When you visit a destination, going on a food tour to visit local eateries is a great way to experience the authentic foods and meet the people behind them. Writer Chelle Koster Walton joins the RealFoodTraveler.com team to tell us about experiencing Croatian cuisine during a Dubrovnik food tour.
Sipping and sampling with Dubrovnik Food Tours guide, Hamo (at head of the table) at a back-alley bistro.
A Local’s Foodie Tour of Old Town Dubrovnik
Tea chattered brightly in thickly accented English as she filled tiny etched crystal glasses with carob liqueur and another she described as bitter and purported to deduct 10 years from one’s life. All the while, as she told funny quips about the stack of china plates on a table dressed in hand-embroidered linen and somber tales of Serbian bombings crashing in her loft roof in the 1990s war for independence, all eyes rested expectantly on the wheel-shaped crust-swaddled mystery before us.
“Stone cake,” Tea, a local gallery owner, told us, “was an invention for Croatian people who didn’t have enough money.” As she sliced out wedges, revealing a honeycombed filling of macaroni, chocolate, and nuts, she added: “It was only for festivities – weddings, Christmas, and Easter.”
Known as Stonish torta, for its origins in the port town of Ston, 50 kilometers from where we were enjoying it in Dubrovnik, it was the surprise at the end of our four hours of eating and drinking our way through Old Town Dubrovnik with Hamo Ovcina and his Dubrovnik Food Tours.
Our hostess, Tea, samples a slice of Croatia’s iconic “stone cake.”
Tea (pronounced tia) is one of the many friends and family of Hamo that the six of us (he accepts eight max per group) met as we walked the cobbled streets and secret alleyways of the walled city built from the 11th to 16th century – one of Croatia’s crown jewels.
Croatia has eased into the walking food tour craze. Hamo’s is one of only two in Dubrovnik, but a stand-out for its casual, neighborly character. These days, when Game of Thrones tours in Dubrovnik top the itineraries of many who visit, a major filming location for the HBO series, Hamo adds a personal touch: stories of how his father allowed cast members to use his home and sold them local delicacies in an alleyway, for instance.
Dubrovnik Food Tours takes you off the mobbed path to get to some of the best Dubrovnik restaurants.
Off the Mobbed Path to Explore Dubrovnik Restaurants
The alleyways themselves are the other differentiating factor from the bus tours following guides holding paddles and speaking into tourists’ earbuds.
After meeting in the main plaza for our history intro, we quickly escape the throngs – meeting a fishmonger with his basket of fresh catches, chatting with Hamo’s brother and his dad, who was recovering from surgery. Walking up and down steep alleyways where the people who still live in Old Town go about their business. Meeting the daughter of Romana Milutin Fabris, Croatia’s pre-eminent artist whose Dubrovnik gallery the younger now runs.
The artist’s daughter gave us a personalized tour of Romana Milutin Fabris’ gallery.
At the market – which Hamo points out had to be cleared out for the famed “walk of shame” scene in GOT – we sample candied citrus rinds and sugared almonds. At a small alfresco bistro, we sit to sip local wine and sample cheeses, prosciutto, octopus salad with tomatoes and black olives, and balls of ground and seasoned chick peas. It looks like Croatia on a plate – reflecting its connection to the sea, Venice, and the proliferation of olive trees along its Dalmatian Coast.
Hamo walks briskly, taking us to a secret bar clinging to the cliffs, pointing out architectural elements dating to the days of Roman occupation starting in 168 BC, and remembering the war he endured as a teenager, bunkered in a basement kitchen.
Many spy this hidden bar from a walk around Dubrovnik’s wall, but few find out how to get there.
Lunch and a Show at one of Dubrovnik’s Popular Restaurants
Sadly, Hamo tells us, few of the sidewalk and alleyway restaurants within the walls are run by locals these days. Lucin Kantun is one, and we settle into a table next to the small open kitchen for what turns out to be lunch and a show. Here we get to watch the mama and her family preparing traditional Dalmatia dishes as we sip a glass of white Croatian wine with fresh and brilliant tuna tartare and tuna pate. Then comes goat cheese and spinach stuffed spring rolls.
We are excited to try the next course, a dish everyone on the Croatia Insider Facebook page I’d been monitoring said I must try: black risotto made with squid ink or, in our case, cuttlefish, which, Hamo says, is less fishy. Hmmm, perhaps an acquired taste.
Dirty macaroni’s origins stem from the tradition of serving pasta to large groups. Those last served got “dirty macaroni,” with less meat and tomato sauce. That was not the case with our penne, generously sauced and studded with tender lamb, spiced with a pinch of cinnamon, and layered with tissues of parmesan cheese on top.
The “show” at Lucin Kantun, a tiny, locally operated Dubrovnik cafe.
Then it was off to Tea’s for the Stone Cake Hamo picked up along the way. Hints of cinnamon too sparked the weighty confection, along with citrus tones, rich chocolate, almonds, walnuts, and a wrap of pie crust. Phew! Nothing light about the hardy folk fare of Dubrovnik.
By the end of our final stop at Matusko, a winery built into a cave, we are laughing, sipping tastes of white Posip and red Dingac, and toasting zivijeli like old friends. Old friends who had turned 10 years younger, of course.
— Story and photos by Chelle Koster Walton
Hungry for more? Read about other food tours around the world on Real Food Traveler, including Alaska, Hong Kong, and Italy.
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