A Croatian Feast in Zadar
On Sunday we packed our bags and headed back north to Zadar, where we would be spending our last two days on the tour. The bus ride was another long one, leaving at 9:00am, stopping in Sibenik for a brief city tour, then finally arriving in Zadar around 5:30pm and immediately getting a tour of the city there as well. The only thing to see in Sibenik was St Jacob’s Cathedral, which was nice, but to be honest I think we would have been better served driving straight through because everyone was completely beat at the end of the day. I’d been doing pretty well on the tour so far. We had a late dinner and most people went to bed. I had to find a cash machine, so I went with our guide Sid, Johnny, Joanne and Pat for what I thought was going to be a short walk to the city that turned out to be an hour and a half round trip. When we got to the hotel I was so tired I had a hard time figuring out how to open my suitcase. I had definitely hit a wall, and I was not really looking forward to the next (and last) day of the tour at all. I think if I had a chance to fly home at that point I would have.
I’m glad I didn’t, because the last day turned out to be the best day of the entire trip. We got back on the bus at 9:00am and headed for the harbor, where we boarded a ferry and took a two hour trip to the small town of Sali on Dugi Otok (“long island”). I was so tired that I overslept and missed breakfast, so I was a little concerned that I was going to crash again if we had a lot of walking to do.
As with every other stop on the tour, there were people on the island we knew and they were waiting for us. In this case it was Tony, his wife Neva and Valerie and her children. Tony and Neva spend half the year in Ballard and the other half in Sali, in a home that has been in their family for four hundred years.
The house is literally two flights of stairs from the harbor, and across an alley from a small church. They had set up tables for us on the small courtyard in front of the church, and after everyone got seated sat down and the two hour parade of food began.
As with much of Europe, in Croatia lunch is the big meal. There are usually several courses, including appetizers, soup (we had soup several times this trip, even though it was over 80 degrees), the main course and dessert. Dinner is around 8:00pm (if you’re still hungry) and is usually leftovers from lunch.
Every lunch starts with platters of meat, including fresh prosciutto, cheese and olives and fresh bread.
Around that time Peter walked up the stairs with the fresh sardines, which had been sitting in the water of the harbor waiting for our arrival. A fire pit was created (which we all thought was pretty funny given that it was over ninety degrees), and the sardines were put on skewers and sprinkled with sea salt. Here you can also see how close they are to the harbor - it's just behind the tree at the bottom of the steps.
As the sardines were being prepared the pasta came out and cucumber and tomato salad came out, followed shortly by fried chicken.
Then we hear “Freedom fries!”, and what we thought were the french fries came out. These were cut like steak fries, but instead of being in an oven they appeared to be boiled with some kind of meat and drizzled with olive oil. Then the real french fries came out, along with the zucchini, prepared with garlic and olive oil.
At this point I was already too stuffed to continue, so I took a pass on the zucchini and sardines (I’m also not a sardine fan).
Then, just when we thought we were done, Neva comes out with bowls of freshly made frittes (don’t know if I spelled that right). The best I can describe them is to say they’re similar to donut holes, but that doesn’t do them justice. They’re nowhere near as heavy - they’re so light they’re almost like cotton candy in your mouth.
I had a couple of these, but at this point I was in a food coma and had to just sit in my chair for a few minutes to take it all in. It was around 2:30 at this point and the performance (the last one on the tour) was scheduled for 7:00pm so we had some time to walk down to the nearby swimming hole for a few hours and relax.
At 5:30 everyone had to head back to get ready for the performance, but first everyone stopped by the local ice cream shop, where Tony had arranged for everyone to get free ice cream with, as he says “a roof on top” (dipped in chocolate). I really couldn’t eat anymore, but of course Peter had room. Oh to be ten years old again.
I was able to say no to ice cream for probably 45 minutes before Tony showed up. As he made rounds we joked that he must be the mayor since he knows so many people, but on an island of 800 everyone knows everyone. He eventually made it to me and asked me if I’d had any ice cream. I told him I hadn’t, but I was eventually talked in to it when it became clear that by turning it down I was being impolite. So I had a scoop of lemon-flavored ice cream and we all headed back up to the house.
When we got there the tables were covered with a least half a dozen different kinds of homemade cookies.
Eventually several others joined in, including Katherine Morovich.
The whole performance went really, really well - the best I’d seen on the tour. After it was done everyone had to run up to the house, gather our things and run to the harbor to make it there in time for the catamaran back to Zadar. Before we left I poked around the corner and saw that Tony had invited the people who were at the performance to his house and they were all seated at the table eating the leftovers.
It was an incredible meal, and it was all home made. The chicken, pasta and sardines were made while we were there, and all of the vegetables including the potatoes were from their garden. The wine was home made. Even the olive oil they used was home made.
All I can say is that if you can go through a day like that and not be sold on what Croatia has to offer, you can’t be sold. Many thanks to Neva, Valerie and Tony for being such great hosts. I look forward to seeing you when you’re back in the states!
