On recent international travels, I had the pleasure of dining in two of the top-ranked culinary destinations in Europe. You can probably guess one of them was France. But unless you happen to have read recent foodie travel articles or are on top of the travel documentary scene, you may not have guessed the second: Croatia. I’ll tackle France in a separate blog post, but let me be the first to tell you that Croatian food is the best-kept secret of culinary travel in Europe. Well… except of course for all of the other better-kept secrets I’m not privy to yet.
The Dalmatian Coast of Croatia is really what I’m referring to, and as it is all coastline and islands, it’s not surprising that much of their food showcases delicious fresh seafood. The highlights that really stuck out to me were mussels, squid and lots of grilled whole fish. What was a little surprising to me however, was their pizza. I suppose that Croatia’s proximity to Italy may have tipped off other food-savvy tourists, but not this gal. I foolishly thought pizza was an out-of-place tourist food, and was floored to find out that not only is it is part of the local cuisine, but it’s really tasty!
Croatian pizza features fresh and original toppings (arugula, or “rocket,” comes to mind), and chewy crispy crusts. I even now have a theory that Croatia is where the “anchovies on pizza” idea really came from, but feel free to dispute. We had pizza almost every day while we were there, and my husband and I have recently been experimenting with our own pizza in an attempt to replicate. Stay tuned for a future post where Mr. Food Adventurer shares his pizza dough recipe and techniques.
