i’ve been thinking
a lot about oysters lately.
Or, more specifically, about where to eat
them. As a massive fan of the tasty
bivalves, I’m in love with the recent trend
for oyster safaris, which give hungry
travellers the chance to get their feet wet as they go in
search of the species in the wild.
We all know that the UK and France have some
amazing native species, but there are some less
predictable destinations: Denmark, where natives grow
wild in the Limfjord, is one, and another – even more
surprisingly – is Croatia.
You’ll find juicy outcrops of the delicious molluscs
along a small and still relatively tourist-free part of the
Dalmatian coastline called the Pelješac Peninsula, an
area famed for the delicacy since the heady days of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, when its produce was
shipped directly to the Emperor Franz Josef in
Vienna, no less. This island-like finger of land
juts out of mainland Croatia from the
medieval town of Ston, which has
thriving agriculture, olive oil and
maritime industries. Formerly an
important salt exporter, its major lure
today is seafood. Beautiful fresh fare prepared
with strong Mediterranean inflections can be found
for a fraction of the price in much of neighbouring
Europe, making this part of Croatia’s coastline a must
for fish fanatics.
Boat is the best way to see and taste the shore.
Arrange trips through agents such as
Explore Croatia
(
croatiaholidays.eu
)
to the bay of the nearby town of
Mali Ston, where fishermen haul sea treasures from
their beds and open them up for you to sample there
and then. Believe me when I say, there’s nothing quite
as delicious as slurping an oyster fresh from the water.
Restaurant
Vila Koruna
(
vila-koruna.hr
)
takes
another approach, serving platters of oysters prepared
in various ways, including gratinated, baked, served
with seaweed and crispy fried.
Meanwhile the owner of prominent seafood
restaurant
Bota Šare
(
bota-sare.hr
)
has a small
private island where guests can spend
whole days snorkelling, fishing and
having the chef cook for them. If that’s
not a culinary odyssey worth
travelling for, I don’t know what is.
alotonherplate.com
“
Shuck then slurp.
It’s the only way to go”
Who’d have thought a small corner of Croatia was a haven for oysters?
Not our food columnist
Rosie Birkett
,
who investigates
A L O T O N
H E R P L A T E
S P L I T
At Mali Ston
bay, fishermen haul up
sea treasures and open
them up for you to sample
there and then
ILLUSTRATION
ELIN SVENSSON
1 0 3
V I E W P O I N T S
