Last Tuesday, the Discover Slavonia team tried the typical food from the Baranja region. Of course, we did not hesitate to accept this great opportunity to indulge ourselves with the amazing dishes.
At the beginning of our meal, our hosts brought us a shot of Rakija, a traditional Croatian drink. It is fruit brandy, with an alcohol content typically ranging between 50% to 80%.
For starters, we ate various types of meat with homemade bread and either pig fat spread or cheese spread. There were 3 types of meat: sausages, bacon and cracklings. For some of us, it was the first time to try something like that, but I think everyone enjoyed it.
The region of Baranja is known for its lakes and rivers. That is probably why the traditional food is fish. There were 2 dishes that used fish as its main ingredient. The first one was “Fiš Paprikaš”, a soup made with fresh water fish like carp, starlet, catfish, or pike. The soup is spiced up with paprika, a spice very popular in the region. Though the combination does not sound appetizing, I was really surprised how tasty it was! The other dish was called “Fish on stick”. It is grilled carp with baked potatoes. It was delicious and it reminded me of Christmas since it is tradition in the Czech Republic to eat carp for Christmas Eve dinner.
To culminate our meal, we had another shot of Rakija. This was probably the last thing that some of us remember. Haha.
I am not sure if it was because of the Rakija or the wine from the day, but we all had great time and enjoyed every meal. I highly recommend trying at least some of the traditional food when visiting Croatia or the Baranja region.
