Coastal towns north of Zadar

After coffee and some pastries (yes, we’ve been walking a lot but we are going to need to diet after this trip!) we squeezed into the rental car to explore a few villages north of Zadar. Everyone was great about taking turns in the awful jump seat that really wasn't a seat at all.

After wandering around the cute town of Nin we found an outdoor restaurant and shared salads and a ginormous meat platter (traditional Croatian sausages, grilled chicken/pork, and ribs presented with a mountain of French fries).

Balkan cuisine is noted for its diversity and strong intense flavors. Pickled vegetables, small hot peppers, and feta cheese (Balkan cheese) are common ingredients. The bureks we’ve had have had great feta fillings! I’m definitely going to try to make some at Christmas this year (adding spinach and sun-dried tomatoes!)

Ajvar is one of the most popular condiments in the Balkans. It’s a smokey relish made with roasted red bell peppers, eggplant, and olive oil. Interestingly, the name ajvar stems from the Turkish word havyar, meaning “caviar”. Before the 20th century, a significant amount of sturgeon was produced in the waters of the Danube. During that time, ajvar referred to caviar and was widely consumed in Belgrade. When caviar production declined, a red pepper relish was offered as a substitute under the name red ajvar or Serbian ajvar. Today, it’s one of the most commonly paired condiments with many Balkan foods. It’s typically used as a spread and was a yummy part of our “meat feast” today!!

Next, we stopped to swim at Queen’s Beach, 10 minutes from Nin. Maybe “wade” is a better verb here since the shallows went on and on and on (we never did find out where it started to get deep enough to tread water).

This beach is famous for its “medicinal mud” and many folks were running around slathered in this fine black goo. To us, it looked like the smelly organic gunk from childhood capers at low tide–no thanks!

We got back to town and had some downtime, and a little wine before wandering out for pizza (mainly because we couldn’t figure out how to have it delivered to our rental 🤣). No one should have been hungry after that "meat feast" but, well...Leggi altro