Dalmatian Cuisine & Konoba Culture

Dalmatian cuisine is Mediterranean cooking at its simplest and best — grilled fish, olive oil, seasonal vegetables, and the wines from the surrounding islands and hillsides that make the Adriatic coast one of Europe's great food regions. The konoba (traditional tavern) is the institution where this food is served — small, family-run restaurants with stone walls, wooden tables, and menus that change with what the fishermen caught and what the market offered.

The essential dishes include pašticada (slow-braised beef in a sweet-and-sour wine sauce, the Dalmatian national dish), crni rižot (black risotto made with cuttlefish ink), grilled whole fish (branzino, orada, or whatever was swimming that morning), and the octopus prepared under a peka (a domed lid covered in embers, creating a slow-roasting environment that produces the tenderest octopus you'll eat anywhere). The wines — Plavac Mali from Hvar and the Pelješac Peninsula, Pošip from Korčula, Babić from Primošten — are the local accompaniment.

Konoba Varoš, in the old neighbourhood west of the palace, and Konoba Matejuška, on the fishing harbour of the same name, are among the most authentic in the old town — small, busy, and serving food whose quality depends entirely on the morning's market.