Zagreb County’s 25th birthday was celebrated with a fair, competitions, a concert, and a lot of food.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 9th of July, 2018, Zagreb County’s 25th birthday was celebrated in Zaprešić.
“Today, Zagreb County is an urban environment where the best electric cars in the world are produced, and which boasts the most OPGs, and all that has happened to us is the merit of the initiative and work of our citizens,” said Zagreb County Prefect Stjepan Kožić in Zaprešić. Therefore, in honour of the county’s birthday, many OPG’s were gathered at the fair held in Zaprešić.
One of the exhibitors was OPG Barišec, which grows as many as twenty different types of chilli paprika. Given the speed of how widespread the production is, the Croats definitely like it hot.
“Yes, that’s how it seems, we started out with a greenhouse back in 2016, today we’ve got three, and we’ll have five of them next year,” said Mladen Barišec. After hot comes sweet, and honey producer Dragutin Volarić is one of the veterans of organic honey production, and the winner of many awards for it.
“I produce honey, honey brandy, honey wine, I actually don’t do anything, my bees do it all, I just steal from them, but I care for them and look after them,” said one of the oldest and most famous Zagreb honey producers at the Zaprešić Fair in a humorous tone.
Since no outdoor gathering is complete without a good barbecue, for the love of their county, grilling teams from eight towns located within the county competed in the most widespread social event in the world – grilling meat outdoors, and thanks to Pevec, they grilled on the very latest Gorenc BBQ barbecues.
“Barbecues are a combination of physics and chemistry, it’s quite enough for a man to know what’s going on with the grill with a combination of good spices and temperature control,” said Ivanić Grad’s team captain Dino Bošnjaković. The Sveta Nedelja team was the first to start cooking meat.
“We came a little early to prepare, and we started grilling the first round because we were a bit hungry. We have more grilling masters in the team, we all participate, we’re all allotted, it’s great team work,” explained the Deputy Mayor of Sveta Nedelja, Marija Hržak. The Velika Gorica team was the slowest in placing meat on the grill, but they immediately explained that this was a good thing.
“Well, the secret is about being prepared, meat doesn’t cook quickly,” the Velika Gorica grill team stated. Hrvoje Košćec provided the secret of his good grilling. “Good quality meat, well-fed and reared, with a genuine autochthonous grape variety from which the best wine is produced in the world,” said the cheerful Košćec.
All [of the meat prepared by the] teams was delicious, but the jury decided on the winning team being Zagreb County, all its members were crowned with Pevec crowns, and the team also won the Gorenc BBQ grill.
“We’ve been doing good marinades with beer and hot peppers, bruschetta and vegetables, and this is, along with excellent meat, the secret of this victory. The feeling is always great when you win and that way you confirm the importance of teamwork with a little effort and some reflection,” said Nadica Žužak. Although the city square was full of events, the cleanliness and order of the square remained impeccable, and the Environmental Protection Fund’s campaign contributed well to the promotion of proper waste separation.
After the barbecue, a gourmet show from Podravka chefs who prepared 800 servings of food in a huge pot took place.
“The atmosphere is great, and all the portions we prepared were eaten,” said Podravka’s Dražen Đurišević, head of culinary promotion, and pointed out that all the food on offer came from the domestic farms. Everyone who gathered on Sunday in Zaprešić on the Day of Zagreb County agreed that, after all the things that took place during the day, the crown of the event was the open air concert of Ivan Zak. The well-liked Croatian singer congratulated everyone on the Zagreb County’s day.
“Zak is great, the concert is great and all together it was great to be together,” commented Zaprešić locals who celebrated well into the late night hours, all agreeing that this county celebration was the best so far.
Click here for the original article by PD i VL nativ tim for Poslovni Dnevnik
