Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Coastal Cuisine
For most sun-seeking holidaymakers, this is the food they'll mainly encounter - and it's
absolutely delicious. The food on the coast is indistinguishable from Dalmatian cuisine:
lots of grilled seafood, garlic, olive oil and Italian-style dishes.
Be sure to try the fish soup
(riblja čorba)
, a tasty clear broth that usually includes rice.
Grilled squid
(lignje na žaru)
is always an excellent choice, the crispy tentacles coated in
garlic and olive oil;
punjene lignje
is served stuffed with
pršut
and
sir
. Nearly 400 years
of Venetian rule has left a legacy of excellent risotto and pasta dishes. Black risotto
(crni
rižoto)
gets its rich colour and subtle flavour from squid ink and includes pieces of squid
meat. Seafood risotto can also be white or red (made with a tomato-based sauce) and
served hot or cold.
While all of these dishes make filling mains, at a formal dinner they're just a precursor
to the grilled fish. In most fish restaurants, whole fish
(ribe)
are presented to the table for
you to choose from and sold by the kilogram according to a quality-based category. Local
varieties tend to be small but tasty; the bigger ones are probably fresh but imported. Fish
dishes are flavoured with wild herbs such as laurel and parsley as well as lemon and gar-
lic. The traditional accompaniment is a delicious mixture of silverbeet
(blitva)
, mushy
boiled potato, olive oil and garlic, often referred to on English menus as a 'Dalmatian gar-
nish'.
MONTENEGRIN WINE
Montenegro's domestic wine is eminently drinkable and usually the cheapest thing on the menu.
Vranac
is the in-
digenous red grape, producing excellent, full-bodied wines. It's traditionally aged in walnut rather than oak barrels
and its history goes back an extremely long way. Illyrian Queen Teuta is said to have been particularly fond of the
drop and encouraged its production in the 3rd century BC. Locally produced whites include chardonnay, sauvign-
on blanc and the native
krstač
.
