the Istrian kitchen is struccolo or štrukli (a kind of strudel), which may be baked, boiled or steamed. Struccoli are made with various stretched, rolled or yeasted doughs. Fillings include potatoes, rice, spinach or pujine (a fresh cheese, similar to Italian ricotta). Sweet versions are made with apples, pears, cherries, plums or apricots. Other desserts of note are buzolai (ring-shaped biscuits dusted with icing sugar), gibaniča (a rich layered pastry filled with apples, walnuts, raisins, poppy seeds and cinnamon), palačinke (jam-filled pancakes) and all kinds of fritule (sweet fritters) that usually include raisins, pine nuts, candied citron fruits and grated chocolate.
Dalmatia consists of a narrow coastal strip that stretches along the Croatian coast from Pag Island to the borders of Montenegro. This coastal strip – seventy miles wide in the north and only ten miles wide in the south – is backed by the Dinaric Alps, a bare wall of limestone mountains that run parallel to the coast for hundreds of miles. Throughout Dalmatia’s history this mountain wall has made access to the hinterland very difficult, which is why the Dalmatian people have always been more influenced by the sea and Italy than their Slavic neighbours in the interior. Dalmatia’s rugged coastline with its numerous bays and inlets, and hundreds of offshore islands, is probably the most dramatic in the Mediterranean. Like Istria, its coastal towns – with their arcades, piazza’s and campaniles – reflect 400 years of Venetian rule.
Dalmatia is named after the Dalmatae – one of the Illyrian tribes that occupied the land in the first millennium B.C. The Illyrians were followed by the Celts, who swept down from the Danube and settled in the western part of the Balkan peninsular as far south as present-day Albania. These early communities were mainly cereal eaters. They grew barley and millet and several strains of wheat, and ate a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables including onions, garlic, cabbage, black radish and lentils. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Dalmatia was ruled by the Byzantines, the Hrvati or Croats, and the Hungarians. In the fifteenth century the Venetians ruled the whole of the Dalmatian coast, except for the independent city-state of Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik), while most of the Balkan lands on the other side of the Dinaric Alps were swallowed up by the Ottoman Empire. After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, Dalmatia, like Istria, came under Austro-Hungarian rule until the end of World War 1. In 1918, Dalmatia was incorporated into the newly founded Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which later became known as Yugoslavia.
Dalmatian cooking is classic Mediterranean fare based on olive oil, garlic and herbs, especially flat-leaf parsley. The Italian influence is very strong with a liking for pasta in all its forms, as well as njoki (gnocchi) and palenta (polenta). Riži-biži (rice and peas) is the Dalmatian version of this well-known Venetian dish. Bread is a staple and eaten at every meal. It is made with wheat flour, rye, cornmeal or potatoes, and often flavoured with rosemary, sage or cinnamon.
The dry Mediterranean climate is very suitable for growing olives, aubergines, sweet peppers and courgettes. The cooking is simple and rustic. Most vegetables, especially green beans, carrots, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes, are boiled and dressed with olive oil, salt and black pepper. Blitva pirjana is a popular dish of Swiss chard and potatoes dressed with olive oil, garlic and parsley. Courgettes, peppers and aubergines are often stuffed with a mixture of breadcrumbs, olives, capers, garlic and parsley. A wide variety of fruit is grown including figs, apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, melons and table grapes. Dalmatia is famous for its marasca cherries that are made into jams, syrups and, of course, cherry brandy, which rivals šljivovica (plum brandy) – the national drink.
Various cheese are produced: Formaio de Novaia (a hard ewe’s milk cheese similar to pecorino), Formaio de Ludro (a pungent goat’s cheese that is sometimes served with olives as an starter), pujine (a fresh cheese similar to ricotta) and formaiele (a small goat’s cheese that resembles Italian Caprini).
Meals usually end with fresh fruit, cheese or a light dessert such as rožada – a caramelised baked custard that is usually flavoured with marasca liqueur. Traditional cakes and pastries include savijaca od orhua (a kind of walnut strudel), pogače (a light yeasted cake scented with rosewater and lemon rind) and fritule dalmatinske (sweet fritters flavoured with šzljivovica that are made on Christmas Eve). Medenjaci (honey biscuits) and paprenjaci (pepper biscuits) are usually served with Prošek – a sweet wine similar to port – which is made from grapes that are left to dry out on the vine in order to increase their sweetness.
Albania, or Shqiperia (Land of the Eagles) as is called by the Albanians, lies along the western coast of the Balkan Peninsular between Montenegro and Greece. It is a land of great beauty with rugged mountains, thick forests, deep lakes and a spectacular coastline – called the Riviera of the Flowers – that stretches for nearly eighty miles along the Ionian littoral between Vlora and Saranda.
The Albanians are direct descendants of the Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe that inhabited the land in the first millennium B.C. Albanian – which is unlike any other – is the only surviving language to derive from ancient Illyrian. The Albanian people are very proud of their unique heritage and traditions, which they have managed to retain despite two thousand years of occupations by the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Bulgarians, Normans, Serbs, Venetians and Ottoman Turks.
Albanian cooking has been greatly influenced by 500 years of Turkish rule. Starters (mezet) and vegetable dishes such as havjar me patëllxhan (aubergine caviar), dollma me fletë hardhi je ne oria (vine leaves stuffed with rice, pine nuts and currants), qofte patatesh (potato croquettes) and byreçka (triangular filo pastries filled with white cheese, pumpkin or leeks) have obvious Turkish origins. Albanians also have a liking for hot peppers, which were introduced by the Turks in the sixteenth century, probably via Egypt.
Bread, rice and pasta (makaronash) are staples. Kabuni – rice with sultanas, butter, sugar and cinnamon – is the national dish. Cornbread (misërnike) and cornmeal porridge (kaçamak or mëmëlige) also play an important role in the Albanian diet. Along the coast the Italian influence is still apparent. Mëmëlige me djathë, a layered pie made with slices of polenta, cheese and tomato sauce, is reminiscent of polenta pies made in northern Italy.
Excellent yoghurt (kos) is made from sheep’s, cow’s or buffalo’s mik, as well as several cheeses including kaçkavall, a full-fat hard cheese made from cow’s milk, djathë, a white cheese similar to feta and gjize, a kind of cottage cheese.
The Albanians have also adopted the Turkish love of sweet pastries filled with nuts and coated in syrup such as baklava and kataifa. Other Albanian desserts of note include petulla (yeasted fritters dusted with icing sugar), zupa (a kind of trifle that derives from the Italian zuppa inglese), shandatlie (walnut biscuits coated in syrup) and pure me kungull në furrë (a light pumpkin pudding with ground walnuts, sultanas, and cinnamon). Albanians are also very fond of akullore (ice cream).
Languedoc Roussillon Provence Corsica
Here nature and man are in closer harmony than anywhere else in France. Buildings … have become part of the landscape, baked into it by the synthesizing heat of the Provençal sun …You cannot live there without becoming aware of the vigorous pulse of the south.
– Waverley Root, The Food of France
France
The South of France is one of the most beautiful regions of the Mediterranean. The breathtaking
