Enjoy your meals and allow yourself a bit of sin and luxury!
Trilogija Restaurant in Zagreb hosted an interesting tasting event which included eight incredible meals, with Torkul olive oil and Šember wines paired with various food on January 28, 2016. The event was supported by the Trilogija cooking team and Belizar Miloš from the Agava Restaurant, and all the participants of this interesting event were surprised by the beauty of tastes and graciousness of smells.
Fanito, which produces the Torkul oil, is a family olive oil production facility from Vela Luka on the island of Korčula which uses indigenous ingredients (olives of Lastovka and Drobnica varieties) and strict control of all production stages to produce olive oil of the highest level of quality. Torkul extra virgin olive oil and another one of their products, excellent olive leaf tea, have the recommendation of the Slow Food International. The tea has passed rigorous Slow Food commission tests and has been included in the Ark of Tastes. The presentation was hosted by Marija Žuvela, while the olive oil production facility was represented by the owner and Marija’s father Fanito Žuvela. Šember Winery was represented by Nikola Šember and his sister Lucija, the Wine Queen of Zagreb County.
One thing was certain! Trilogija Restaurant brought together a carefully selected group of guests, hedonistically inclined and ready for new challenges.
And then came the food… We were welcomed by Lastovka and Drobnica olive oils served with bread and olive leaf tea. The second meal included cottage cheese lightly seasoned with salt, pepper and parsley and topped with Torkul, and hard cheese with olive oil, all combined with Šember’s Riesling wine. Pork rinds dressed with oil and kulen left in Torkul olive oil were a real treat, paired again with Riesling. Focaccia with dried tomatoes and olives (Agava Restaurant) followed, together with artichoke, parmesan and truffle cream with Adriatic shrimp and chive emulsion.
And then – the main course: duck breasts with homemade “gnudi” on a bed of pumpkin and bacon with cream of fennel and cranberry sauce and red wine (Trilogija Restaurant). Agava Restaurant prepared bruschettas with pate from goose and chicken liver with emulsion of orange and olive oil. All this was accompanied by Šember Pinot Noir. For dessert – fresh dried figs aged in oil with cottage cheese and honey, and ice cream with nuts and Rose Champagne. Chocolate cake with almonds and sweet “varenik” with olive liqueur were the last surprise for the lovers of good food and drink to enjoy.
“Some of today’s combinations may seem strange, to say the least, but the point of this tasting event was to demonstrate the many ways you can use the Torkul oil. We wanted to show that such exceptional oil can be paired well with both sweet and savoury food, that it can be combined with strong, but also with very mild foods, and I think we have succeeded”, said Tomislav Stiplošek from G.E.T. Report.
Šember wines have once again proven that they belong to the very top of Croatian wine industry. Their exceptional quality and definition are the first features which you notice, followed by their fullness and the duration of taste; a true wine rhapsody.
G.E.T. Report and their business partners try to educate people, to show them the right path in enogastronomy. They believe it is their destiny, although sometimes they feel like Sisyphus. “I sincerely hope that better living standards will reach Croatia soon and that people will be able to regularly enjoy the products which we have presented and written about. There are more and more young people who enjoy our wine and culinary stories, and that makes us happy because they are the ones who should turn our small country into a land of prosperity and enjoy all of its riches. Do not allow the food to become a mere physiological need, enjoy it, allow yourself a few little sins and luxuries. Believe me, you will feel better”, says Tomica from G.E.T. Report.
