This post is dedicated to my friend, Tina. I hope she reads the blog!
So, the food has been quite predictable and overall fairly bad for the past week or so, since leaving Rovinj. We have found that the menu has been almost identical in every restaurant we have looked at. 3-4 variations of soup, 2-3 types of salad, a few pasta dishes, a few types of risotto, and some overpriced seafood and grilled meats. But, all in all, predictable and not that good when ordered. This was a disappointment after leaving Rovinj, where the food was good and there was some variety. That’s why you haven’t seen Seth post much about food lately, because there hasn’t been much inspiration.
But, there’s a bakery in Vis. Let me begin by mentioning that Vis is a very small town. So, I was surprised to see the hours of the little bakery. They open at 6am and do not close until 2am. That’s a long day. This morning I noticed that the window mentioned that they sold bourek inside. I know bourek because of my friend Tina. I was kind of surprised to see it, because I thought it was an Armenian type of food. And, perhaps it still is. Maybe there’s some kind of link between Armenia and Croatia that I don’t know about, or perhaps the owner simply happens to be of Armenian descent. Either way I had meat bourek for breakfast and it was delicious. And I thought about my friend Christina with every bite. We used to go to her grandma’s house and raid her kitchen. The kitchen is any chef’s dream, and it was always filled to the brim with amazing Armenian food that her grandma would constantly prepare. Bourek was one of them. I hope my memory serves me correctly, because otherwise, I have no idea why I connect Tina to bourek. Tina, you would have enjoyed it.
Also, in my earlier post I neglected to mention a little gem we happened upon last night. But, Christina would have enjoyed this as well. Seth and I went for a walk, and were about to call it a night when we noticed that the door to the bottom of the bell tower was open and people were huddling around the entrance. When we inched closer we heard that there was singing coming from inside. When we peeked our heads inside, and eventually sat down to listen, we found an octet of men we had seen around town during our stay. Aside from the fact that their voices were heavenly, the acoustics in this stone tower with arched ceilings was magnificent. Though Seth favored the lead tenor who would solo from time to time, I enjoyed the ultra bass whose voice reverberated through my bones. It was awesome, and something I love to happen upon. These little local gems are what I hope we can continue to find, even if we can’t understand a lick of what they are saying!