The restaurant which serves only štrukli.
The word comes from German der Strudel. In different parts of Croatia, they are called different names, and the Croatian standard language accepts both variants – štrukle and štrukli. This Croatian delicacy has inspired three young men not to wait for a job in their line of work, but to launch a small business of their own, reports HRT on April 18, 2016.
The most important ingredient, if you want to make a truly good štrukli, is a fresh and good quality cheese. So, let us just for a moment leave the main players of this story and visit the lady who sells cheese at the local market. Marija Kamenarić from the vicinity of Križevci has eight cows, and she brings fresh cheese and sour cream to the Zagreb’s Dolac Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. “Our mothers and grandmothers taught us how to professionally taste the cheese: it is important that it is not too sour, and the well-drained one is best for štrukli”, says Marija. She explains that štrukli is not difficult to make – you just need to knead the dough, put the cheese and eggs on it, fold the dough and bake it.
It does sound simple, but it really is not. It is much easier to walk a couple hundred metres away from Dolac and order them at a local diner. The diner is a unique place, not only in Zagreb but also in the country, as they do not serve anything but štrukli. You would expect that the three young men who opened the restaurant a year ago are chefs, but they are just fans of the most famous Croatian sweet or salty treat.
It is a true skill to make this special dish, as the dough should not be too soft, but just supple enough. Višnja Horvat is an expert who has been making pastry for 20 years. She has perfected the art of baking sweets, but now she only makes štrukli. In addition to the classic cheese štrukli, both sweet and salty, there are blueberry štrukli, apple cinnamon, nuts, honey, pumpkin, peppers, chard, truffle štrukli. The latest addition are those with cabbage and with sausage. “We are always trying to find something from this area that would be a logical choice for štrukli filling. Next, all three of us taste the new recipe. I make the dough at home and fill it. If it makes any sense, I let the guys try it and if it’s good – it’s good.”
The restaurant already has its regular customers, those who come at least once a week for homemade štrukli, but the real season starts in the summer when 80 percent of the guests are foreign tourists who want to taste Croatia’s traditional cuisine.
