pougal

2 foodie couples off to Split, Hvar and Dubrovnik in Sept...any recommendations?

croatiantravelady

The Dalmatian Coast does not have what I consider gourmet food, if that's what you mean by foodie. It is basic and simple, herbs used are garlic, onion, parsley, salt and pepper. Fairly simple food, however our seafood is fantastic. My favorite is Adriatic squid, it turns pick when grilled and is very tender. Of course you could try the lamb cooked under the "peka". This dish must be ordered 24 hours in advance at the Orhan Restaurant.
The most interesting place to eat in Dubrovnik is Gils, they serve typical French gourment meals, with a splash of Croatian. Very upscale and expensive.
Dobrodosli

travel2live2

I'm probably the biggest foodie there is! (And a professionally-trained chef). Plus I love Croatia so will try to help you out.

I love the food in Croatia - my favourites, too, are peka, grilled squid, squid ink risotto, and the ultimate white truffles. If you are there in late September/October you may be able to find some fresh white truffles on menus. We've gone truffle hunting, too, which is a foodie's dream come true. You may not have as much success with locating truffle dishes as you are staying in the south - they are found in Istria.

Another favourite is fresh lobster. One dish we had in Dubrovnik (cannot recall the restaurant name, though) had whole lobster poached in champagne and butter and served with a bourbon sauce. Fantastic!

If you get a chance try prsut - better than the Italian prosciuotto in my opinion. Pag cheese is another specialty (from Pag Island).

Istria has some wonderful wild game dishes as well as roadside spit grills. Yummmmmm!!!

Mathieu

I too love to eat but I must say that I didn't find any of Split, Hvar or Dubrovnik to even slightly resemble any gourmet capital.

But...excellent fresh fish, simply grilled with salt, pepper, butter and garlic (all or none, as you prefer) is available in restaurants and better still, along the coastal roads on grills and spits under small canopies. Look for the rising smoke and you'll find them.
I didn't need fancy gourmet offerings when I could have had that. Enjoy !

rogeruktm

So, is that it? You go on a trip just to eat? Sorry, don't get it.

Mathieu

I don't, but some people do, and more power to them if thats what a holiday means to them.

Some go just to Golf, or to ski, others just to relax on a beach, still others just for the museums, or to shop. Golly, some even go for a little bit of everything. Whatever it is, to each their own.

travel2live2

Although I don't think that there is much gourmet in Croatia per se I still do maintain that white truffles are about good as it gets!

I've flown for meals and/or ingredients before - I travel for food (and for many other reasons, too).

travel2live2

Gourmet food is definitely not all real foodies hanker after - that is just part of it. We seek fresh, local food cooked with love, using interesting and unique and rare ingredients. Sometimes it may be cucina povera, sometimes street food, sometimes it may be Michelin starred food. I've eaten at Alain Ducasse in Paris, for example, as well as French Laundry. Although they are high on my list of great food they are not at the very top.

We have a passion (obsession) for food in general and love to learn more about food in context of that particular culture and history. Travel and food go hand in hand. It is not always just the food but the experience as well.

I usually cook extremely high-end food 5 nights a week because I yearn to learn more about techniques and hone my craft and skill. Ingredients inspire me - like most foodies I would imagine. Just wanted to offer a bit of an explanation...

rogeruktm

Thanks travel2live2, however, I still find it hard to understand. I don't expect people to do as I do, but when I travel food is very low on my list. I am 70 years old, 6' tall and I weight 160.

I usually eat a bowl of cereal in the morning with black coffee. Lunch would be a pint of beer and a sandwich. Dinner, much the same.

Now if it is a special birthday or the like I would go out for a nice meal. Also, I do not do fast food joints. As an aside I had my blood pressure tested this week and it was 120 over 68. Not bad.

So, not to be mean, are you a large person? The reason I ask is many of my friends are really into good food and most are on the tubby side and are often not well.

travel2live2

It's about the same as someone who has an obsession with sports or cars, for example. My husband has flown to Toronto to watch hockey games. We've flown to Scotland for the Open.

I am a passionate person and as such am passionate about many things. It definitely keeps me from ever becoming bored!

rogeruktm

Golf is good!! However, I am having trouble breaking 80 these days. Getting older doesn't help. Thanks for you up beat reply.

Mathieu

Travel2: Its the same with me. I've had a very keen interest in food since a young age (I'm not a chef but know a lot about it from self learning) and the variety of component ingredients to be found the world over, and always try to incorporate the interest in my travels.
The eating of it is only a fraction of the food experience, as you correctly point out, and I don't really eat a lot of it either, for all the love of it. At 5'10" and 185lbs, running 3 times a week, eating healthily and in small portions, to the point of not having to think of it takes care of any possible weight issues.

Having lived in and traveled to so many diverse parts of the world, I enjoy seeking and finding different varieties of the same food in opposite corners of the globe - guavas, for example in Kenya, Hong Kong and Peru. Different shapes, sizes, colours, tastes and scents, yet all still guavas. Or the variety of Bananas in say Uganda, Antigua and India. Cashews in India and Africa, Corn (maize) in Zimbabwe and Canada. All similar, yet so different. And the same goes for food prep across the world - so many different ways of preparing the same dish, and each known by a different native name.

Its all fascinating and fun to observe, inbetween exploring the sites and sounds of a destination.

tara3056

Ah, foodies and non-foodies, and never the twain shall meet. I'm a food-lover myself (it's maybe not quite the BEST part of travel for me, but it's pretty close and I definitely enjoy our vacation dining immensely) and completely don't understand people who AREN'T food-lovers! Just as Roger doesn't understand people like me. I don't care whether a meal is from a Michelin-starred restaurant or from a street cart, so long as it's really good, and eating poorly in a city like Paris (just an example) is a surefire way to put a bit of a damper on an otherwise wonderful day.

My daily meals aren't *that* far off from Roger's. For breakfast, I always have 2 pieces of toast with tea. But the toast is an artisanal whole-wheat bread with delicious Kerrygold butter (none of the fake stuff for me, ever)... lunch is very light - maybe fruit, yogurt, possibly a sandwich if I'm quite hungry. Dinner could be anything from pasta with duck ragu (which I spend nearly 3 hours making, and which is worth every minute, every single time) and a spinach salad, or steak with some kind of pan sauce, or even just hamburgers (but with homemade mayo, grass-fed beef, home-grown tomato, etc.) You get the picture. I think you're either a sensualist or you're not and whichever side you're on, you can't totally understand the other. In addition to caring about food more than almost anyone else I know, I also love fine perfumes, nice soaps, and when I go clothes-shopping, I'm constantly touching all the fabrics to check their textures.

For what it's worth, despite using plenty of butter and heavy cream in my cooking, I am 5'7" and weigh 133 lbs (very much in the healthy range; size 4-6). My cholesterol is also very good.

travel2live2

Just because we foodies (I still don't like that word - it is inadequate to capture how deep the passion really is) love food and love to eat does not mean we are all overweight and unhealthy. In fact, many eat smartly and make good choices as part of the eating experience. Sure, I also cook with lots of butter and cream, have duck (with fat), oxtail and lamb regularly, saute some foie gras, etc. but you can still have balanced meals doing that.

Mathieu, I believe that self-taught chefs can be just as good (if not better than) trained. There are tons of celebrity (and non) chefs that do not have culinary school degrees/diplomas. Becoming a chef did not make me love food more or even be a better cook - I had all that before. I went to school (at 30 years old) for better skills and techniques (I did not want to work in a restaurant, either, as I did not want to be married to a job). Now I teach classes and cater small parties on my own time.

Anyway, isn't food grand?? I could talk about it all day long.