Fig Days is a renowned, traditional annual gastro event that this year lasts for ten days, instead of being just a weekend festival, like it was since 2007. It includes an exhibition in the open – of fresh and dried figs – but also a wide variety of products made of figs, like jams, cakes, dry figs, brandies, and liqueurs that will be on display. The festival encourages and motivates caterers, local farmers, producers, and vendors to include the fruit in their offer, promote it, and sell their indigenous product in the streets thus contributing to the gastronomic identity of Krk.
The program of the Fig Days includes a very popular, free of charge distribution of 100 fig seedlings, but also interesting lectures on the topic of figs by the foremost expert on figs, Željko Prgomet, doc.dr.sc., and Iva Prgomet, Ph.D., as well as a book promotion. There will also be workshops on making clay figs, felting figs from Krk sheep wool, and individual counseling on fig growing.
Fig, we all know (and some of us adore it), is a tear-shaped fruit with a green skin that may ripen toward purple or brown, with sweet soft reddish flesh containing numerous crunchy seeds. It is, we are also aware, both delicious and healthy, but you might want to know, and you will learn about it if you come to Krk, that it is native to the Ficus carica, small tree species in the mulberry family, and that it has been cultivated since ancient times. It is, of course, the most widespread, and highly valued fruit of the Mediterranean (and Asia), but is now widely grown throughout the world.
On the island of Krk, the figs have been grown for centuries, but have also been wrongfully neglected in recent times. Figs can be eaten fresh or dried or processed into jam, rolls, biscuits, and other types of desserts. Since the ripe fruit does not transport and keep well, most commercial production is in dried and processed forms. Raw figs contain roughly 80% water and 20% carbohydrates, with negligible protein, fat, and micronutrient content. They are a moderate source of dietary fiber. But what can an excellent chef make from, of, and with figs? Crazy and most delicious dishes, for sure!
To mark the 15th anniversary of the project, on Monday, August 30, a special gala dinner will be held in the Marina Blue restaurant of the Marina hotel in Krk. It will be a fine dining event, a real gourmet experience provided by a young but highly esteemed and Michelin star awarded chef Deni Srdoč, supported by Spart Jazz Duo. The fig themed dinner “Fig by Deni Srdoč” will give everybody a brand new perspective on figs, and, besides the dishes – it will serve fantastic wines from Kvarner: sparkling and still, all produced locally by the winemakers of the region who most recently united in Kvarner Wines Association.
The menu consists of the most delicious dishes – like beef tartar with hollandaise sauce, focaccia toast, chives emulsion, and pickled figs, accompanied by sparkling wine Plovanić. The first course will be followed by marinated hake, fennel salad, beetroot, orange and fig sauce, and spirulina mayonnaise accompanied by Žlahtina Sveta Lucija of the Estate Winery Katunar, recently awarded Bronze Decanter in London. Next, risotto with wild mushrooms and fig reduction will be on the menu, together with excellent rosé Trojišćina by Ivica Dobrinčić of Šipun winery. The main course will, of course, be a lamb dish – namely – confit lamb glazed with figs, potato espuma, sauteed vegetables, and lamb jus. Kuća vina Ivan Katunar winery produces the exquisite Sansigot wine from the eponymous wine variety originating from Susak island, and saved by the winemakers of Vrbnik, Kuća vina Ivan Katunar, specifically.
For the ones with a sweet tooth, chocolate terrine, vanilla cream, hazelnut crumble and figs flambé will make a beautiful end to this fig story, or rather – a fairytale, with Misno vino (Žlahitna variety) by Gospoja winery to wash it down. The most interesting for the tourists, however, is a special restaurant offer in the Krk city area for the whole time of the festival, all with the common theme: fig(s).
During “Fig Days” – 15 restaurants, bistros, wine, and food bars, and “konobas” in the area will be serving delicious dishes with figs. You might want to try steak in shrimps and fig sauce with a side dish of homemade pasta šurlice with shrimps and figs sauce…Or, fish fillet with apricots and dried figs in prosecco; pork loin in fig sauce; mouth-watering dried figs in mascarpone and cinnamon cream with pie crust, crepes, and crostatas with homemade fig jam… Indeed, all things edible that you can imagine made out of figs or with them will be on offer for you to savour in Krk, so why don’t you come and have fun at the very end of summer, or just take it as a sort of a prelude to the upcoming autumn days?
More about the project at https://www.tz-krk.hr/en/15th-fig-days-city-of-krk
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