Croatian cuisine is diverse and offers the freshest products in its regional dishes, and menus vary accordingly by season and region. Which gives locals plenty of reason to celebrate. And there is nothing Croats love better than to celebrate with food festivals. Continuing the TCN series, 25 Things to Know about Croatia, on June 30, 2016, met the wonderful world of Croatian food festivals. If it grows, it is celebrated…
1 Edible Dormouse Festival – Puhijada (Dol, Hvar)
Yes, I didn’t quite believe it either until I saw it with my own eyes, and then reluctantly tasted it, but one of the most popular festivals on Croatia’s premier island of Hvar is the edible dormouse. The dormouse is hunted and makes up part of the cuisine in just three places in Croatia. The villages of Dol on both Hvar and Brac, where grilled dormouse is the preparation technique of choice, and further north in Gorski Kotar, where dormouse stew is the local delicacy.
The Puhijada festival is now in its 8th year, a chance to celebrate the traditions and heritage of the inland village. Organised by local NGO Tartajun, the dormouse eating takes place on the final night of the week-long festival which includes a range of activities and exhbitions for all ages. Check out the video of a Puhijada in years gone by blow. If you would like to try dormouse on Hvar, there are only a few restaurants which serve it (Me and mrs Jones in Jelsa is one), but it must be ordered at least 24 hours in advance. The festival even has its own currency – the Superpuh (‘puh’ means dormouse), which has a fixed exchange rate of 1 superpuh converting to 7 kuna. This year’s festival takes place in August – the full programme is here.
2 Peskafondo Squid Fishing (Hvar Town)
There is always much discussion about extending the season, and there are various initiatives to so, including the Croatian National Tourist Board project, Croatia 365. These initiatives include private activities as well, and one of the most successful in recent years has been the squid-fishing championship in Hvar Town called Peskafondo, with main organiser and host the exclusive fish restaurant, Gariful. Teams set out in small boats for two days to test their squid-fishing skills, with the daily catch then ceremoniously weighed, and winners decorated. There are various concerts and events throughout the festival, and Peskafondo has become a popular way for locals to relax after another bumper season, while the festival itself is attracting an increasing international set of competitors. Check out the Peskafondo festival in the video below.
3 Lavender Festival (Velo Grablje, Hvar)
There are no prizes for guess which is the most aromatic festival in Croatia each year. The place to head in late June is the small village of Velo Grablje outside Hvar Town, once the centre of lavender production for all Dalmatia until the village fell on hard times ecomonically, and the population dropped to just five people until very recently. A group of motivated young people descended from the village decided to do something about that and formed an NGO called Pjover. They set about restoring a little pride and tradition into Velo Grablje, including the idea of having a lavender festival, which became an instant him. Lavender products (ever had lavender ice cream or lavender bread and butter pudding?) exhibitions, lavender products for sale, demonstrations of the traditional way of life from bread baking to dry stone walling, and perhaps the most interesting event of all – the distilling of lavender oil from the freshly harvested crop. If you are lucky, you may be invited into the metal vat to jump up and down on the lavender bundles to compress them, thereby ensuring sweet smelling feet for days. The festival typically takes place in the last week of June, when the lavender is in bloom.
4 Grahijada Bean Festival (Beli Manastir)
From lavender on Hvar in June to beans in Baranja in north-eastern Croatia, where the humble bean is celebrated each year. Starting off with the cooking of beans is large clay pots, and continuing with the World Championships of carp preparation and the 14th World Championships of bean preparation for locals of the town and surruonding villages, there is plenty of bean action to be had. A great family day out, there are plenty of games and activities for the little ones, before the winners are announced in the evening before the day is rounded off with a live concert. And there are no prizes for guessing what is on the menu for dinner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjanr-2vvQk
5 Kestenijada Chestnut (Hrvatska Kostajnica)
Nothing symbolises the Croatian love of their seasonal produce more than the Kestenijada Chestnut festival in Hrvatska Kostajnica, where an incredible 40,000 visit the festival over three days. A wonderful autumn family festival which this year will take place from October 7-9 attracts many family visitors from Zagreb and abroad, with a great natural programme arranged along the River Una and in the chestnut forests nearby. There is a tourist train ride, boat trips down the river and walking trails in the forest, all combined with exhibitions, concerts adn the reassuringly warm aroma of roasted chestnuts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rsET73w1Gk
6 Paprika Festival (Lug, Baranja)
With its proximity to the Hungarian border and rich cultural and gourmet influence from its northern neighbour, the cuisine of Baranja is very distinctive, and a lot different to Croatian cuisine elsewhere. One common ingredient to spice things up a little is paprika, and the village of Lug hosts its very own festival each October to celebrate this essential ingredient in Baranja cuisine. The programme includes kids games, cultural presentations, the search for the best paprika, a football tournament and an autumn ‘fishijada’ – a feast of river fish prepared with – you guessed it – paprika.
7 Zeljarijada Cabbage Festival (Vidovec, Varazdin County)
If cabbage is your thing, there is only one place to be in Septmeber – Vidovec near Varadzin, which since 1997 has been holding its very own Zeljarijada cabbage festival. Varazdin cabbage is famous and is culturally protected, with just one woman licenced to sell the special cabbage seeds which give the region’s cabbage its reputation. Having attended the Zeljarijada a couple of years ago, I can confess that I never knew there were so many things one could do with cabbage, and I came home with presents for all the family. The centrepiece on that occasion was the large sarma in the world (a wonderful winter dish of cabbage leaves stuffed with mince), which took days to prepare, all 1.4 kilometres of it.
8 Gramperijada Potato Festival (Kastelir, Porec)
And what would Croatian cuisine be without the humble potato? Or even the oversized potato? Such things are worth celebrating in Kastelir, near Porec each June. Now in it 10th year, the Kastelir Gramperijada (as I understand it, gramper is a local word for an oversized potato. The only place in the world I have heard of a potato peeling competition, there are prizes for the heaviest potato grows, a range of cultural events, and of course, potato dishes aplenty.
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