EAT IN ASIA / Destinations / Other destinations / Europe / Croatia
Mussels in breadcrumps - Mussels alla buzara (white)
Mussels – once tried, loved forever. Dagnje na Buzaru – local, fresh and aromatic! Garlic, olive oil, some herbs and wine. All that makes that mussels were among the most loved meals.
We have already tried the ‘red’ version of them a couple of times, so now it was time for a white one. (Mussels in a tomato sauce - Dagnje na Buzaru - Mussels alla buzara (red))
How would it be like? Only in a white wine? With butter? With cheese? Or maybe served with cream? Cooked like prawns in a casserole or maybe grilled and then served with a white sauce? But what we were almost sure, was that it would probably be very good. So, we spent a nice time while waiting for our lunch. The restaurant we were dinning was a small one situated close to the harbor in Rovinj. A lot of little boats were coming in and out. Some tourist yachts were collecting visitors and a couple glass-bottom boats were offering their services. We were sitting relaxed, admiring the architecture and the silence.
And finally, the lunch arrived!
Mussels were served in a stainless-steel casserole of a medium size. At the first glance, they looked to be relatively small comparing to all other we had before. However, maybe another type of them.
The first impression was positive. Mussels were lightly covered with a white, dense dressing. It looked as if it was a mixture of butter and garlic and maybe onion. No herbs were visible. No parsley, no cilantro. Nothing. Ok, so just salt and pepper to avoid an excessive and over dominating herbal taste.
So, let’s try it. The first mussel was small, easy to be opened and salty. The covering white dressing was not as we expected it to be. It had a floury texture and had a slight garlic aroma. The mussel was unfortunately quite dry and not as juicy as it should be. What is more, it was also covered with this dense dressing. Well, we thought, that maybe that was the case of the first one from the top. Too long with no sauce, nothing hydrating it or staying too long and waiting for the waitress. No. All other mussels were almost the same. Dry, small and full of the floury mixture.
This white sauce was a composition of breadcrumbs, olive oil and of an unsignificant amount of garlic and white wine. Breadcrumbs were dominating and killing the natural aroma of mussels. The sauce was extremely dense, salty and completely covering the delicate mussels’ flesh.
Even lemon could not help and reduce the dominance of that overwhelming dressing. Neither could a glass of a good white wine.
Apart from that, mussels were not well cleaned. Shells were harsh and with a lot of sharp leftovers. some mussels were not opened at all what made them harder to eat. These that already were, were also full of the breadcrumb sauce.
The amount of the sauce was too big. Although we were trying to put it aside and have as little of it as it was possible, still a thick layer of it stayed in the bottom of the casserole.
The whole meal was a heavy one. The saltiness stayed in the mouth for a long time and could not be eliminated for a couple of hours. Surely, that meal could not be compared with any other we had. Of course, it might be the case of the restaurant that served it in the way we did not like it, but more probable is, that this form of serving was not our favorite. It cannot be compared to all other Dagnje na Buzaru. These served in a light and refreshing tomato sauce were so good and so tempting to eat them more and more.
Unfortunately, as we were heading to the North of Croatia, mussels in a white sauce were dominating. The whole Istria region was serving mussels in breadcrumbs and the version in a tomato sauce was almost unavailable. well, we accepted it. That is the way they do it and like it. The tradition of using breadcrumbs is so deep-rooted in Croatia, that it is hard to exclude it from the seafood.
Given that, we had our last perfect mussels lunch in Split, but we still remember and recall this atmosphere, taste and freshness. A glass of a white wine tunned it even up. However, a good wine without a good meal does not work. We experienced it in Rovinj.
