace, contains many artifacts found in the Palace; in Salona, which also happens to be Diocletian’s birthplace; and in the Dalmatian Greek colonies, including Starigrad on Hvar Island. The display is small and intimate. In the courtyard there are many large stone pieces, which quickly become boring. But inside are useful day-to-day objects of typical Roman families - perfume bottles, other beauty tools, jewelery, toys, trinkets and coins. It definitely beats the London’s British Museum and New York’s Metropolitan, as you can see the relics then in the same day visit where they were dug up.

Salona is 10kms from Split. Julius Caesar gave the town status of a Roman colony in 48 B.C. and it was finally destroyed by the Avars in 639. Don Frane Bulić oversaw most of the excavations at the end of the 19th Century. We had a picnic in front of the Basilica of Manastirine and then wandered through the ruins - the town’s churches, bath’s, protective walls, main gate and bridge over the Jadran River.

The ruins of Salona represent another missed opportunity for Split tourism. Very little excavation has been done since that completed by Bulić. A Roman city of 60 000 people, about 3 times the population of Pompei, still lies under derelict houses and vineyards. The ruins host no events or festivals and its very difficult for tourists to directly travel between Split and Salona on local buses.

The above picture is Roklan sitting on a carved, stone sarcophagus for a Roman child from the 1st or 2nd Centuries AD.

It seems every new Chinese restaurant in the former Yugoslavia is called Peking (see our previous post about New Year’s Eve in Slovenia). We’d heard about a restaurant that had just opened near Trogir and that’s where we ended up for dinner.

For those visiting Split, much more information about Diocletian’s Palace and Salona is given on our Evening Walking Tours.

For New Year’s Eve we drove north to Lake Bled, Slovenia. The town had been so highly recommended by many people coming into our laundromat in Split that we decided we had to visit.

The 6 hour drive up the auto cesta from Split to Bled took us around Rijeka and Ljubljana. The thick covering of snow on the ground in Lika got us really excited. However arriving in Lake Bled we were disappointed to see not so much snow on the ground.

In Bled we booked into Hotel Berc run by Luka and his family. It is not really a hotel, but a recently built pension. Luka’s brother already runs Pension Berc across the road in the original family house.

The next day, Luka told us that the temperatures were low enough for snow-making, so Aklie and I decided to try out Krvavec, about 35kms away, for his first day of skiing. We took the gondola up the mountain (approx. 1500m), well above the day’s clouds. We had perfect sunshine the whole day. Hiring skis was a nightmare as the rental store is tiny. It would have been better to rent equipment in Bled. Aklie enjoyed his first lesson on the ‘bunny’ slope and the round-about.

That night we had steaks at Gostilna Pri Planincu, a pub with car number-plates from all over the world plastering the walls. The first thing we noted, coming from Croatia, was the lack of smoke. Slovenia now has laws banning smoking in pubs, cafes and restaurants.

Instead of driving for 40 minutes and catching the gondola up the mountain, the next morning we simply walked 100 yards to the Straža, a small chairlift in the centre of Bled. Going there not only saved time but also money. Aklie again had a lesson and when he got tired we simply walked back to the hotel.

The variety of restaurants in Split is limited, so for something different we went to the Peking Chinese Restaurant. The family which own it arrived 10 years ago from mainland China - how do you decide to leave China and end up in a small town in Slovenia? The food was good.

Not only could we walk to the ski-slope or the town’s restaurants but next door was the Hotel Golf with its heated pools, spas and slides. We dove in for the day. One indoor/outdoor pool had a view across the lake to the 11th Century Bled Castle on the opposite side.

We were invited to join 2 English families and one from San Diego for New Year’s Eve Dinner and their Talent Show after. They had bought a couple of impressive bottles of Slovenian wine during the day and made a big pot of chilli. The Talent Show went from the absurd, with a Monty Python sketch, through the depressing, with a Wilfred Owen poem, to the post-modern, with Kerry’s contemporary adaptations of nursery rhymes. We then headed down the riva, or waterfront, to drink mulled wine, set-off fireworks and countdown to midnight.

The Elan Ski Factory is a 10 minute drive from Lake Bled. Thinking that they might have a factory outlet store selling factory seconds we went over. They don’t sell seconds but they were having a sale so we bought Aklie his first pair of skis. Given that we can go skiing in Kupres, just across the Bosnian border from Split, we hope to get much use from them this year - if there is more snow than last year.

Dinner was at the Union Grill. And though the mushroom sauce arrived late, it was worth the wait.

There is an uneasy relationship between Slovenes and Croats. Croats view their northern neighbours as arrogant and rigid; Slovenes believe Croats are just lazy Balkans. On the way back to Croatia, we stopped into the BTC Shopping Centre in Ljubljana and straightaway we felt like the country hillbillies. Croatia has very little choice in goods and what is imported is usually very poor quality. Seeing the range of shops we felt like we were in civilization again.

We then hit the road and drove 2 hours to Motovun to meet Anita, who is doing the drawings for our house renovation.

Thanks to Cameron Hewitt at Rick Steve’s for his advice.

Some of our pictures.

Storm-surges of competing empires eroded Croatia into its present form and left their influences on bordering regions as they receded. They gave Croatia, a small country of about four and a half million people, a remarkable variation of traditions. This variety is reflected in the country’s food and wine.

At least every month, from Julie’s kitchen and Shane’s cellar, a food dish and wine from one of the regions will be presented.

Croatian food doesn’t receive nearly the attention it should. From the game-meat stews of Continental Croatia, through the decadent truffle-laced dishes of Istria, to the fresh seafood of the Adriatic; each region produces a mouth-watering array of culinary delights. Lo-cal, not always, but definitely healthy; it must be remembered that Rudolph Steiner, the great-grandfather of organic farming, was born in the north, and his ideals are still practiced all over the country.

Most people do not think of Croatia as a class wine producing country. But it has more than 700 registered wines and at least a dozen premium varietals.

Primošten Chicken
12 chicken thigh pieces (without drum sticks) – can also use a combination of thighs and chicken breasts
Flour for coating chicken prior to frying
Vegetable oil for frying – approx. 6 tablespoons
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons pumpkin oil (not essential but adds great flavour)
150g prosciutto or bacon
4 onions – medium - diced
6 garlic cloves – finely chopped
Salt, pepper and crushed chili to taste
3 tablespoons tomato paste
800g chopped tomatos - 2 tins
1 tablespoon vegeta (chicken stock cubes)
80ml prosek (sherry)
3 tablespoons capers
600g peas
400g potatoes – diced
Parsley

Serves 6 people

Wash chicken pieces – dry off with paper towels.
Sprinkle chicken with vegeta and flour, fry in hot oil until brown on all sides.
Remove from pan and set aside on paper towels to absorb excess oil.
Quickly fry in a separate large pot, olive oil, pumpkin oil, prosciutto, onions, garlic and crushed chili to taste.
Add chicken pieces to pot, sprinkle with extra vegeta, and pour in prosek diluted with a little water.
Add capers, peas, salt, pepper and potatoes, continue cooking until meat is tender.
Add more tomato’s and water if necessary (sauce should almost cover entire contents in pot).
Add parsley.

Babić Wine
Man’s ability to create beauty with only limited resources and an abundance of perseverance is represented in a picture of the vineyards of Primošten hung in the foyer of the United Nations in New York City. Each vine sits in its own patch of fertile earth within a framework of stone walls covering the surrounding hills. Hundreds of years of effort by the local women of this seaside town produced this inspiring quilt. Enjoy Babić, the wine which is the result of their toil.

Year – 2002
Winery – Vinoplod Vinarija, Šibenik
Colour – Garnet red with hints of orange
Bouquet – Understated musty barn
Palate – This wine is thin and light bodied, possibly due to the quantities of rain at the end of the 2002 season in Dalmatia. Austere would be a good description for its high acidity and medium tannin levels. Overall, disappointingly, this bottle was not typical of the highly berried-with-hint-of-earth-bouqueted, dry, full-bodied wines of this variety. Cellaring may round out the wine, but not likely.

The other day we decided to take a drive from Motovun to Venice just to see how far it is (according to Yahoo Maps it is 240kms) and to see if a day trip was possible.

Our route took us across the border into Slovenia, into Italy near Trieste and, after some difficulty with the typically spaghetti-esque Italian autostradas, onto the E70. We didn’t change any money before leaving, assuming that any service station that we stopped at in Italy would have one. But of course there were no ATMs in any of the stations on the E70 - and then we suddenly hit a unmanned tollbooth! Luckily it accepted one of our debit cards.

After 2¾ hours we crossed the causeway to the Tronchetto Parking Building. Its conveniently located next to a vaporetto stop.

We jumped off at Zattere and had lunch overlooking the Giudecca Canal at the Pizzeria Ae Oche. They have an interesting menu, including the ’shredded horse meat and lemon pizza’. For better quality pizza we paid less than what we would in Croatia - excellent value.

Its was amazing how crowded the city was even late in the season. The white-shoe and shiny track-suit clad groups were everywhere.

Aklie’s favorite shop, of course, was the Ferrari Store with its F2002 Michael Schumacher Formula One car in the window.

The Croatian National Parks that we have visited so far we have really enjoyed. One trip that always goes well is walking around the Plitvice Lakes, in the Lika region. The Lakes are protected on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

As the River Korana cuts its way down through the limestone of the surrounding hills its water gains a high concentration of calcium carbonate. When the water gets caught in amongst the fallen birch, ash or pine trees of the lush forest the limestone is decanted and builds up dams which eventually produce lakes and waterfalls. At the moment there are 16 large lakes.

Beauty-wise, there doesn’t seem to be a bad time to visit the Lakes. In winter, snow blankets everthing; in spring, the wild-flowers bloom; in summer, you can have a quick swim in Kozjak Lake, the main lake; in autumn, the forest changes quickly from greens to browns and reds. The only problems are the summer crowds and the entrance price which keeps going up - it was 110 kuna in 2007. The best way to escape the crowds is to use the upper trails. They make their way through hillside forests - and allow views down to the Lakes.

The Lakes are full of char, trout, minnows and carp. They gather at the edges, under the shade of the surrounding trees.

We always stay in the small village of Korana, a collection of about a dozen old traditional houses on the river just outside of the Park. The Luketić brothers have 2 guest-houses - with a large terrace on the river for evening meals. Its possible to swim directly in front of the village, except in the height of summer when the river can disappear underground.

It is a 3 hour drive from Split to Plitvice. Usually we drive to the town of Rastoke, known as ‘Little Plitvice’, on the way, for a top baked trout meal at Konoba Petro.

Given that Europe has a population density of 112 people per km² (Australia’s is 2.6) it is difficult to find remote places to which to escape. The Pelješac Peninsula is probably as rugged as it gets in Croatia.

The Peninsula sticks erection-like from the mainland, about 1 ½ hours up the coast from Dubrovnik, towards Korčula Town. Two ridges of hills run up it, creating a central valley. These hills then drop dramatically into the Adriatic Sea on either side. The great thing is that, except for existing villages, this landscape precludes too much further development.

The view above is difficult to read but what it shows is the roof of our kučica (an old donkey shack) looking south with Mljet Island on the left and Korčula Island on the right. This stretch of water is the first section of our Korčula to Dubrovnik Kayak Expedition.

Eventhough its remote, Pelješac is not wild. In fact it could be even described as civilized given that it is known for 2 things that every fine meal needs - oysters and wine.

The briny water of the gulf between the Peninsula and the mainland has for millenia been known as a source of good quality oysters. Our friend, Tony (see above), is a local oyster and mussel farmer. He spends half the year in Croatia and the other half in New Orleans, where, up until Hurricane Katrina, his family also produced oysters.

Our favorite restaurant in Mali Ston for shellfish is Kapetanova Kuća.

Plavac Mali is the Dalmatian red wine grape. On Pelješac there are 2 regions, Dingač and Postup, that are allowed to use their names on wine made from this grape variety. Our kučica sits amongst the vines of Dingač and, as the vineyards are a Croatian cultural monument, no other houses can be built. The soil and steep south-facing slopes is what makes these areas ideal for red wine growing.

A close relative of plavac mali, another local grape variety, from Kaštela, next to the Split Airport, is the same as the world-famous zinfindel from California. The man responsible allowing this discovery is Mike Grgić, founder of Napa Valley winery, Grgić Hills. He was born in Dalmatia and recently returned to open a winery in Trstenik, one of the small towns on Pelješac. Another fine drop is made by Mario and his family at the nearby Bartulović Winery.

Our hope for the Dingač Shack is to drop a moderne Dalmatian box inside the existing stone walls. The platform is designed to take in the view. The box will be clad in compressed cement sheet with Dalmatian dogs screen printed onto each panel or in timber planks such as used on a traditional boat.