Next to the Adriatic Sea, you would of course expect to have fresh seafood. We were hoping we would and were not disappointed! As luck would have it, we ate oysters in Mali Ston literally 200 ft from where they were cultivated. They were so good that we went back the same night to have more for dinner. It was my birthday so I could eat as many as I wanted, and managed to pack away two dozen!
For dinner, after the oysters of course, the waitress brought out a red snapper that was fresh off the boat from earlier in the day. When we said yes, it was prepared on the spot for us and we later learned it was almost a full kg of fish! These were just some of the highlights and great memories for us from the many wonderful meals we enjoyed in Croatia. We were told to look for some specialty dishes on one of the tourist sites, so we made the effort to find them. After all, trying specialty dishes and unique treats is all part of the experience of traveling to exotic destinations, isn’t it? It’s fun too!
Oysters, oysters and more oysters
When you drive by Ston and Mali-Ston you see what look like fields of buoys in the water. At first we were wondering what these were when it hit us: Oyster cultivation! It reminded us of the pearl farms we had seen in French Polynesia. Indeed, each restaurant and perhaps each home has these a hundred or so feet out in the bay and the oysters are basically brought in each morning. To be any fresher you’d have to eat them underwater!
Octopus salad
We tried this a couple of times and each time we enjoyed it. Cut up grilled octopus with bits of tomatoes, cucumber, onion and spices.
Fresh grilled squid
These were some of the best we’ve had. We asked if they were marinated or pounded to make them so tender and got a strange look from our waitress who said: “Well no, they are simply fresh from this morning. They are always tender when fresh.” I guess the ones we’ve been eating haven’t been!
Oysters with balsamic vinegar pearls
We found this gem of a place in Trogir where they prepared the food in a special enticing way. Raw oysters with white and black pearls of balsamic mixed in for a delightful presentation.
Salmon with lemon, honey and thyme
We stumbled on this at our hotel buffet in Split and enjoyed it so much that we talked to the chef—he explained the slow cook process to us. The salmon is basically marinated in lemon and honey with thyme sprinkled on top. We also had some with black pepper but preferred the thyme. The honey lemon gives the salmon a soft and delicate flavor. It was served cold.
Beetroot
Mashed and mixed with barley made for an interesting side dish and added a pop of color to the plate!
Salt-crusted fish
In this Mediterranean dish the fish is completely covered in salt before cooking and the process keeps the fish moist and juicy. Crack the salt crust open when ready and remove the skin and excess salt before eating. We tried this dish for the first time in Croatia and found it very tasty.
Beef Tomahawk
Ok, being my husband’s birthday we went to the waterfront restaurant and ordered the beef tomahawk for two. Unfortunately this was a big waste as there was no way to finish what came out as almost 1kg of meat! It was also not like a rib steak we might have at home. Not as tender, somewhat chewy and perhaps more like a roast. We took what we could with us in a small container and made lots of cats happy the next day.
And now for the deserts…
Kremsnite (our favorite)
A special custard-filled pie with a flakey pastry top and bottom and an optional layer of whipped cream under the top layer. 
While the true pedigree of this desert is unknown and you can find it across Europe, Croatia is well known for having some good spots for it. It’s a wonderfully light pastry filled with an inch or more of thick custard. In some spots we found it with a thin layer of whipped cream on top of the custard, but not always. The flakey pastry on top has a little powdered sugar on it and the crust is not quite as thick as a mille-feuille but has a similar texture. We first tried this in Split, but we had to try it multiple times in multiple locations (to ensure quality control of course!).
Trogir Rafioli
Shortbread cookies with a sweet almond filling traditionally prepared for celebrations and holidays.
Cottage cheese and yoghurt
My first thought, not a mix I would contemplate but being a traditional Zagreb combination we had to try this. Makes for a good taste and the Croatians mix in all kinds of stuff like mini figs, raisins and nuts for a high protein meal.
Miniature dried figs
They looked about the size of large raisins but when we looked up close we realized they were mini figs. These were meant to sprinkle on porridge or cereal in a breakfast area at our buffet. Excellent!
Strukli
This too was a Zagreb specialty but we may have tried it at the wrong place. It’s a cottage cheese pastry but we found the one we tried to be a little greasy and not particularly good. Think cheese danish without sugar and lots of oil.
Ice cream
With Croatia being so close to Italy we were hoping that the ice cream would be as good as Italian gelato. We did sample this many times (to be sure!) and our experience was mixed. The smaller town ice cream parlors were exceptional, certainly close if not as good as what we sampled in the gelato shops around the pantheon in Rome! That said, some of the heavy tourist areas that had ice cream bars open (even some of the highly rated spots) were a letdown and tasted artificial, overly sweet, and at the same time lacked the taste that a good gelato should provide. However, I had one in Zadar that tasted like a bowl of frozen strawberries with just enough ice cream to hold it together. Delicious!
555 candies
These were supposed to be specialties in Zagreb but we actually found them in Dubrovnik at a gas station. It’s a hard candy not much different then jolly ranchers or lifesavers. Nothing to write about so we’ll stop there 🙂
Sumi Monsters
Ha, ha! Ok, so really just fruit jellies in the shape of monsters but since we were missing our cat, Sumi, we found these amusing.
Overall, Croatia was a great destination for gourmet dining. We had meals for half, or even a quarter of the price they would cost in Miami, and the quality was excellent!
Related post:
- Croatia Road Trip: a Self-Guided Adventure
- Top 5 Things to Do in Dubrovnik, Croatia
- Top 5 Things to Do in Split, Croatia
- Top 5 Things to Do in Zagreb, Croatia