At the Hvar Arsenal, as part of the 15th edition of the Dobar Kus event, selected restaurants, taverns and cafés from Hvar, Palmižana and Velo Grablje presented dishes which Croatia’s sunniest island wants to show to the world as a successful combination of traditional and contemporary cuisine, reports Dalmacija Danas on May 13, 2019.
About twenty exhibitors participated with their dishes in the event held as part of the celebrations of St. Prosper – the co-patron saint of the town of Hvar. The plates full of sea delicacies, workers food, fish dishes and innovative recipes attracted hundreds of local and international visitors. The skills of the chefs were evaluated by international culinary judges from the Chefs of the Mediterranean and European Regions (ŠKMER) – Željko Neven Bremec, Marija Lulić and Nikša Ivičević. Each bite was accompanied by some of the finest wines brought to the Arsenal by leading Hvar winemakers and guests from Slavonia and Istria.
“Dobar Kus is a wine-and-dine event that celebrates St. Prosper, as well as the traditional and new Hvar gastronomy and wines. It was also an opportunity for the first time to show what the three teams from our Hvar High School can do together with their mentors to promote the culinary profession and knowledge. Here on the island, we have a long gastronomic tradition that needs to be further developed, because it is one of our postcards with which we present ourselves to the world, especially through the experience of our visitors,” said Katica Vučetić, president of the Hvar Association of Crafts, whose Hospitality Section launched the event in 2005.
Hvar mayor Ricardo Novak opened the event, and the tastings could start, accompanied by the music of Trio Gušt. The Bacchusa team from Palmižana welcome the guests at the Arsenal gate with a large pot, in which about 50 portions of shrimps and shellfish were being prepared. The Dva Ribara restaurant offered a roll with spinach from their family fields and young cheese. Mizzarola presented the proper workers’ spoon dish; pasta with broad beans and asparagus with veal, while Mediterraneo brought homemade lamb and beans. Popular dishes were also presented by the Bonaca restaurant, with potato cuttlefish and broad beans and a cake made of carob and wild orange jam, while La Bocca prepared baby beef with peas. Appetit presented the seafood risotto and tiramisu. Grande Luna offered gnocchi in mushroom sauce and roast beef, and pasta with shrimps and asparagus. Štajun served a top-of-the-line carpaccio of zucchini and truffles, roast beef with white truffle cream, and fresh macaroni with black truffles. The Palača Paladini team, with its 15th-century palace and a garden of bitter orange trees used to produce jams and liqueurs, has been writing some of the best pages of the new gastronomic history of Hvar for the last over 50 years. For this occasion, they prepared linguine with prawns and vongola clams and marbled cherry cake.
The newly opened Odos restaurant (Greek Street) offers the contemporary Mediterranean gastronomy with international influences, so they presented at the Dobar Kus the tuna tartar on a bed of vegetables and rice paper, shrimps, carrots and leek in tempura and fresh Odos fettuccine with shrimps and grated truffles.
The Zbondini Tavern from the ethno-eco-village Velo Grablje served a plate with top quality homemade cheese and prosciutto, the famous Grablje pašticada with homemade gnocchi and the “Grobajski Koloč”, which showed that the island also offers dishes like they were prepared by Hvar housewives a hundred and more years ago. Dalmatina, a 30-year-old family restaurant, made black gnocchi with Istrian truffles, while Macondo offered shark gregada. From Palmižana, the Meneghello restaurant brought black risotto and carob cake.
“The judges and myself were delighted with the dishes served, the successful combination of tradition and the new. We have tasted brunches, new ideas, great cakes and desserts closely related to the ingredients of this region. Congratulations to the participants, they have prepared fine dishes. What we thought they could do differently – we told them. Also, it is great that at one place we could combine great food and top-quality wines,” said Željko Neven Bremec, president of ŠKMER.
Wineries taking part in the event were Tomić, Plenković, Duboković, Plančić, Vujnović, Marijan, Carić, Cuj, Benevutti, Radovan, Kutjevo, Krauthaker.
More Hvar news can be found in the Lifestyle section.
Translated from Dalmacija Danas.
