By picking the Dubrovnik region for your vacation, you have picked a top gastronomical destination. Plavac Mali is a well-known Croatian red wine named after the grape variety cultivated on the Pelješac peninsula. The island of Korčula is specialized in excellent white wines and olive oil production. Regional cuisine is delicious and varies from frog and eel specialties in the Neretva region and oysters in Ston to meat specialties in Konavle and finger licking sweets.

WINE

Great location, fertile ground and lots of sun are turned into grand wines. If you are more into red wines, Plavac Mali is up your street. It is named after the grape variety cultivated on the Pelješac, the best vines are on locations Dingač and Postup. If you are more into white wines, we recommend wines from Korčula: pošip, rukatac and grk. The last variety is cultivated on sandy soils near Lumbarda.

OLIVE OIL

We are not going to preach you how olive oil is very healthy and nutritive, but we are going to mention that olive oil production has a very long tradition on Korčula island, especially from varieties drobnica and lastovka.

LOCAL SPECIALTIES

It will take you at least a week to try all typical meals from the region. Some specialties are only found in a certain part of the region so it all depends on your location and preferences. If you are in the Neretva valley, try frogs and eels in brudet (stew) or grilled, Ston boasts with oysters and Konavle with meals prepared under peka (a cast-iron dome placed over coals to slow-roast). Everywhere you can try seafood specialties – fish, squids or octopus.

TRADITIONAL SWEETS

We will start with the simple ones, bruštulani mjenduli (whole almonds fried in sugar), arancini (sweetened orange peels) or krokanat (ground fried almonds with sugar).Typical pastry sweets are prikle/fritule and kroštule, kontonjata is a dessert with boiled quinces. Korčula has its share in klašuni, cukarini or lumblija, and Ston celebrates makarula cake. The champion of sweets is rožata or rozata, sweet cream with eggs, milk and sugar cooked on steam. The French know it as creme caramel, and this version is peculiar thanks to the added rose liqueur, rozolin – hence the name rozata.

 

Visit excellent restaurants and konobas to check the validity of our claims!

Text is taken from Dubrovnik – The Riviera and islands by J. Žilić, D. Pek and F.Kozina