SLAVONIA AND BARANJA

Basic features of cuisine in Slavonia and Baranja are hearty servings of delicious and somewhat spicy dishes. Trends of “healthy diet” have not come to life in majority of Slavonian restaurants. For starters they usually serve spicy salami “kulen”, fresh cottage cheese sprinkled with sweet red paprika and Slavonian ham served with pickled vegetables. Products from black Slavonian pig are also becoming popular. Hot starter is usually “čobanac” (spicy soup-like stew) or fish stew with homemade pasta and bread rolls made with pork fat. There are then many specialties made with freshwater fish - carp, catfish, zander and sturgeon or meat specialties like “kotlovina” (various meats prepared in a special pot), grilled meat and steaks filled with Slavonian ham, cheese, mushrooms, chicken stew and venison in various ways. “Sataraš” (a kind of ratatouille) or “ajvar” (traditional preserve made with peppers and aubergines) are served as side dishes.

For dessert you should try various traditional cakes made with cottage cheese, walnuts or poppy seeds (“gužvara”, “orehnjača”, “makovnjača” and strudels).

The most well- known sort of white grapes and wine is “graševina” (Riesling). The share of graševina in Croatian sorts is 25% and in wine trade even more, 31%). Within Erdut vineyards there is the largest wine barrel in the world, filled with 75,000 l of wine. Special line of wines for hospitality industry is called after it, The Big Barrel.

We suggest you start off with sparkling wines made from graševina Maximo Brut Kutjevo. To accompany cold cuts, fish dishes and white meats we recommend dry graševina (Kutjevo, Erdutski vinogradi). Dishes with white meats in sauces go well with chardonnay, sauvignon and traminer. Dark meats and venison are best accompanied by red, dry frankovka, pinot noir, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Desserts go best with aromatic traminer (Erdutski vinogradi) and graševina selection vintage (Kutjevo).

There are many events in Slavonija dedicated to food and wine. In Kutjevo, as the capital of graševina, there is Graševina Festival in June. Požeški kotlić takes place in May, Kulenijada in Požega in June, Pekmezijada and Ajvarfest in Lipik in September. In Osijek there is Fišijada in June, July is the month of wine in County Osijek. Baranja, with crackling workshops in Beli Manastir and Somijada in Topolje. First part of October is reserved for HeadOnEast. Celebrations of St. Martin are characteristic for the whole region, as well as Vincekovo in January.

Slavonian and traditional specialties characterize restaurants Zlatni lug in Donji Emovci, Schön blick in Vetovo, Citadela in Vardarac, Crna svinja in Čepin, Josić in Zmajevac and Baranjska kuća in Karanac. Beside Slavonian dishes, Waldinger in Osijek offers fish specialties, too. Terasa in Daruvar offers Slavonian and Czech specialties.