From Hvar with Love

Well, sorely disappointed in the lack of actual Dalmatians on the Dalmatian Coast. Seriously, seven days in and not a one; not even 101. Closest we've got to a Dalmatian? Visor for sale in Hvar:

Hvar is a beautiful port town aimed at the luxury-seeking vacationer. It's a town with a great history, being that almost every major empire of the ancient world established, trampled, reinvigorated and/or plundered the town and the island over the last three millenium.

Bob and I on the Spanjola Fortress ramparts overlooking Hvar

You name it, they were here: Greeks, Romans. Slavs, Venetians, and for military history buffs, the Ottoman Turks came through on in 1571 on there way to the Battle of Lepanto whereupon they pillaged the town and razed it to the ground. (On a side note, October 7, 1571, the date of the Battle of Lepanto, was the same date in 2001 when U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Coincidence? I think not ...)

Later the French came through, and finally the Austrians. It was quite the destination for all the warring clans of Europe.

There are more than 200 shipwrecks from the Roman period throughout the waters surrounding Croatia, many near Hvar and the museum in the Spanjola Fortress contains amphorae retrieved from some of the wrecks. What's interesting is that archaeologists confimed these containers carries olive oil and dried fish from Roman-ruled Spain. Quite a distance to travel by boat back in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries.

Spanish amphorae

The center of Hvar is St. Stephen's Square and the Cathedral of St. Stephen, built at the height of the Renaissance. But the true center of town, and it's where the port begins, is the Arsenal:

During the 17th and 18th centuries, galleons were brought ashore, there masts removed and work completed within this wonderful building's walls.

Inside the Arsenal in Hvar

The Arsenal is now a giant theater, but what makes it cool is that in 1612, the governor of the town built on the second floor of the building a theater for both the aristocracy and the working class to attend theater together. Now the whole space has been renovated. The night we were there, a children's theater piece had been performed.

Spit-roasted lamb in Hvar. More on that later ...

OK, we had read about this one restraurant in Hvar, Zlatna školjka (the Golden Shell), and we wanted to go. Chef Ivan Buzolić is Croatia's only big international culinary judge and runs this small restaurant - 24 seats if the weather is good, 18 if it starts to rain, which it did the night we dined - located in the heart of Hvar's tourist-restaurant alleys above St. Stephen's Square.

Our waiter, Anton, or "Fluffy," as he admitted he was called in high school - "I was fat," he said - recommended the local Plavac red wine. It was dry, cherries, some tar, light tannin.

We started off with a wonderful potato salad, the mayonnaise was made with olive oil, a cherry fruit syrup vinegar, truffle oil and garnished with shaved white truffles. Rich, savory, we needed more bread to sop up the wonderful tart mayonnaise. Things only got better.

Bob ordered the mussels and I, the lobster soup. Anton told us that the basis of most of the sauces and soups was a pesto of garlic, onions and parsley in olive oil. The mussels came in a white wine broth with pieces of fried polenta at the bottom of the bowl.

The lobster soup had the look of a creamy chowder, but once you broke the surface with your spoon, it fragmented, like a miso soup, with chunks of lobster, polenta and baby shrimp dancing in the clear broth. In both liquors the garlic was strong, but sweet, with the freshness of the parsley really standing out, especially in the soup.

Bob ordered the grilled shrimp, which came served on a bed of par-boiled zucchini in a lemon olive oil, a side of mayonnaise and a warm mixed potato and zucchini salad.

I ordered up the chef's take on the local seafood stew, the Gregada. This had poached branzino, rolled around kale and sun-dried tomatoes, shrimp, limpets, clams, mussels and a certain shellfish which can't be named due to legal issues.

It was a beautiful. The seafood was so fresh that the briny taste of the shellfish softend the garlic and onions. The branzino was cooked perfectly, with the sweetness of the tomatoes complimenting the light bitterness of the kale.

Overall, this meal was totally worth the wait. We loved Hvar. I actually spent one whole afternoon at the hotel, lounging on the private pier, drinking German sparkling wine and swimming in the Adriatic. Bob believes I will figure this whole vacation thing out someday.

Next stop? Split and then onto Lake Country ...

Crossing the Pelješac Peninsula

Left Dubrovnik this morning at 10 a.m. and headed northwest across the Pelješac Peninsula towards Orebić and the ferry to Korćula.

 Bob, master of all he surveys ...

Pelješac (pronounced Pell-yuh-shotz) is wine-country and as you travel across the main highway, the D414, you wind your way from the shore into the foothills and back along the water, never far from a vineyard or a wine store. The peninsula is only about 40 miles in length and some of Croatia's finest wines are made here.

The climate is Mediterranean, and we have been blessed with mostly clear, blue skies with light clouds resting on the peaks of the granite mountain tops.  The temperature was in the low-80s with a wonderful breeze.

The view from Mali Ston's harbor

The peninsula is the home to the Dingać (ding-gatch) and Postup wine regions and to the Plavic Mali, or “little blue grape,” indigenous to the area. It’s also where giant salt flats have been cultivated for centuries and where the region’s amazing oysters, scallops and white scallops are cultivated.

We stopped in the tiny village of Mali Ston, more or less the beginning of the peninsula, and had lunch at the wonderful restaurant, Kapetanova Kuca.

Oysters from the local waters

Mussel soup, rich and savory and filled with mussels

Mixed seafood: Giant prawns, mussels, clams

 and white mussels with polenta and tagliatelle

Following lunch, we drove to Orebić, stopping at a roadside wine store high above the town for a couple of glasses of wine. Bob has the white, the Pošin, and I had two glasses of the Dingać; one from the side of the peninsula facing the bay, the other, facing the Adriatic.

Both were robust, dark, tannin with cherry flavors, but the Dingać from the seaside-facing region was bolder, deeper, with a very dry finish, very similar to a big Zin. The bayside-facing Dingać was lighter and fruitier, almost Beaujolais-like.

Maybe there’s something to this whole “terroir” thing …

Anyway, all three wines were great despite the fact we tasted them at a wine store called “Wine Shop” which had a giant wine bottle next to it:

Many Croatian wines are world class, but due to the relatively small number of vineyards and low production - some vineyards are barely a couple of hundred acres - there is barely enough product for the domestic market. Still, a great reason to visit the country, I say ...

The peninsula from the ferry

So we hopped on the ferry in Orebić and arrived on Korćula Island by 4 p.m. We're staying just outside of the Old Town. Like Dubrovnik, Korćula is a walled city right on the water. It's not as old a Dubrovnik, dating from the 10th Century, and certainly not as impressive. But it has an almost rustic charm, with its weathered limestone buildings and marble paved roads. You can easily walk the old city in 30-minutes, and take in all the sights.

Despite many recommendations, we ended up eating at a very non-traditional, contemporary restaurant in the Lesic Dimitri Hotel, overlooking the bay. We started the meal with a glass each of the Misal Prestige, an Istrian sparkling wine made with Istrian Malvasia and Chardonnay grapes. A dry, yet surprisingly rich yellow sparkling wine.

Bob had the vegetable soup, a broth thickened with mashed vegetables and small croutons; I had an order of  paški sir or "cheese from Pag Island." It's an amazing cheese and I'm going to cheat and make you go here to read about it.

However, the main event for the evening was the cuttlefish, cooked in its own ink and served with whipped potato, cream, Parmesan cheese and truffle oil, topped with a white truffle garnish. The call it "Night & Day."

It is the house specialty, and it was wonderful. Even eating it was fun, breaking through the creamed potatoes and stirring in the pitch, oily black ink. The squid was tender and very tasty. Score.

I had the lamb kabobs and Bob had a wonderfully grilled veal steak  chop. The side dish was very interesting and tasty, too: Potatoes boiled in fish stock. Not at all fishy, but luxurious, with a slight briny taste. We finished with off with another nice Dingać.

On a strange aside, the background music for the evening veered between 60s soul, "lite" jazz, some of what we thought was Croatian pop, and in one of the stranger musical moments, the theme of "Sanford & Son." Ah, American pop culture. Your reach has no end. Enjoy!