Gastro Advent: This Year's Main Specialties, Part 2

However, a good number of hospitality workers participating in the fair has expanded its offer with other interesting dishes from the colorful array of food consumed on the street, as well as other traditional and less well-known dishes, even those needing long cooking and comfort food eaten with a spoon. Besides that, this year the offer of fish dishes is definitely different and better than in previous years, and vegans can also be provided for many have at least one vegan dish in their offer. All aspire in offering something different from others and to be recognizable in their offer.

We visited the Advent houses and tried to find out what good things were being cooked, baked and served.

Santa's Barrel

Barrel is well-known to many in Zadar as a boutique with an excellent selection of premium wines and other alcoholic beverages, with the fact that domestic winemakers predominate in the assortment of this boutique. The Advent house of this company has, of course, put emphasis on the selection of excellent wines while, with reference to the food offer, they are the only ones to have brought the original Istrian sausage to the Advent Fair, the one made from Boškarin cattle that they simply call Boškarin Saur. The house chef, Antonio Božić, serves it in a roll with sour kraut which definitely belongs to the top sausage offer of this year's Advent. Božić has made this Barrel's hearty burger unique with his vegetable sauce and, what else but red wine. 

Brioche con Gelato

One of the interesting desserts of the Advent houses is surely Brioche con Gelato, an original Italian street food cake. Two friends, Goran Ležaić and young cook Josip Šantek, decided to put it on offer but to name their Advent house after this sweet. Vanilla or chocolate ice cream in a warm and soft brioche is a rare gastronomy experience no matter how simple the dish may seem. Besides ice cream, that same house offers also fritto misto, fried fresh shrimp, smelt or squid, but quite a decent, moderately spicy Slavonian sausage as well. Goran and Josip have not forgotten vegans and offer Vege burgers.

Finger Food, Finger Food & More, La Spiza

These three houses belong to the same story created by the professional chef Dino Barić who says that he is “a cook who has given up on cooking”. This was, of course, a joke for it has been shown that Dino prepares some of the most interesting dishes of the Advent Fair. The meat he prepares, as, for example rump steak for a sandwich, or pork ribs grills served on a wooden tray which are first cooked in the sous vide technique to soften them as much as possible. He combines these dishes with coleslaw salad and has brought these to restaurant quality level. He serves homemade divenica with sour kraut on bacon and onion chips, and even that is not an ordinary sandwich any more. Spicy chicken wings and pulled pork are also on offer in houses Finger Food and La Spiza while Finger Food & More is mainly for the sale of beverages. 

Hedonist Winter Tale

The popular Zadar bistro Hedonist Dining & Hangout has its house at this year’s Advent. Višeslav Magaš, the head of the Hedonist story explained to us that this time they have changed their usual offer of burgers and have introduced a gastro story to this Advent. Ossobuco, the Italian specialty known to everyone made of baby beef shank placed in a ciabatta, enriched with demi-glace sauce and grana Padano cheese and acquired – a supreme experience for the palate. Another Hedonist dish has raised the Advent street food to a higher level which is Low & Slow Prasičica enriched with Jack Daniels sauce with honey and crunchy bacon, a supreme sandwich not to be ashamed even if served at royal tables. It is also worth noting that this house offers a vegan menu and, among other things, a selection of four types of craft beer.

Maguro Street Food

Asian style Christmas – is the work name at this year’s Advent of the known Zadar Maguro restaurant with Asian cuisine. Dan Dan Chinese yellow noodles with minced pork in black bean sauce and shiitaki mushrooms and tiger prawns with noodles and wok vegetables enriched with yakisoba sauce are the two most important dishes that make the offer of this house completely different from others. Japanese dishes, Chinese district and other Asian country dishes gained many devotees years ago in Zadar so the gastronomy multiculture is more than a welcome refreshment of this Advent. In the Maguro house, sweet tooth lovers can enjoy the excellent ginger toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and dates, as well as vegans who can enjoy Dan Dan noodles with vegetables and mushrooms.

Master & Chef Christmas House

This interesting story rich with various dishes is led by Roko Viduka who owns the sole hotel in Novigrad, Hotel Roccia. Roko and his team offer three types of excellent sausages – two types of Dalmatian divenica and a Slavonian one, but their main aces are Master & Chef burger with cheddar cheese and truffle sauce, phenomenal thin sarma in sandwich with fried bacon. Steak sandwich with whiskey sauce is a rich and juicy choice for a good brunch, but Roko has not stopped there. He fries cod fritters and Italian arancine with shrimp. On Fridays, he cooks brodetto and cod, sometimes baby beef goulash and beans with sausages, while for dessert he always offers excellent winter pies vanilla topping. 

Red Fox Burger

We have met Vink Fain at preceding Advent fairs and his regular offer was interesting and courageous such as food served with a spoon in plates made of bread. This year he has decided to place his aces on  burgers: Black Garlic with four meat ingredients -baby beef, pork shoulder butt, lamb and  čvarci, and juicy Pulled Pork Burger, pulled pork in a brioche roll. Both burgers are enriched with Fain black garlic sauce (black garlic, of course). This time Vinko surprises again with eatable dishware: with bêcherins for brandy and liqueurs that he pours from white and dark chocolate, which can withstand several rounds of drinking, and at the end, of course, they can be eaten. He doesn't pour his boiled gin with elderberry and cranberry juice and honey and pepper into these for the chocolate could still last a short time, but that hot drink should definitely be drunk from some solid packaging, and on the coldest evenings.