Istria:
Thanks to our walk through the history of Istria, we already mentioned that in its past, Istria was exposed to various invasions and occupations which affected the largest groups of people. In order to satisfy the existential and gourmand needs, the fantasy of the exploited, oppressed and poor Istrian people must have been therefore rich and creative. Housewives' fanciful cooking and meal serving covered the poverty and shortage of ingredients. So they prepared meals from seasonal products, cultivated or found in nature, or they added plenty of ingredients to essential foodstuff, available in their rural household. Sunday, as every other holiday or a banquet, was always accompanied by the Istrian dried ham (homemade prosciutto or pršut) and cheese, served as a starter. The chicken soup was followed by sauerkrauts, which was followed by fuži, gnocchi and ravioli. For dessert, delicious 'fritule', 'kroštule' or ' cukerancice' were served.
Tradition:
As by a time machine, travel through the history of Istria, start with the pre-history. From that period you can find traces of immemorial inhabitants, the magnificent dinosaurs, along the Istrian coastline around Bale, not far from Pula. At the beginning of the Bronze Age (2000 BC) the inhabitants abandoned their cave shelters and started heading towards the sea, where they founded settlements at plateaus so as to enable better protection. Istria was named after the Illyrian tribe of Histri. It is said that they came on these areas because of water, settling the regions from the Timava River to Mount Ucka and the Raša River respectively. The custom of incineration appeared in 11th century BC and represents one of the typical characteristics of the culture of pre-historic tribe of Histri. You will discover these traces of time in almost every Istrian town, village, locality. You will find them at the most unexpected places: ruins of an old church, old town ruins, theatres and others.
Gastronomy:
Thanks to our walk through the history of Istria we already mentioned that in its past Istria was exposed to various invasions and occupations which affected the largest groups of people. In order to satisfy the existential and gourmand needs, the fantasy of the exploited, oppressed and poor Istrian people must have been therefore rich and creative. Housewives' fanciful cooking and meal serving covered the poverty and shortage of ingredients. So they prepared meals from seasonal products, cultivated or found in nature, or they added plenty of ingredients to essential foodstuff, available in their rural household. Sunday, as every other holiday or a banquet, was always accompanied by the Istrian dried ham (homemade prosciutto or pršut) and cheese, served as a starter. The chicken soup was followed by sauerkrauts, which was followed by fuži, gnocchi and ravioli. For dessert, delicious 'fritule', 'kroštule' or 'cukerancice' were served. The everyday meal was more 'modest'.
