We have a friend who travels around there. At the moment he's visiting Canada but as I know he checks his emails while he's away I'll forward him your request and we'll see if he comes up with a list for you Netla.

Till later,

SharonCb

Thank you, Sharon.

One of my colleagues is from Croatia & she returns there to visit every other year or so. I'll ask her for suggestions as well.

Nina

Thanks, Nina. I'd appreciate that.

Anything for my favorite Icelander ;-).

I've just spoken with my colleague and she was delighted to help. She knows all three areas that you're visiting quite well.

For Split and Dubrovnik you're going to want to try the seafood, especially the mussels. The seafood is expensive but incredibly fresh. Then again, you may be no stranger to incredibly fresh, unspoiled seafood in Iceland. But she says that the seafood is well worth it.

As for Mostarm she said that you must try the japrak (pronounced yaprak) which are stuffed collard or wine leaves. Also the grilled meats. And you must, must MUST have the grilled sausages on a pita with gracy, onions and ricotta. She was emphatic about this. This is traditional to Mostarm & originated there.

She also says that you will want to visit the bridge. 500 years old & built by the Turks (Mostarm means "old bridge) it connects the two sides of the city. Each side is completely different from the other; one being Turkish & Muslim and the other being Christian. You will want to see both sides of the city.

The bridge was partially destroyed during the civil war but has been rebuilt. She showed me some pictures, complete with a man diving from the peak of the bridge into the river. If you pay him, he'll dive for you. But they can only dive off of one side of the bridge. Diving off of the other side is fatal.

I hope that this helps. If you have any questions I'll be happy to ask her.

Nina

DH spent some time in Croatia and Bosnia.....well off the coast of the two areas. He was on a nuclear sub in the 90's and they were over there watching the shelling and destruction of the area. It was one of the saddest things he said he saw. They were close enough to see much of the Seriavo area from telescope depth. Sorry can't help but just thought I would add DH's experiences.

Stacie
girlsingardens

Sigh, I was reading your description of japrak, prounounced yaprak. Your friend said they were stuffed collard or vine leaves. My family is Greek and we always called the famous stuffed grape leaves yaprakia, not dolmas. Sounds so similar to what your friend was describing. I was in college before I realized that most Greek restaurants and festivals call the stuffed grape leaves dolmas or dolmathes, not yaprakia. My mother's parents were from a Greek village in Asia Minor. I wonder if the close proximity to Turkey is the connection.

When I was there 40 years ago it was called Yugoslavia! We drove from Austria to Greece down the coast and there were very few restaurants outside of the bus stations! And grocery stores had very little fresh food. Several little inns served us very fresh grilled seafood if they had anything. We ate lots of goulash, at the bus stations, and canned soup and tuna zat out campsites. Nevertheless it was glorious scenery and very adventuresome. We went several weeks without speaking English except with each other but managed to make ourselves understood. Thanks for the memories, Netla. I'm sure your trip will have much better food!

Thanks for the recommendations and memories, and please keep them coming. I will definitely try the seafood and other dishes mentioned. It seems that the cuisine in the area around Mostar has been heavily influenced by Turkish cooking, which I love. The Dalmatian cuisine seems to be more similar to that of Italy, which is just heavenly. I foresee that I am not going to lose any weight while I am there...

Apparently you can still see quite a lot of ruins from the war in Mostar. Dubrovnik was also badly damaged, but it has been almost totally rebuilt.

My parents were going to visit Yugoslavia one time and were in fact almost at the border when the war broke out, so they never did visit. I'll be bringing back some memories (and souvenirs) for them.

A couple more things to try in Mostar:

The Burek- pastry stuffed with potatoes & ground meat.
The coffee- on both sides of the river. On the Muslim side it's called Turkish coffee & the Catholic side it's called espresso. Very strong, served with sugar cubes. You can out the cubes in the coffee cups or dip the cubes in the coffee, then place the cubes in your mouth while you drink the coffee.

Meanwhile, my husband wants me to track down the sausages for the pita/gravy/riccotta concoction.

Stacie- funnily enough one of my good friends was also doing a Med cruise aboard a nuclear sub during the 90's. I think that the sub was the Theodore Roosevelt?

Shambo- How interesting! I'll bet that you're right, that your yaprakia were so named as a result of the Turkish influence. I find this sort of thing fascinating (and unfortunately it makes me hungry).

Nina

There is a Bosnian Restaurant near me, but I haven't been to it yet. I would probably try the lamb kabobs and some of the desserts. I think the desserts are possibly the best things on the menu, but the salads and grape leaves look very similar to Greek or Romanian. You should also try some local cheeses, although I don't know which ones. I've had some very good ones from Bulgaria. I've also had blueberry juice from Bulgaria, and so you might want to look for local fruits and especially juices. However, I don't think people go there for the food and it doesn't seem to be a very popular cuisine outside of that region.

Lars

Netla, I don't have time to read the entire thread now (I'll be back!!) but feel free to email me through GW. and I'll post more later, but...

I was in Croatia 10 years ago visiting a friend who lived there for about 10 yrs (she's in Turkey now). I was in Split, and the islands Solta, Hvar, and Korcula...

My friend just got back from holiday there this month. I'll ask her for restaurant recommendations.

But my do-not miss was palincinka for dessert!

Elizabeth/ Bizzo

Thanks everyone. I am writing down your recommendations to take with me.
I'm counting down the days until I go, and trying not to overpack.

Nina,

My DH was on the USS Sandlance when he had his Med cruise. He did tell me that watching the bombing from the distance, was one of the worst things that he witnessed. All the destruction of the structures built for the Olympics and all the homes in ruins. He also got sent down to Cuba to help send back the Hattian refugees, he said some of them were trying to get to Florida in old cast iron bathtubs and anything that could float.

Stacie
girlsingardens

I've never been to Croatia, but the town we live in has a very large Croatian community. Our local Croatian butcher shop makes the sausages, Sigh. They're called cevapcici (chevapchichi in pronunciation). We love them grilled, on flatbread and the fixings like gyros... yum!

And I second Palancinka (again the ch sound). They're basically blintzes, or crepes but with a bit higher egg content, filled maybe with a sweet cream or farmers cheese, maybe with fruit preserves. But they can also be made with a savory filling. My Polish family calls them Nalesniki.

Netla, I'm jealous! That's a trip I'd love to take.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cevapcici

Netla I was able to talk for a few moments with our friend who is now in Canada when he stopped at my brother's house. He recommended the same as Spacific.....Cevapcici ( I'll leave out the accents)....sausagelike patties made of ground beef and ground lamb, Raznjici..a skewer of cubes of veal & pork interspersed with bay leaves. Both originated in Serbia and are cooked on skewers over smouldering branches of grapevine.
I've had the verson of these made in our local Austrian restaurant and they are both delicious. The third dish both he and Spacific recommended we have also had.....Palatschinken, (German spelling) the lovely dessert of thin pancakes rolled up around apricot jam filling, sprinkled with chopped walnuts and fine confectioners' sugar.

More than that I wasn't able to glean from my short conversation with our friend as he had only a few moments at the conference with me.

SharonCb

If you're looking for local authentic food in Dubrovnik, look no further than a seafood restaurant. Prawns are very popular (locally called skampi), and you can either get them grilled or "na buzaru", meaning stewed in a tomato-based sauce. Grilled squid, octopus salad, whole grilled fish, squid ink risotto, brudet (an acidic tomato based fish stew, served with polenta), etc. As for meat, anything grilled is typically good but spit-roasted lamb is a local delicacy and popular. Also, anything cooked "ispod peke", or "pod pekom" is to die for. It's a method of slow-cooking where the cooking vessel is covered by a clay dome and coals/ashes are piled on top of the dome. The food falls apart and the taste/texture is out of this world. Try the local prosciutto (prsut) and any local cheeses. The most famous croatian cheese is a sheep's milk cheese from the island of Pag (called Paski sir), but anything local is going to rock your socks. Also, look out for figs. they're everywhere and cheap. Croatians are flabbergasted that figs cost a small fortune in this county :) And eat as many local tomatos as you can, because nothing I've tasted in this country comes close. Check out the local food markets, typically called "pijaca" but be prepared to get there early. For quick, cheap grub, cevapcici are the way to go as others have mentioned. They're grilled ground lamb/veal patties served on a pita, usually with chopped onion and a condiment called ajvar (red pepper & eggplant puree served with everything like ketchup, but tons better). Sorry for the stream of concsciousness but it's too hard to explain a country in a paragraph :)

And as for burek, it'll give you a heart attack but it's well worth it. I never had the meat-stuffed kind, but I love the cheese and apple versions. And no meal would be complete without turkish coffee (not the same as espresso), and palacinke. And find an ice cream (gelato) shop -- amazing stuff.