CUISINE

The Dalmatian and Hvar cuisine follows a trend of modern nutritional standards. A light cooking of foods (usually in water and on grill) and a lot of fish, olive oil, vegetables and self grown grasses, which can be found down the sea shore, is the reason why this cuisine is considered very healthy. Dalmatian wines as well as the olive oil and salty olives have been respected since ancient times and the sort names reveal that (Grk: from the island Korcula; Prc: from the island of Hvar). Well known wines include Posip and Dingac from the Peljesac peninsula; Babic from Primosten; Vugava and Plancic from the island of Hvarand Posip and Grks from Korcula; Marastina from Lastovo; Malvazija from Dubrovnik, etc. and also Prosecco (a sweet desert wine), a very strong origin and fruit brandy and liqueurs.
Fresh sea fish (dentex, sea bass, gilthead, stone bass, mackerel, and sardine) on grill, broiled or marinated; then there are the mollusk (squid, cuttlefish, octopus), crab (scampi, lobster) and seashells (mussel, oyster, Noahs arks) cooked in a fish soup or prepared in a risotto.

From meat specialties, prosciutto is certainly without a rival, smoked ham and dried out on wind, served generally with goat cheese and with dry and salty green and black olives, capers and creeks.
Lamb is also much respected, especially cooked or baked on an open fire, Dalmatian beef stew (paticada) with gnocchi, which is served in many restaurants. Cooked vegetables is also a favorite meal (chard with potatoes, tomato sauce), it is very often a mixture of breed and self grown vegetables, seasoned with olive oil and wine vinegar or served with meat (manistra-pasta with minced meat, arambasici-filled wine leaves).

Typical Dalmatian desserts conquer hearts with their simplicity. The most common include Mediterranean fruits, dry figs, raisins, almonds, honey, eggs, ravioli, cookies with almonds, cookies with figs, spice cakes from Hvar-rozata.