Let the burger travels begin!
The last few weeks I have been travelling high and low around Croatia. In amongst the vast quantities of seafood I managed to fit in a few burgers: some fair to middling, some incredible. So for anyone wondering what an octopus burger looks like or are now about to book a trip to the Adriatic, read on!
My first stop took me to 'Barba' in Dubrovnik old town...
Nestled up a very narrow, shady alleyway just of off the main street was a tiny little seafood burger bar, with low prices (for Dubrovnik, in reality it was pricey) and lower numbers of tourists this seemed like the best spot to sit and chill out with a cold bottle of Karlovacko. I sampled every burger they had to offer: Octopus, Tuna and Shrimp and even the Croatian speciality octopus saled.
Octopus - This burger was the thickest and had the most flavour. If you closed your eyes and just ate you could actually guess it was octopus, which couldnt 100% be said about the other burgers. This option also came topped with a really good tomato seafood sauce which complemented the octopus really well. The lettuce, tomato and sliced onion then just rounded the overall flavours out nicely. This would be the top option if heading here.
Tuna - Now this burger was very thin so naturally was fairly dry. Due to being so dry it was actually hard to distinguish a particular tuna flavour from it. The overall taste was just something slightly fishy but nothing I could put my finger on. I was expecting freshly blended tuna steaks breadcrumbed in panco but sadly this was not the case. This burger came with tartar sauce which lacked the caper punch it needed so it was basically mayonnaise. Again the salad was good but should not really be the star of the show when it comes to a burger.
Shrimp - Same issue with the tuna here. Dry and very thin with very minimal shrimp flavour. Don't get me wrong it is good as a cheap (again for dubrovnik) snack as it filled a hole and kept my energy levels up as I exerted myself barging through numerous levels of American tourists.
The one similarity that hold all these burgers together is the infamous black bun. This truly was delicious. You get a slight sea taste from the cuttlefish ink used to colour them and they were incredibly crisp on the outside yet beautifully fluffy on the inside.
Overall it is a tad pricey compared to England or other parts of Croatia, especially for what it is, but the cheapest and one of the nicest things in Dubrovnik. It reminded me like a slightly upmarket Birdseye fish finger sandwich. In comparison to a UK chippy it just wasnt great. I feel like grosvenors would ruin them in a seafood burger cook off (call out to Grosvenors to make an octopus burger). It was the best of an otherwise low quality selection in the old town. Every other restaurant there seems to offer absolutely everything a tourist could possibly ever imagine and as usual, sacrifice the quality to ensure enormous quantity. One place even used long grain rice to make risotto!!
The next burger took me to 'Misto' street food factory in Split...
This I was very excited about. The food in Split was some of the best quality I experienced whilst on the coast. This little street food joint is located just near the edge of the palace old town on the outskirts of the UNESCO world heritage area. They advertised all local ingredients with everything being made fresh. This certainly showed in the taste.
They had a decent range of slow cooked meats. I opted for the slow roasted pork glazed in Dalmatian sweet wine. It was then pulled into chunks and loosely compacted to form a patty kind of shape (so kind of a burger). It was very tender and succulent. The sweet glaze worked perfectly with the rich pork. The only slight issue was that the bun was a bit too big so the pork seemed a bit scarce in the bun. Though in reality there was a lot of pork the bun was just huge. The salad was nice and was a type of lettuce I've never seen before. In terms of the bun it was nice, just massive. There was no sharp vinegar element in this burger concoction but the pork was succulent and it didn't need any pickle as this would have masked the flavours of the sweet wine. There was no crunch element which may have been nice to include. Some crispy Dalmatian prosciutto would have complemented this well. This was a great way to sample some slightly different Dalmatian cuisine and it was very cheap. Coming in with a portion of roasted Rosemary potatoes at around £6 roughly. And that included the obligatory beer.
My next venture took me to 'La Famiglia' in Zadar...
Further North to the hometown of the world renowned Luka Modric to sample yet another burger. It seemed as though the further up the coast we went the better the food got. The main benefit of travelling North is the abundance of truffles. Possibly the greatest thing to have ever been discovered growing underneath a tree.
So I opted for the Zadar Black Truffle burger. The meat was pink (served as standard) and was very juicy. It had a lot of flavour to it and was very well seasoned. The crispy Dalmatian smoked ham was a superb addition and added a subtle smoked element. All brought together by a sumptuous black Truffle sauce. The truffles were local to the region which was good to see.
The Chips are something called potato cuts. Image aside the shape maximises surface area to ramp up the crispness. Furthermore, it acts as a good crevice for sauce.
Now on to the capital of Croatia, Zagreb, and a visit to Submarine Natural Burgers...
My search for burgers didn't take long. Within 10 minutes I happened to come across Submarine Natural Burgers. This was truly a delight. For the first time for several weeks I was surrounded by local Croatian people eating burgers where 100% of the ingredients are sourced from Croatia. It truly felt like a local experience and served with some incredible Croatian craft beers it could not have been better.
I opted for the sliders as it allowed for maximum sampling of the menu.
From left to right.
The Original - It was like a Big Mac on steroids. Pickles were taken to the extreme. Surprisingly this worked really well as it was balanced with a hefty hit of meat flavour. All polished off with some homemade submarine sauce, similar to burger sauce but way better.
The Italian - There was a subtle basil pesto underlying the whole concoction but the main hit was the beef once again. The italient ham was a nice addition as it added a salty element to the palate which contrasted the fresh pesto nicely
The BBQ - Again the main taste was the meat. The BBQ sauce was very subtle and came fashionably late to the palate which was surprising and perfect. Often BBQ burgers overpower you with a volcanic eruption of sauce which masks the whole flavour of the burger itself. The sauce was a touch sweet and had a very faint smoked essence to it which lingered in the mouth. This was definitely one to finish on. I would go as far to say this was the best BBQ burger I have ever had in my life. It's a shame it was only a slider.
Overall None of these burgers were pink but all were still juicy and had an impeccable flavour. This may be credit to the locally supplied meat and testament to their vast open spaces allowed for cattle rearing.
Sides
We opted for White truffle fries with hard cheese. Thesewere crisp and had the most lip smacking hit of truffle I've ever experienced. The salty hard was needed to round off the experience and mellow out the trufflegasm. We Also had fries with Slovenian black sausage which were probably the better of the two. again these were very crispy. the sausage added a really subtle smoked flavour which seemed to fill your mouth with a sweet burning charcoal taste, subtle yet intense at the same time. If my duodenum wasn't about to give way I could of Eaten the entire bowel of these happily.
Croatia Overall
Unlike in England when Croatia says truffle, they mean it! You get masses blended into sauces and then for extra measure large slices grated on top of anything and everything. The large amounts of forest allows for copious production of this delicacy. It seems they are just inundated with it.
In general the Food got better as we moved north and east. essentially away from cruise ships and out of areas that have seasons. Along the coast we found places over run by tourism to a point where entire Towns shut down from October for the entire winter. It seems the locals then migrate to somewhere unbeknown to us and leave these incredible old towns completely deserted. There are in essence a Disneyland of historical and medieval cities. Places that contain no local Croatian people and are preserved for tourism alone while most of the time in Summer I imagine is spent fighting through crowds of cruise ship passengers with selfie sticks whinging about not being able to use the masses of euros they got out at Venice only 6 hours prior.
Croatia has an up and coming burger scene in the mainland and this certainly showed in the Capital. For anyone considering a visit this would be the area where I would spend most of my time. It doesn't have the iconic Adriatic sea in view but the experience feels much more authentic and the food is of considerably higher quality.
