Croatia

Peka

Meat and potatoes cooked under an iron bell buried in embers, ordered hours ahead.

Crni rižot

Cuttlefish risotto blackened with its own ink, served with grated cheese despite the rule.

Pašticada

Beef marinated in vinegar and wine for days, braised sweet and served with gnocchi.

Ćevapi

Minced meat fingers grilled and served in somun with onion and ajvar.

Štrukli

Thin dough folded around fresh cheese, boiled or baked in cream, from Zagorje.

Fritule

Small rum-and-citrus doughnuts fried at Christmas and dusted with sugar.

Buzara

Shellfish opened in white wine, garlic and breadcrumbs, the sauce mopped with bread.

Soparnik

Thin chard pie from Poljica baked directly on the hearth under ash.

Kulen

Slavonian paprika salami cured in a pig's caecum, sliced thick with cheese.

Sarma

Sour cabbage rolls with minced pork, cooked with smoked meat in winter.

Gregada

Hvar fisherman's stew of white fish and potato in olive oil and white wine.

Škampi na buzaru

Adriatic langoustines in a garlic and wine sauce, eaten with fingers.

Paški sir

Hard sheep's cheese from Pag, salted by sea wind on the grazing.

Kremšnita

Custard slice from Samobor, cut with a spatula because a knife would ruin it.

Rožata

Dubrovnik's rose-liqueur caramel custard, set in a mould and turned out cold.

Ajvar

Roasted red pepper relish jarred in autumn and eaten with everything grilled.

Prosciutto

Istrian and Dalmatian ham dried in the bura wind, unsmoked and salt-cured.

Rakija

Fruit brandy poured on arrival, with the second glass considered impolite to refuse.

Maraschino

Clear cherry liqueur distilled in Zadar since the eighteenth century.

Plavac Mali

Dark Dalmatian red from steep coastal vineyards, high in alcohol and tannin.