I’ve never had anything quite like this so I’m excited to try it.
I love this!
Dessert has arrived.
Oh…it looks so good!
We need to order another one of these.
Excuse me!
Hi guys.
We are in Zagreb, Croatia
and we have never tried Croatian food before
so we’ve come to a restaurant where everything that they serve,
everything is sourced - right down to the olive oil - from Croatia.
And when we first walked in, we saw this giant sculpture of horses
and it’s a nod to what this building used to be.
They used to have a stable of stagecoach horses here.
And on the second floor was actually a vocational school
for the Apprentice Inn and Coffee House staff, which opened in 1917.
So it’s pretty cool to be sitting in a place where they used to keep horses in the 19th century
and knowing that we’re about to have some delicious sounding Croatian food.
We’re starting with a Croatian meat and cheese plate and there’s a ton of stuff on this plate.
Young cow cheese with pepper,
Švargla…
I’m going to do my best with the pronunciation but I…
I’ve never heard someone say these things so bare with me you guys.
Švargla, which is domestic sausages with pork and beef meat with jelly.
Then Slavonian Kulen sausage, which is spicy pork sausage,
and then this type of Croatian bread which looks really interesting called Uštipci.
The way this bread looks kind of reminds me of when you go to a Chinese restaurant in North America
and get the dumplings with that crazy red sauce.
Doesn’t it kind of look like that?
Yeah.
Mmm.
Nice and chewy.
It’s good.
My favourite is the Dalmatian prosciutto.
Like 101 Dalmatians but not Dalmatian dogs.
And for those who didn’t know, Dalmatia is a region in Croatia, which is where the dogs come from.
Our soup course has arrived and it’s pumpkin soup.
I love all things pumpkin
so I think I fit right in in Croatia because at least in continental Croatia,
serving pumpkin in all different forms is extremely popular and eaten quite a bit.
So we have this lovely pumpkin soup with fresh pepper to tuck into.
There’s something about the colour of pumpkin that’s just so comforting.
I agree.
It’s nice and sweet.
There’s nothing like cozy pumpkin anything but especially when it’s in the form of soup.
Croatians are doing it right.
For the main course, I’m having something super traditional in Croatia.
This is turkey.
In this case turkey leg with mlinci and cabbage.
And the mlinci looks so interesting.
This is a side dish that’s sort of an alternative to having vegetables or potatoes or something like that.
And it’s usually made with just three simple ingredients: flour, water and salt.
The more simple the better.
And it’s served with turkey and I hear this is actually very traditional to also have on special occasions so...
Christmas, Easter…but also other times as well.
And then served with cabbage.
I also love that mlinci is also called “pasta tatters”
because it really does look like somebody just sort of went through a paper shredder with these pieces of pasta.
I love the name - it’s so visual.
And I’ve never had anything quite like this so I’m excited to try.
Oh, it kind of falls apart.
That looks fun.
Mmm…smells good.
First pasta tatters.
Oh my god, that’s good.
Okay I need to take a bigger bite.
Just a second.
As if something called pasta tatters could possibly be bad.
This is delicious.
Very simple, lightly salted, super, super fresh tasting.
Oh my god.
No wonder this is an alternative to vegetables.
That’s delicious!
Mlinci…I like you.
The turkey that comes with the mlinci is from Slavonia, which is another region of Croatia.
Just like Dalmatia is a region of Croatia.
It looks really good.
I wonder how Slavonian turkey compares.
Look at this gravy.
Mmm.
I know here’s there’s like a real emphasis on freshness so I expect it to taste fresh.
It’s really nice and tender.
It looks delicious.
Yeah.
It’s turkey and gravy baby.
Yeah.
You can’t go wrong. -With pasta tatters.
No wonder this is used to celebrate.
For my main, I got something called pašticada, which is sort of like a beef steak.
It’s from Dalmatia again…love Dalmatia.
And it takes four days to prepare.
Couple days just to marinate it and then it’s kind of mixed with veggies and then they bake it.
And it just looks phenomenal.
It looks so hearty and it’s served with gnocchi, which I absolutely love so this is going to be great.
This is a no fail.
-This is a no fail.
This whole meal is a no fail.
Is that how the dessert makes you feel?
That’s how you know dessert has arrived.
My dessert dance.
So our Croatian meal is drawing to a close but not before we have traditional Croatian desserts.
So we have two amazing looking things on this plate
that we’re supposed to share anyway.
And the first is actually called Christmas pound cake.
So it’s usually eaten around Christmas time.
And then this other one just looks so good.
This is a mocha caramel.
It’s made with toffee and mascarpone cheese
and our server described this one as sort of a tiramisu with a Croatian twist,
which sounds like an excellent melding of everything if you ask me.
Oh yes it does.
It looks too good to eat but we all know, I need to try this.
And this is a fruit sauce around the outside by the way.
I want to get some of that fruit sauce.
Looks unbelievable.
Trying to balance on the fork.
Mmm.
It tastes Christmassy.
Yeah?
Got those Christmas spices in there?
It has those like Christmas spices, the nuts, the fruit flavours…
I can definitely see how you just bite into this and immediately feel like cozy Christmas.
This one just looks ridiculous.
Oh my god.
Look at the layers.
That looks amazing.
Oh my lord.
Look at the layers on that.
Mmm!
Love that.
I’m calling dibs on the rest of it.
Dibs.
We need to order another one of these.
Excuse me!
Holy rocket boosters that’s good!
Oh!
Sweet lord.
There’s little balls of white chocolate on top too.
I really wish I could just put this through the screen and share it with you.
This is one you want to share.
Oh, what a good end to this meal.
Alright.
Eileen’s been raving about this one so…it's my turn.
It looks so good!
Mocha caramel baby!
I love every layer that’s in this.
Oh my god.
Isn’t it good?
Oh!
Oh my god!
I never really get things that are like tiramisu or whatever…
I’ve been missing out!
Especially this Croatian one.
This is nuts!
Really good.
Nuts!
I love this!
That’s ridiculous.
Just ridiculous.
I love it.
I don’t think I need to tell you that Marc and I completely demolished that mocha caramel cake.
Oh yes we did.
My god that was so good.
And it was very sweet so we’re going to end the meal, as you typically do in Croatia, with coffee.
And according to our server actually, one of the most typical kinds of coffee, is Turkish.
So we’re going to have some Turkish coffee to end what has really been a lovely meal.
It’s our first time trying Croatian food.
I hope that you guys have enjoyed it too.
Make sure you give the video a thumbs up if you did.
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I wish I knew how to say cheers in Croatian.
Leave me a comment so I know next time.
Anyway, cheers!
We'll see you in our next video!
It’s so strong.