At this year’s Eko Etno Tour, international fair of tourism, tradition, enogastronomy, products, services and events in rural areas, the G.E.T. Report crew prepared a gastro show titled “Croatian cakes – Champions league”.
It all started a year ago, while at Dalmatia Wine Expo in Makarska, we met Vedrana Vela Puharić, who gave us an excellent presentation of Makarana cake. Right off, we started comparing it to Imotski cake, not knowing what a huge rivalry those two have. One of the great unsolved gastro questions in Dalmatia is: “which of these cakes is not only better, but older and thus more original?” Both cakes have nearly identical ingredients. They differ somewhat in color and appearance.
So we at the G.E.T. decided to arrange a cake duel.
The Makarana cake was provided by Vedrana Vela Puharić (in fact, made by her husband, Slobodan Bobo Puharić), while the Imotski cake was provided by the well known Dujmex company.
To complicate things for our jury, we combined the two cakes with three proseccos from the wineries “Pelješki vinogradar” of Kuna Pelješka, “Vinoplod” of Šibenik and “PZ Vrbnik”.
So the jury had to decided which one is better and afterwards which prosecco goes better with which cake, so we get a perfect match.
The jury was compoed of five members. Only four decided on the victor, as our friend Ribafish was quite late to the event. Others presetn were:
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Bojan Hohnjec, professional chef and editor of Gric-gric portal
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Loreena Meda, caterer and Gastrokomadi project founder
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Dijana Katica, Eko Etno Tour fair organizer
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Ivana Rora, PR manager
As the jury tasted and deliberated, the G.E.T. Report crew invited others to the tasting, so there was quite a crowd.
Along with the two mentioned cakes, we treated the jury and audience to cakes from the renown Cukarin pastry craft from Korčula. Although the Korčula pastries weren’t competing, it was deliberately so, but more on that later.
When the tasting of indigenous delicacies was in its prime and the jury was ready to deliver, a small discussion ensued, moderated by G.E.T. Society president Tomislav Stiplošek. The topic was quite interesting.
So, the Korčula Cukarin pastries and Cukarin brand is the best known in terms of indigenous cakes. Madam Smiljana Matijaca, whom we spoke to recently, gave up on further copyright protection of her products, since the name is used all over despite the protection. There is a cafe in Split named Cukarin, although its employees and probably owners as well, have no idea what it actually means, but it sounds good.
The Dujmex company standardized the Imotski cake, producing it both as a cake and as a souvenir and geographical protection is under way.
However, it is still a large effort by individuals. Neither Smiljana Matijaca nor Ljiljana Dujmović are getting much help from institutions, when they should be. These are the people guarding Croatian cultural treasure. Since our politicians often use the line “From seventh century Croats live here”, they should wonder – “What did those Croats eat and what is their gastro culture?”
Maybe the greatest example of absurdity is the way we received the Makarana cake for this event. The cake is protected as immaterial cultural wealth of Croatia, thanks mostly to Vedrana Vela Puharić, and although the city of Makarska received certain funds for the promotion of Makarana cake, not only did they not fund Vedrana’s trip to Zagreb for a personal presentation of the cake, but the cake itself was provided by Vedrana and her hsuband from their own mean . for which we are immensely grateful, as we are to Dujmex company and Cukarin.
You get it by now, the idea of this show wasn’t about which cake is better, but to warn of the relation institutions have toward these quite valuable parts of Croatian heritage.
As a reminder: we also have the Krk cake, Rab cake, two indigenous cakes on Brač, Trogir cake, an entire line of Cukarin cakes as well as a large number of salty pies such as soparnik. As the media are reporting on the battle between Terrano and Prosecco, we hope not to have the same about our cakes.
Which is why the G.ET. Report crew can announce this is just the first of activities meant to point to the need for protecting our indigenous cakes and pastries. We hope to be able to gather them all in one place soon and present them to the public. Who knows, maybe at the next Eko Etno fair?
Coming back to the jury, their decision was: in this duel the Makarana prevailed, but only by nuances. With the Makarana, the jury chose as a perfect match the prosecco from “Pelješki vinogradar”, made from Mali Plavac grapes.
Keep following, as the project “Croatian cakes – Champions league” keeps going.
Read the original Croatian article here.
