Islands

Gastronomy

The coastal and Kvarner islands' cuisine, owing to the Mediterranean and maritime influences (Opatija riviera, Town of Rijeka, Crikvenica and Vinodol Riviera, islands of Krk, Cres, Rab, Lošinj, Susak, Unije, Ilovik..) is based on fish, sea-shells, crabs, cephalopods, or lamb's meat, pasta, Mediterranean vegetables and fruit, spices, olives and olive oil, chestnuts (maruni), and wine. Fish and sea food, sheep and goats, grapes and wine, laurel, rosemary and spices, figs and olives, boiled fish/meat and grilled dishes, cultivated and wild-growing vegetables, asparaguses and tomatoes, grape and herb-flavoured brandies, imprint a primordial mark of Mediterranean cuisine. The recipes, the local population is so proud of, were created at home, by the fireplace, where bread, young lamb or kid used to be prepared under the baking lid, and all other dishes – polenta, boiled fish or meat, pasta or maneštra (thick vegetable soup) above the fire. Still today smoked ham and cheese get dried above the fireplace – to be caressed by the smoke. Octopus is dried in the sun and wind, cheese and fish are cured in salt, one layer of fish, one of salt, one of fish again... In some places the fish is sopped in olive oil and it is thus preserved. Olives are preserved in a salty solution or refried in the oven, after they macerated in the sea for a while. No problem for those with a sweet tooth, either. Here you can nibble the sweet kroštule (sweet knots, fritters) with almonds, fig-cakes made of dried figs and nuts with a few drops of grape brandy, the famous presnac with cottage sheep cheese (skuta), and can also enjoy in sweets made of juicy, big, sweet Lovran cherries, and especially with the many kinds of sweets prepared with Lovran chestnuts.