Adventures with Julia

October 20, 2017

We are getting closer to coming home and it shows in our attitudes.  We are caring less and less about what the guides want to tell us about their part of the world.    Today we agreed to go to one medieval hill town, called Motovun, eat in a truffle specialty restaurant and visit a truffle store.  We passed on the other two villages we were scheduled to visit.   So, we left the hotel at 10:30 and returned at 2:30.

The 12^th century medieval town is considered the best preserved such towns in Istria.  It is at the top of a round hill and currently has a population of 500 even though it is barely accessible by car.

It was built in two stages,  The walled top is from medieval times and the lower “suburbs” developed over time as the population grew.

We were dropped off at the bottom of the suburbs and walked up.  Only residents are allowed in by car and they drive very carefully up the narrow, slick, limestone passage.

Once at the top we walked around the walls, looking down at the houses in the burbs and the valley below.  Marija said the distant mountain views were great, but we could see none of that due to the overcast and fog.

At one point, she pointed out a house below in the suburbs and told us it was the birth place of Mario Andretti, the famous race car driver.   The whole town was pretty small and did not take long for us to see it all.   It was charming and probably delightful on a clear day.   We stopped for lunch at a cafe with cliffside dining, even though it was cool.

We had pasta with lots of white truffles in it.  It was tasty and pretty rich.   On the way down the hill we stopped in a roadside shop and bought a couple jars of truffles.   We wanted white truffles, but only the cheaper and more plentiful black ones were available.   Having tasted them both, we agreed that the white ones are more flavorful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Renata was waiting for us at the bottom of the suburbs and we were back in Rovinj on schedule.  We enjoyed a pleasant walk in the forested area next to our hotel and by the time we got back to the room, the sun had broken through the fog.  Although the sky was still hazy, the air was warm enough to veg comfortably on our deck.

That evening I dressed up for a change.  I had brought way more clothes than I needed, as we almost never changed for dinner, in spite of my expectations.  Next time I will take only one slightly dress up outfit no matter how long the trip lasts.

Anyway, we had made reservations at the only Michelin Star restaurant in Croatia.  It is called Monte and is at the top of the Old Town in Rovinj.   Our taxi driver could get us only to the town square.  From there we had a steep walk up several flights of stairs to reach the Cathedral at the top, go around a corner and down a flight to get to the restaurant.  The walk was very worth the trouble as we had the best meal of our whole trip and many others besides.

The dining room was cozy, yet full with several tables of diners.  There was a cone shaped decorative propane heater in the middle of the room that added a touch of warmth.  The walls and furnishings were colorful.  All the staff was friendly, conversational and worked all the tables, so we had no one waiter.  The chef, Daniel Dekic, and his wife, Tjitske, are the owners of the place.

One of the servers told us the restaurant had been the house where the chef was born and grew up.  The restaurant, we learned, has been open since 2008 and received a Michelin Star in February of this year.

 

 

Tjitske, who comes from Holland, and dresses only in white, greeted us with menus but asked us to leave them closed until she told us what she thought we should do.

Then she proceeded to offer us two suggestions: one was a 5 course tasting meal that featured farm fresh ingredients presented in a fairly traditional manner; the other was a 7 course tastingmeal featuring totally unique flavors and combinations of tastes.

Then she said to look at the menu and decide.  The menu  presented the two offerings she told us about as well as a fully detailed  a-la-carte menu.  Once Tjitske told us we would not be stuffed by so many courses, we both agreed to go for the 7 course meal.  After all, this was our first Michelin dining experience and we wanted to make the most of it.

Then the excitement began.  It is hard to describe and explain each course so I am sharing photos of the courses I remembered before eating them.

The very first thing that came was called “amuse” and it did just that.  It looked like an edible Disneyland forest with green lolly-pop trees, sponge-like grass with pieces of something nutty on top and a tiny glass of a juniper “gin & tonic”.

It was more savory than sweet and very fun to eat.   Wow!  Now what?  Well, a server anticipated we might want to know and presented us with a menu of the meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Except that we suddenly had a course in front of us that was not on the printed menu.  It tasted good, but I cannot tell you what was in it.

written The first menu offering was called Omega 3 and included tunafish, mackerel and sardines.   The portion was small, but delectable, and we ate each bite very slowly so we would not miss the flavors.

The next course was a combination of crustaceans, algae, chicken, mungo beans, saffron and dashi.  I can’t begin to tell you how these ingredients worked together, but they surely did.

Then came our last fish course: monk fish, squid croquette, zucchini and octopus, quinoa and sea foam.  Monk fish is not my favorite, but the rest of the dish was perfectly tasty and tender.  No tough octopus or squid here.  I ate the monk fish anyway.

Then the menu switched to meat.  It started with duck sous vida, duck strudel,  pumpkin, red cabbage and cranberries.  Mark loved the strudel, which we learned included goose liver.  No idea what the “sous vida” means, but it tasted good, whatever it was.

Our second meat course was suckling pig that had cooked for 24 hours, lentils, aspic, bell peppers and geranium.  I could not find the geranium, but the rest was delicious.

The savory part of the meal was over and we moved on to the sweet courses, which never seemed to stop.  First was a predessert that had gorgonzola cheese in the bottom, pear custard, tapioca pearls and a couple ingredients I can’t remember.  Lovely though.

The pre dessert was followed by a plate of fresh Istrian cheese, tapioca, vanilla ice cream, goose liver, hazelnut, orange and agave syrup.  The goose liver is the pinkish strip on the right side of the plate.  I had no idea I was eating goose liver.  The whole dish blended together beautifully.

The last desert was an eggplant and tomato compote with meringue, yogurt, oregano granite and almond powder.  It also tasted wonderful in spite of how it sounds.

By now very full, we were served coffee and tea and small home made cookies.  The cookies did us in.  After that we were stuffed, but had a pleasant conversation with Tjitski about their surprise in getting the designation.  At first they were nervous about keeping up the image and then they realized they needed only to keep doing what they had been doing.  They had an extremely busy season and are glad to be closing in a week for the winter.  As we left, at the end of the three hour food fest, she handed us a bag with a Michelin brochure and two small pieces of chocolate cake for something to remember them when we wake up in the morning.  I am sure we will remember them and our experience  at Monte long after the cake is gone and we have returned home.