Light rain started to
fall just after we got up. It became progressively heavier and then very heavy
for a while as a thunderstorm rumbled around us. We had planned to visit some
of the local villages, but could see little point in doing that in bad weather.
Instead we contented ourselves with blogging (me) and knitting and reading
(Jane).
By lunchtime the rain had
stopped and the clouds were beginning to lift. We decided to go out and do as
much of the village tour as possible. We set off for Buzet, the second largest
town in the interior of Istria.
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| Buzet |
We knew from our guide
book that the woods around Buzet are one of the prime sources of truffles (or
tartufi as they are known in Croatia). The book described truffles as ‘culinary gold’ and
a delicacy amongst the foodie fraternity. The importance of Buzet as a truffle
hunting centre is celebrated by the Buzetska Subotina festival “Buzet Saturday”
when an enormous omelette is cooked in the main square and eaten by visitors
and locals accompanied by much beer while rock bands play. Unfortunately, we
were just one week too late to take part
in Buzet Saturday.
Neither of us could
recall tasting truffles other than in truffle oil which we had used in cooking
from time to time. We therefore decided we would have lunch at one of the
restaurants in Buzet noted for its truffle dishes.
Like many other towns in
the area Buzet is comprised of a collection of old houses reached through
narrow, winding cobbled streets surrounding a church perched on the top of a
hill. Unlike other towns Buzet has a new town, mainly apartment buildings,
sitting in the valley below.
We drove Smarty to Buzet
where what we thought was the road to the old town was closed. There was some
sort of event with stalls and lots of parked cars in a nearby field. A security
guard gave us directions that took us to a car park about two thirds of the way
up into the town where we left Smarty and walked up into the practically
deserted old town. We found Stara Ośtarija, one of the restaurants recommended
by the Rough Guide, without any difficulty. From the outside it was unimposing,
but the main dining room had a panoramic view of the valley below.
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| Stara Ośtarija |
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| View From Dining Room |
We ordered cheese with
truffles to share between us as a starter. The cheese had pieces of truffle
incorporated when it was made, the cheese itself didn’t have a lot of taste and
we struggled to taste the truffles. It was served with two slices of toast,
each had a ball of bland cream cheese and the plate contained a few olives and
walnuts. For mains Jane ordered veal with truffles and I had steak with
truffles. The dishes comprised of the respective meats smothered in truffle
shavings with a few pieces of tomato as garnish. The meat was very good, but
neither of us were taken by the truffles. Our guide book described truffle’s
delicate taste as part nutty, part mushroomy and part sweaty sock. We wouldn’t
disagree with any of that, but would add the truffles served with our mains had
the texture of fine wood shavings. Possibly, truffles are an acquired taste,
but we were not sure we wanted to invest the time, or money, necessary to
acquire it.
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| Cheese With Truffles |
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| Jane's Veal With Truffles |
We picked up a copy of
the restaurant’s card as we were leaving. It carried the message ‘Welcome To
The City Of Truffles’. I thought there must be a tad of optimism there, the
population of the old town would be in the hundreds and there would be
significantly less than 10,000 in the new town below.
We walked back through
the town and popped into a shop selling truffles, mushrooms and much more
besides. We spent the best part of half an hour there hearing from the woman
who owned the shop and seeing by way of a video how truffles are found. The
shop owner’s father had a licence to gather truffles and mushrooms from
government owned woods. She had trained a number of dogs to sniff out truffles
which grow underground, two of the dogs were part Labrador, but she said any
dog could be trained for the job. The video showed dogs sniffing the ground
enthusiastically as they weaved their way in the woods. Once a truffle was
found they started to dig frantically and needed to be stopped before they got
to the truffle, otherwise they would eat it. Care needs to be taken not to
damage a truffle when digging it up, they come in all shapes and sizes from not
much bigger than a marble to melon sized. The value of truffles is determined
by Italian dealers, very much on a supply and demand basis. The video showed
the father with a melon sized truffle that would have been worth 1,500 Kn
(NZ$350 approximately).
We got to taste samples
of truffles – white and black as well as truffles mixed with other ingredients
such as olives and mushrooms. Some tasted very good and we bought a small jar
of minced black truffles and another of black olives with thyme.
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| Our Truffle Mentor |
While we were in the shop
we could hear the sound of cars with sporty exhausts. The shop owner said they
were practicing for a hill climb trial tomorrow, an annual event. On our way
back to Smarty we paused at the old city wall to watch and listen to cars as
they set off up the hill. A long way below us half a dozen cars were queuing
waiting for their turn to practice the hill climb course. They seemed to make a
lot of noise, but not a lot of speed.
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| Cars (far side of bridge) Waiting To Practice Hill Climb |
The planned route of our
tour of villages in the area followed a ridgeline south of Buzet with
tremendous views over the countryside below each side of the ridge. The first
village we came to was Sovinjac, a collection of not many more than a dozen
houses clustered around a church. There was also a garden bar perched on the
side of the hill with views to the south. We parked in the centre of the
village and took a look around. Unlike other villages we had seen in Croatia
that were dying, Sovinjace looked positively prosperous. A number of the old
houses had been renovated and some new ones built on the outskirts of the
village.
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| Sovinjac Welcoming Party For Jane |
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| Smarty In Sovinjac |
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| Sovinjac Courtyard With Garden Bar Behind |
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| Sovinjac Church |
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| Bust In Sovinjac Churchyard Looking Grumpy |
We continued westwards
passing through the village of Vrh (the Croatians don’t seem to need vowels in
place names) and on to Svi Svetti, a very attractive village indeed and looking
even more prosperous than Sovinyac.
Our grand tour ground to
a halt after that as the road was closed for a cycle race. Disappointed, we
decided to call it a day and set a course back to Motovun. Not feeling hungry
after our truffle lunch we ate cheese on toast. I spent the evening publishing
blog while Jane pushed on with knitting my pair of socks.
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