Cuisine of Rab Island for gourmets. Places for dinner - best restaurants

The cuisine of the Rab island, like all of Croatia, is very similar to any Mediterranean cuisine. The chefs prefer to use fresh vegetables, meat, and fish along with olive oil and herbs, which give the dishes an unusual flavor. Local dishes usually do not have a very exotic taste, so you can be sure that the food will not be completely unfamiliar. Fish and seafood are very popular on Rab, which is natural for an island territory, but you can also find meat courses here.

Croatian cuisine is known for its passion for alcoholic beverages, especially wine, and therefore, you should order at least one glass of this grape nectar for a truly local dinner. There are many wines here, so you should better ask the waiter, which one will suit the dish you ordered best. If you want to try the soup, then note that most of the local first courses are quite light and are prepared on the basis of chicken or vegetable broth. Chorba or manestra can become more satisfying options for soup. Chorba is distinguished for being based on fresh dairy products, and manestra is actually a Croatian version of the Italian minestrone. You shouldn’t compare those two dishes in front of the chefs – the locals don’t like this at all.

Another original stew soup is brodet, one of the most iconic dishes of the Croatian cuisine. Fish, seafood, and vegetables are put in a special dish and stewed in wine until almost all the liquid is evaporated. It is usually served with polenta, corn porridge. For centuries, this dish was the dish of the poor, and even though brodet is now served in any Croatian restaurant, there is no common recipe for it. It is worth trying black rizhot, rice with seafood, which has black color due to the cuttlefish ink. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

When ordering fish courses, pay attention to the price – it can be indicated per serving, per 100 grams or per kilogram. It is clear that in the last two cases, the sum in the check will be totally different than in the menu. Among fish, you can try catfish, dorado, sea carp, fish-devil, also known as shkarpena, sea bass, flounder, red mullet, horse mackerel, and scomber. Here they are usually baked in the oven, or grilled, or fried on an open fire. Most often, the waiter will clarify how do you want your fish to be cooked. Oysters, mussels, lobsters, and octopuses also play an important role in the cuisine of Rab. You can find them on the menu of any restaurant.

Among the meat courses, you should definitely try prsut, pork ham, which is first smoked on charcoal, and then dried on the sun. It is usually served thinly sliced, with cheese, olives, and onions. Also taste young lamb in sheep's milk, visovacka begavica. Pasticada – beef in wine, and chobana from beef and pork are also tasty. As a side dish, the Croats usually serve potatoes, tomatoes, pasta, artichokes, and cabbage.

Among the desserts, you should definitely try the Rab Cake. This dish was invented here many centuries ago and they were not ashamed to serve it even to the royalty. Now, any traveler can briefly become a king and taste this dessert, the exact recipe of which has still not been disclosed. Fritule cookies, almond cakes, chestnut dessert, and cukariny are also worth your attention. From alcoholic beverages, in addition to a wide variety of wines, both factory and domestic, you can find good Ozujsko and Karlovacko beer on the island. There are also Vignac cognac, Maraschino cherry liqueur, herbal tinctures Biske, Travarica, Komovica, and plum brandy Sljivovica.