Istria abecedary: C is for Cukerančići

Cukerančići are a traditional type of cookie or biscuit, always prepared for special occasions. Cuker means sugar in Istrian dialect (pronounced 'tsuker' and similar to Zucker in German... and different to šećer in Croatian), which is sprinkled on top (hence the name!). Very often they're dipped in white wine (after they're baked) before being sprinkled with sugar.

The Croatian letter C is pronounced like the 'ts' sound in the word 'cats'.

Istria abecedary: B is for Balun

Balun is a traditional Istrian dance performed in pairs to music played by traditional instruments. You can see a video here.

B is also for Bukaleta

This is a pitcher made of earthenware that was traditionally used to serve wine at special occasions. Today this is a popular decorative souvenir that's often often personalized with someone's name.

B is also for Bura, a strong, cold wind that blows in the Adriatic.

B is also for Bazga (elderflower).

And B is also for Boškarin, a type of Istrian ox.

(Image Source: Istria Tourist Office)

Istria abecedary: A is for Arena

While I'm away in India for the next three months, I've planned to start a abecedary on Istria, to keep content flowing on this blog while I'm away. 

So for each letter of the Croatian alphabet (there are 30!) I'll be writing a short post about one aspect of Istria, related to its culture, geography, society, architecture, or cuisine.

It's taking me a while to compile the abecedary (which is still work in progress) and I've discovered that for some letters it's more challenging to come up with something than for others. I've also been pouring through my image library looking for suitable photos to illustrate each post, or trying to source the ones I don't have.

So the natural place to start is at A:

A is for Arena

This is the name of the Roman amphitheatre located in Pula, built between 27 BC and 68 AD. Pula's amphitheatre is considered to be one of the best preserved of the remaining Roman amphitheatres in the world because most of its outer walls are intact and it has all four side towers. Today it's a popular tourist attraction and is used as a venue for concerts and other cultural events. 

(Photo credit: Istria Tourist Board)

Christmas wheat -- and holiday greetings!

The tradition of božićna pšenica (Christmas wheat) was not one I was familiar with before moving to Croatia.

But every year around mid-December I notice these curious plants for sale in supermarkets and on display at neighbours' homes – that look to me a lot like cat nip!

I did a bit of research and found out that the wheat grains are planted on December 13th, the feast of St. Lucy. According to the tradition, if by Christmas Day the shoots of wheat have grown tall, abundant and green, then its owner will have a prosperous New Year!

Now what I'm confused about is the fact that fully grown Christmas wheat plants are for sale everywhere. Wouldn't this be cheating, if you haven't planted it yourself? Does this mean that you're guaranteed to have a fantastic New Year if you buy a fully grown plant? I would love to know.

Here's wishing all my readers Happy Holidays and a prosperous 2016! May your wheat grow tall and lush!

How to send a package in Croatia

The Croatian Post is one option but not your best bet!

If you want to send a package in Croatia, you can go to the post office of course, but this is not the only option -- there are others. You can also head to your local kiosk... or to the bus station!

Unfortunately my experience of the Croatian postal service has not been very positive and it is not the most reliable or fastest way to send anything. So luckily, there are these other options.

A typical kiosk

First I'll tell you about the kiosk. Sending packages from a kiosk is a new service recently launched by Tisak Media. In case you're wondering what a kiosk is, these are the little enclosed stalls you see in Croatian towns and cities selling primarily newspapers and magazines, but also cigarettes, chocolates, chewing gum, fiscal stamps, and tram tickets, among other useful things. Thanks to the new Tisak Paket service, it costs only 10 HRK (1.30EUR / 2CAD / 95INR / 1.44USD) to send documents, and 15 HRK (1.95EUR / 3CAD / 142INR / 2.15USD) to send packages from and to any kiosk in Croatia. They also have an international service for packages sent to a foreign address. Their website even has a 'kiosk locator' where you can find out which of the over 1000 Tisak Media kiosks across Croatia is located closest to the person you want to send a package to. They claim to offer same day service within Zagreb (if you drop off your package before 12pm), and three to six days for other cities in Croatia. This option is quite cost effective for packages, costing less than the post office. Three to six days seems a bit long for national delivery, but compared to the time it takes Hrvatska Pošta to deliver mail, it is not bad at all.

Just ask the bus driver!

The other way to send a package is via the bus driver. This is definitely the fastest and most cost effective way to get a package to a friend or family member. I was reminded of this Croatian 'tradition' recently when I took the bus from Pazin to Zagreb. A lady got on with a package – something wrapped in a plastic bag. She asked the driver if he could hand it over to her niece who would be waiting at the bus station in Rijeka, where we would be stopping on our way. She also passed him some money, saying “This is for your marenda.” He took the package but refused the money, answering that he doesn't take payment from neighbours. One hour later, the package was handed over at Rijeka bus station. That's what you can call express delivery! Cost: free.

I remember seeing many similar transactions on bus trips when I used to visit as a child and we would travel all over Istria by bus visiting family. I also remember overhearing aunts saying that they would “send it with the bus driver”. At that time, there used to be many more buses travelling between cities and towns across Istria and beyond, and people used to use this cheap and very reliable way of sending things to family and friends in other cities. Drivers would also make a little bit of extra money this way, accepting 'tips' for the 'express delivery' service they were providing. It's nice to see that this tradition continues!

So, if like me, you're frustrated with the Croatian postal service, know that there are other, more reliable – and cheaper! – options.

While living in India I observed how long-distance bus drivers in India also make extra cash – much more than just tips – by transporting 'unofficial' shipments on bus routes. ...Like the time when I was travelling on a bus from Bangalore to Pondicherry and we made an unscheduled stop on the way. You can read about it here.

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A visit to the olive oil mill

Following my recent post about the olive harvest, this one is about a visit to our local oil mill. After helping our neighbour pick his olives, we headed to the mill, just a few kilometres away. Ideally, olives should be pressed within 24 hours after harvest. For this reason, the oil mills often work around the clock at this time of year (and are closed for the rest of the year!). There are about 30 olive oil mills in operation across Istria.

After being weighed the olives are loaded into the press machine

When we arrived, there were no customers ahead of us – but several showed up just a few minutes after we did. First the bags of olives were stacked onto a palette and a forklift was used to move the whole lot onto a large scale. The weight came to 245 kg. This was the weight of olives that had been picked over the previous two days, but there were many other trees still waiting to be picked.

Washing in progress

Next the bags were moved into the room where the huge Italian press machine was waiting. The bags were opened one by one, and the olives emptied into the machine. There are several stages to the pressing process. The first step is to wash the olives and separate the leaves and any debris. Next, the olives move into another compartment of the machine where they’re crushed into a paste. The third stage is centrifugation where the oil is extracted from the paste. The temperature at this and all stages of the process cannot be higher than 27 degrees Celsius. Sure enough, there was a temperature gauge on the machine and it indicated 27 degrees. If the temperature climbs higher than this, then the oil would not be considered to be ‘extra virgin’. This is why extra virgin olive oil is sometimes described as ‘cold pressed’ or ‘cold extracted’.

This machine could process three different batches at the same time and had three different compartments for washing, crushing and centrifugation. This ensures that one client’s olives are not mixed with another’s, and that each client takes home his or her own oil. The cost of pressing is charged per kg. At this mill the cost was 1.5 HRK (0.20EUR / 0.21USD / 0.28CAD / 14INR) per kg.

Our neighbour wanted to be in a photo -- here he is waiting for his olives to be processed

The whole pressing process took about an hour in total. When the first drops of oil finally appeared, it had the colour of pea soup. We each took a small cup and tasted this freshly pressed olive juice. It smelled of freshly cut grass and the taste was very fruity and peppery at the same time. When we tasted it again later at home (our neighbour had given us a few litres of this precious juice in exchange for our hard work!) after it had had time to settle, it was even more delightfully fruity in taste.

Liquid gold...

From 245 kg of olives, our neighbour got 37 litres of olive oil. This should be more than enough for a family’s consumption for the whole year. The price for a litre of locally pressed olive oil starts at 80 HRK (10EUR / 11USD / 15 CAD/ 740INR) and can be twice as much for an organic variety. The stuff you get at the supermarket is of course much cheaper, often half this price, but inferior in quality and often not real extra virgin olive oil at all. 

But there’s nothing like the real stuff. I feel so lucky to live in a place where I can get pure, extra virgin olive oil produced locally and know it’s the real thing.

Olive oil season in Istria

In Istria, olive-picking season starts in October and continues until late November. This is usually the time when olives are ripe and ready to be picked. Of course some varieties ripen faster than others, so those are the ones that have to be picked first. And in the south of the peninsula, picking usually starts earlier than in central or northern Istria.

This year was a very good year for olives because of the long, hot and dry summer we had. Last year, however, was terrible because of a very wet summer, conditions that were favourable for the destructive olive fly.

Some olive growers prefer to pick their olives before they’re fully ripe, and just as their colour starts to change from green to purple, because this increases the polyphenol (a type of micronutrient and anti-oxidant) content of the oil, and preserves its nutritional properties. Others prefer to wait until their olives are completely ripe and have fully purple skins because this will result in a larger quantity of oil. It’s a matter of taste, and quality over quantity.

We have a small olive tree in our courtyard and this year it produced its first olive! Of course we are far from having enough fruit to make even a thimble of oil… But this year we had the chance to experience an olive harvest when we helped a neighbour pick his olives.

His olive grove is not far from the village, situated on the side of a hill which has been terraced so that each tree gets maximum sun exposure. His trees are less than ten years old and he keeps pruning the branches so that they grow outwards rather than upwards. As a result the trees are not very tall and it was easy to hand pick the olives.

We spread a net on the ground around the tree so that it would catch all the falling olives. The olives are plucked off the branches by hand, or by using a small hand rake. I preferred to simply pluck them by hand off the branches, working one branch at a time. Those using the rakes just let them drop on the net below, and once all the olives had been removed from the tree, they’re picked up off the net. Inevitably leaves and twigs get mixed up with the olives and these have to be separated. We were a group of six working on each tree and I was surprised at how quickly we could finish one tree. Of course some trees had more olives than others, and the fruit varied according to the variety: some were fat and juicy, while others were much smaller. I enjoyed this work better than grape picking, even though grape picking is less tedious.

In Istria, food is an important part of any activity. So once we had finished picking for the day, it was time to eat. We had an improvised picnic on the hilltop and enjoyed the last warm days of Autumn.

Olives should be pressed within 24 hours of picking so that their nutritional value is preserved as much as possible. So that evening we headed to the local oil mill… the subject of my next blog post!