This is a time when the whole world is looking for quick, cheap and attractive ways of packaging fast food to satisfy the appetites of busy people with too little time to eat a healthy, tempting and tasty snack. However, the Croatian gastronomic supply is still trying to distance itself from these unhealthy dietary trends and to nurture the tradition of good quality, slow-food meals.
Croatian restaurant owners believe that eating is not just a means of survival, but a medium that connects people, a source of joy and relaxation. In many Croatian restaurants and Dalmatian konobas, especially in recent times, you can savour traditional home cooking, which includes food prepared from high-quality local ingredients according to ancient recipes.
Croatian cuisine is generally defined by the traditional characteristics of each individual area, which depend on the soil, climate, vegetation, and the pace of life and the work tempo of its population, as well as on the customs of nomads, foreign tradesmen and foreign armies, which have also left their traces in the everyday activities of these parts, including the cuisine.
The cultural heritage of Croatia is quite rich, compared to the size of the population. One of the reasons for this wealth is Croatia’s exceptional position on vital communication routes and that she sits on the crossroads of great civilizations, each of which wanted to leave its own mark. That is why it boasts such an exceptional diversity of cultural heritage on so small an area, and a range of monuments dating from all periods of civilization: from the prehistoric to most recent times. In other words, we see monuments from ancient Greece and Rome, early medieval monuments, the Mediterranean Renaissance, Central European Baroque and the New Age Secession heritage.
Just as there exist testimonies from earliest prehistory, such as one of the most important world localities of Neanderthal man, near the town of Krapina; the Vučedol Neolithic culture near Vukovar; pre-Roman Illyrian hill-forts, and many, many other examples.
Croatia has also succeeded in preserving her indigenous rural architecture, which bears witness to her cultural diversity. One can still see old, timber-built houses and small churches in the lowlands of Pannonia; typical long, Slavonian houses with their large courtyards in the Danube basin; the picturesque vineyard huts dotted across the hills of Northern Croatia, and the shingle covered houses in snow-bound mountainous Croatia. Perhaps even more special is the charm of the tiny, stone-built towns and villages perched atop the hilltops of continental Istria, as well as along the shores of the mainland and on the islands.
