1st Local Festival: Sea Bream and Squid Days
On Friday late afternoon, I found out there was a festival happening that weekend in the neighboring village of Ližnjan (many thanks to my landlords for sending me the information!). The festival was called "Sea Bream and Squid Days" and took place October 24-26 (Fri-Sun). It was too late to go that day, but I checked the bus schedule and determined I could go Saturday afternoon.
Sea bream is a local white fish, and Ližnjan was hosting this festival at a plaza on the water. To get there, I had to walk a few minutes to one of the nearby bus stops, take it two stops to the southeast end of Ližnjan, then walk for about 18 minutes per Google Maps. I bought two e-tickets for the bus ride there and back, and made my way to the stop nearest my apartment at about 1:30pm.
I successfully got off the bus at the correct stop in Ližnjan, and proceeded walking toward the shoreline plaza. I walked several minutes through the outskirts of town, then several more minutes through the countryside toward the harbor of little boats I could see down the gentle hill. The harbor had a long park, and in the middle of that park was the festival tent.
Beautiful harbor below Ližnjan.
The festival tent.
Outside the tent, vendors were selling candy and making popcorn and cotton candy, and two bouncy castle-type structures were being enjoyed by a number of small children. None of that held particular appeal to me, so I went inside the tent.
My attention was immediately drawn to a table set up near the entrance. On the surface were a couple of microscopes with elementary-aged kids looking through them at items from the sea, and at the far end was a man holding a little black, round sea urchin and talking about it to a group of kids and their parents. He had a small tub of seawater at his elbow, presumably containing additional local sea critters, and he had the kids' full attention. I have no idea what he was saying, of course, but it was cute to see.
The sea urchin lesson.
I skirted the marine biology lesson to check out the little vendor tables beyond. There were four of them, all selling goods produced in the area.
Vendor tables!
The first vendor was selling beer, which I figured out when I saw the sign with the word "brewery" on it, and the hops decorations.
The beer bottles were quite pretty.
I can't stand beer, so I didn't ask for a sample and instead moved on to the next table, which had a man selling wine (missed getting a photo - sorry). I considered asking for a sample, but honestly, I'm not a big fan of wine, either. Even when I've liked a sample in the past, I've ended up not drinking the bottle I got - either because I stopped liking it after five or six sips, or because I never ended up opening it because I know from experience that I'll stop liking it after five or six sips, lol. I simply have no taste buds for alcohol. I did consider getting a bottle anyway, to share with others or give as a gift, but these kinds of events tend to be cash-only and I had very little cash on me because of the short notice I had to attend, so I skipped the wine table and approached a lady selling olive oil.
Local olive oil from nearby Šišan.
The olive oil was available in 4 different sizes: 0.1 liters, 0.25 liters, 0.5 liters, and 0.75 liters. I was, at first, considering getting a tiny 0.1 liter bottle, more as a cute souvenir than anything. But the woman at the table spoke a little German and let me know the oil has won several top awards, so I asked if she gave samples. She poured some oil in a little dish and produced toothpicks and little cubes of bread from behind her table. I dipped my bread cube generously in the oil for a good, solid taste test.
Last summer, I visited Istria with my mom and oldest brother. We had enjoyed a particular brand of olive oil at a hotel, and went looking for the company's tasting room, where we were given little thimble-sized cups of oil to sample (which we were taught to warm with our hands, smell, and slurp like fine wine) and were educated about how you can tell if the oil is high quality - such as the fact that it should burn the back of your throat a little because it's full of antioxidants. This Šišan oil had a delightfully powerful, bright flavor, and I felt the burn in my throat - I'd found the local "good stuff". This called for a change of plans, and I bought a half liter bottle instead of the tiny souvenir bottle.
Half a liter of olive oil from Šišan.
I had a nice interaction with the woman selling the oil as she struggled to figure out how to close the bottle-sized box she packed it in for me. I tried out what Croatian I knew and could apply to the situation, and she responded with delight. Every new word I produced provoked exclamations of joy and admiration - instant endorphins for any language-learner. Croatia is one of those places where, if you're making an effort to speak their language, the locals are thrilled. I love it.
The next table held jars of honey and some tall bottles that I figured could be mead or honey liquor. I conversed with the woman there mostly in English, with a few Croatian words thrown in here and there. The bottles turned out to be brandy, which I passed on (again, not a fan of alcohol). But the honey intrigued me. I had bought a very small jar of it at the old town market in Pula, and I've found I'm eating more honey here than I do at home. So I thought I might buy one of these larger jars and asked what kinds she had. The woman was selling four types of honey: acacia, mixed, forest, and ivy. I asked about a sample and she let me taste all four with tiny little plastic spoons.
Top jars from left to right: acacia, mixed, forest and ivy.
The acacia honey and the mixed honey looked and tasted pretty much like the honey you commonly find in grocery stores in the US. Ordinary sweet, amber honey. The ivy honey was extremely floral. I've tasted floral honeys before at farmers markets, and this was very floral. Very good, as a taste test, but I know from experience I won't enjoy it on toast or in tea, but I considered getting it anyway, as part of the experience of living here. Then I tasted the forest honey.
I have never tasted honey quite like this before. A darker amber in color, its flavor was rich and complex, deep and almost tending toward a black licorice flavor before backing off into something more mellow. It was really good (even though I don't like black licorice, I do like Virgil's root beer, which has a complex flavor with hints of black licorice - and I liked this honey).
I was torn. All four were great-tasting honeys, but in the end, I decided to go with the forest honey. The flavor is robust, so it'll hold up well on toast, and it's unlike any honey I've had before.
[Incidentally, although the woman selling it translated that jar as being "forest" honey, Google Translate says medljikavac is honeysuckle - which does grow in woodlands, among other places. She hesitated over that translation, so I think she didn't know the English word honeysuckle but knew where the flowers were located. It is local honey, after all.]
Local honeysuckle honey.
Vendor tables visited and delicious liquids purchased, I asked if there were any food vendors and was told they were across the tent. I hadn't noticed because they didn't have any food or signage visible. As it turned out, there were separate vendors for food, beverages, and desserts.
Beverages on the back right; food to the right. (Desserts not pictured.)
It hadn't been that long since I'd eaten, but I had taken a walk to get to the plaza and frankly, there didn't seem to be anything else to do. It's a small festival for a small community, and although I know they had some events, the event page on the town's website didn't give any details beyond evening concerts. I think there was a spearfishing contest at some point, but I have no idea which day, what time, or where. I'll be better prepared next year, but for now, I was ready to sample the festival cuisine and move on with my day. My bus app told me there was a bus leaving from the stop on that side of town at 4:01pm, giving me about an hour and a half to eat.
I started with the seafood. They were selling - you guessed it! - sea bream and squid. You could get the fish grilled or filets with orange sauce, grilled or fried calamari, or the local version of kofta kebabs - all served with fries. They also had sides of fries and potato salad to be ordered. There was a young man taking orders who spoke English, so I asked for his recommendation. He recommended calamari or the sea bream with orange sauce. I prefer fish to calamari, so I got the fish with orange sauce.
They pulled aside the curtain so I could photograph the kitchen!
Calamari! And big jars of ajvar, presumably for the kofta kabobs.
While I waited for my food to be cooked, I went to the beverage table and bought a very overpriced cup of iced tea. After sipping on it for a while at one of the standing tables, I decided to check out the dessert vendor. I neglected to get a photo of the booth, but they were making crepes and fritule, which was a new dessert for me, so I decided to try them. They came in little disposable trays with your choice of toppings: Nutella and/or white chocolate sauces and various dry items to be sprinkled on top, like finely chopped nuts of various types, sprinkles, etc. There were also large jars of jam, but she didn't offer jam as an option, so I think they were only meant for the crepes.
Fritule with warm Nutella and a light dusting of fine coconut.
While I was getting my fritule, my number was called for the sea bream, so I hurried over, set my beverage and dessert on the nearest table, which was empty, and retrieved my entree. Since this was a nice, local experience, I filmed myself trying the food (should I post it to Youtube?).
My festival meal. 24 Euros for entree, shareable dessert and beverage.
The sea bream was very good - the orange sauce complimented it very nicely - and the fries soaked up the sauce, which absolutely turned them into another dessert. The fritule were quite chewy, and of course delicious with all that sugary sauce. There were a lot of them. I won't buy them again like this unless I have someone to share them with.
Between the orange sauce on the fish, the dessert fries and the actual dessert, the meal was exceedingly rich and filling. Very heavy, but delicious.
As I was eating, I double-checked the bus schedule, and I'm glad I did - it turns out the bus I was planning to take at 4:00 only went in the direction of Medulin. It only went two stops to the other end of Ližnjan. The next bus actually going to Medulin didn't leave until about 6pm.
I finished eating at about 3:00, so I had a choice to make: hang out in Ližnjan with nothing to do because I didn't have the language skills and didn't know anybody and hadn't brought a book or notebook or my laptop with me, or walk home, which Google Maps told me would take about an hour to get from the plaza to my apartment. I decided the food I had eaten warranted a long walk, and I wanted to check out the route anyway - it's a relatively busy road and the two towns are almost connected at their edges, so I knew I wouldn't be out in the middle of nowhere, but I wasn't sure how safe it would be to walk along that road. Mom had video called on WhatsApp, so I called her back to have some company on my walk.
Pretty bird in an olive orchard.
As it turned out, the walk was easy. Once I got to that main road, there was sidewalk all the way to Medulin. And fun fact: I walked through more countryside between the end of Ližnjan and the plaza than I did between Ližnjan and Medulin - they are very close to each other.
And that was pretty much my Saturday! I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed experiencing it. :)