For Nadia

Since meeting Nadia in Rockport many years ago, I have taken on her habit of photographing food. She had whole albums of these photos of beautiful meals, and if you cooked a special meal together, she would always stop you before you took a bite, to get the perfect picture of your meal. She could flip through the albums and tell you who was eating with her that meal and what special significance there was to the food or the meal itself (celebrating a new baby, a wedding, mourning a lost loved one, welcoming the grandchildren back to Rockport after they had been away at school all year...).

Since Nadia is surely reading my blog from Heaven (actually I feel her traveling with me, she does not even need to see the blog...). It is her voice in my ear, urging me to photograph the butter before eating it, not matter how hungry I may be...

So here is butter in Opatija (Croatia), which they served on ice, with garnishes of curled carrots and some greens.

And this is Caprese salad in Rijeka (close to Italy, the second language there is actually Italian! and people say it is like how Italy used to be... how nostalgic.... all I can say is that the Croatian fresh mozzarela is very rich and quite fantastic!).



This is BUREK!! So tasty... but not for you high-cholesterol, blocked artery types! It is a local specialty and I think I may suffer from withdrawal symptoms from the lack of it when I return to the states........... This is filo dough with meat, cheese, or potatoes inside. This whole meal with juice and local yogurt (soooooo tasty, soooo rich!) cost me about $2. Actually, the whole time I have been here, I have eaten very well and have never spend more than $10 USD on a meal.

For example, this was my dinner tonight. Half a chicken, yogurt, bread, juice... all for a whopping $5 USD. The food is flavorful and well-prepared. I can always find something I am excited to eat which is well within my price range. I certainly cannot say that about the US! (as those of you who have ever searched fruitlessly (haha) for food with me will know!). The other nice thing is that I cannot finish any plate of food, but I am staying at hostels where they have a fridge, so that $5 or $10 meal will last me 1-3 meals all told.

One snack I ate on the island of Lokrum in Croatia was so tasty that a peacock came by and ate some too. I was finished already...




This is fried cheese, which I ate with Toshi on the first night he arrived in Croatia. We sat out on a magnificant balcony and fininshed off a bottle of wine as well...







We had a fancy dinner with nice wine from the island of Hvar (near where we visited, but we didn't make it to that island). We started out with shrimp risotto.








Here is a fish plate we ordered for our one really nice fancy dinner out in Split, Croatia (ancient walled city from Roman times). The hands you see belong to the waitor, who cut the fish heads and tails off and deboned the fish right there at the table for us.














The plate had 2 kinds of fresh fish, also huge shrimps, mussels, clams, octopus, and calamari.



Here is me trying octopus for the first time. Tasty! and crunchy and salty!





OK, so these next ones are technically beverages, but who's counting?

I enjoyed espresso in Amsterdam (and elsewhere, but only photographed this one), slowly allowing the sugar to dissolve on the spoon. This is a delicate pleasure I learned from my mother. I love to watch the sugar dissolve, only allowing a tiny bit of coffee on to the spoon at a time.

This is fresh lemonade with slices of orange in it. I had this on the island of Lokrum one day and it was so good I made Toshi come back with me the next day too! He had a nice nap in some plush chairs while we sipped this refreshing drink after a boat ride to and a hike around this tiny island nature preserve.

Here is me trying Absinthe, which I thought would be cool. But it did not make me feel different at all, just a little cloudy. So don't believe the hype!