Croatian Food : What is traditional Croatian food?

If you are looking for Croatian cookbook move on because here I won’t talk about recepis, rather I will point out which Croatian dishes are not to be missed. Once you start your Croatia gastro tour you will probably find many more and no one blames you, Croatian food is just amazing!

What is Croatian national dish? There is no one correct answer to this question. Croatian cuisine is complex and every region has its own traditional cuisine.

Due to Croatia’s turbulent history you will find influences of Italian, Austrian, Hungarian and Turkish traditional food depending in which part of Croatia you find yourself.

In the mainland you there are Austrian and Hungarian influences, Turkish tastes are familiar along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina while Croatian coast is related to Mediterranean cuisine similar to Italy.

Nowadays you will find traditional Croatian food from all regions prepared by experienced chefs in Zagreb or Dubrovnik restaurants therefore you don’t need to make a big Croatia tour to get the taste of everything. However, Croatia is full of small family owned restaurants which serve freshly cooked traditional food typical for the specific region.

croatian cooking — Croatian cooking: Seafood
@ivankernjus

Along the Croatian coast, as you cloud guess, main food comes from the sea. You can try a wide variety of grilled fish, shrimps, shells, squid and octopus.

If your Croatian holiday takes you to the coast I would definitely recommend trying “hobotnica ispod peke” in other words octopus slowly cooked in its own juices in stone oven under large metal or ceramic lid. This is not an everyday meal and even in Croatian restaurant it is always recommended to order in advance.

traditional croatian food — “hobotnica ispod peke”
@saricevidvori

For meat lovers, don’t worry, Croatian coast is not all about fish. In most coastal villages, Croatian islands, Dalmatian hinterland and Lika very popular and incredibly tasty traditional dish is “janjetina”. It is lamb, roast whole while on a spit.

While on the coast it is not all about fish, we could definitely say that Croatian mainland is all about meat, pork being number one.

If your way takes you to Slavonia region you should definitely try some of traditional smoked meats, in particular Slavonian sausages.

Typical Croatian food found around Croatia capital Zagreb is “purica s mlincima” or roast turkey with mlinci (homemade thin dried flatbread).

croatian national dish — “purica s mlincima”

One traditional Croatian dish which is commonly found all over the country and that it due to its Turkish origin is called “sarma”. Sarma is sauerkraut leafs stuffed with combination of minced meat,rice and spices.

Finally, when it comes to Croatian desserts I will introduce two of my favourite croatian sweets – “kremšnita” and “fritule”.

Some can argue that “kremšnita” is not Croatian in origin but it definitely is part of traditional Croatian cuisine. Despite its many variations it is basically whipped cream and custard cream dessert with pastry top. If your way takes you to the charming city of Samobor you should definitely try this dessert in one of local restaurants.

Second one, “fritule” is deep fried ball shaped dough which resembles little doughnuts . It a simple traditional Croatian dessert which is lately experiencing its come back as one of the favourite street food sweets in Croatia.