Interview with Mladen Marusic

To herald our new feature of recipe of the month, which starts this month, CIL speaks to Mladen Marusic, who will be providing the recipes every month.
Mladen was born in Zagreb in 1970. He attended 4 years of catering college in Zagreb and read theology for 4 years at University. He worked as a chief chef for a few years in Zagreb, specialising in vegetarian and macrobiotic food. He completed a one year course in cookery specialisation and presently works as a tutor at the catering college in Zagreb.

We spoke to him about cuisine in Croatia, as well as what Croats like to eat at Christmas.

What are the distinctive characteristics of Croatian cuisine?
There are varieties in Croatian cuisine. We still have a lot of organic food produced on small farms around the country, so it tastes different. Reasonably clean rivers and the Adriatic sea give first class fish and sea food as well as sea salt produced in our country. In restaurants you can find food made in a natural way avoiding industrial products. Genetically modified food is almost unknown in our country and it is not permitted to import or produce it.
Croatia produces varieties of wines and spirits - rakija being the most famous one.
Croatian food is not too spicy - except in Slavonia - but still have nice flavour. Usually we use spices which are common in our country. Almost every meal starts with soup. For Croats, lunch is time for family meetings, and we like to eat together. Croats like to have full plate of food, and on special occasions we have almost too much food on the table.
In Croatia it is impolite not to have enough food for everybody. We make food using different types of cooking: roasting, grilling, baking. We have some “must have” meals for special occasions; weddings, birthdays, New Year, Christmas, etc. Croats eat a lot of bread for every meal.

Croatian cuisine is not that well known, why is it that?
Because it is a small and relatively new country. As an independent country, Croatia has only existed for 16 years and there are not many national restaurants around.
In the past our cuisine was present in the world as a part of Yugoslav cuisine in numerous Yugoslav restaurants. Nowadays most visitors to Croatia are surprised with taste and quality of Croatian food and I am sure soon it will be known worldwide.

Are there many regional variations?
We can divide Croatian cuisine into four regions. Two of them are characterised as a continental cuisine and the other two as Mediterranean cuisine. The first one is Zagreb region, or central region with the Austrian influence. Most dishes are maid from Chicken or poultry and pork meat with lots of different cereals; wheat, corn, oats, millet / fresh cottage cheese, sour cream, ham, bacon pumpkin seed oil... In this region people eat a lot of vegetable stews, serving with meat. There are a lot of old recipes which are popular nowadays.
Second is Slavonia with Hungarian influence. Slavonia was always the wealthy part of Croatia, with lot of cereals, good fish and meat, vegetables and fruit. Their food is more spicy, often use peppers, pork, sausages, famous kulin and kulinova seka (a Croatian speciality), fresh water fish, varieties of good cakes, and plum spirits (rakija).
The other two parts are coastal cuisine - Istria and Dalmatia. They are Italian influenced - mostly fish sea food and a lot of vegetables, risotto (number one is sea food risoto) and salads, fish, sea food. Food is mainly boiled with olive oil, and on the grill. Pasta is common as well, sheep and goat milk cheese, smoked ham (prsut). In Istria there is the well known tartufi (truffle), and the well known turkey from Pazin. Dalmatia and Istria have very good wines too.

What are the favourite dishes in Croatia?
Depends - in some regions food make of meat and on the cost often seafood.

What specialities do Croats cook for Christmas, and what do they usually drink?
And do Croats also prepare specialities for New Year?
A typical Christmas dish in Croatia is Purica s Mlincima. Roast Turkey with Mlinci and walnut loaf as a desert. Usually Croats drink wine - red or white.
There is a tradition in Croatia of preparing roast suckling for new year. It is believed that suckling brings luck and everyone wants to see it on the table. It is usually served with a salad we call French salad. Wine goes with this dish as well. There are lots of good regional wines in Croatia.

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Mladen will be conducting Croatian cuisine classes in Croatia as part of the Croatian Language School’s immersion courses. Please see here for more details.

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