Lili-Anne De Rochoart Ordinary: Zagreb between food and wine

My journey from Budapest to Zagreb was the worst train journey EVER !!
I had to pick THE day, right after the Sziget festival to take the train... what mean.... ALLLLl the hippies who were at the festival for 1 week, were now in my train. 40°, no seat, over crowded train, and stuck for 2 hours at the croatian border for passport checking !!! HELL
Ok I'm exagerating, Sziget isn't only full of hippies, there is also anarchist and young punk ;)

But i made it to Zagreb, and there, I was supposed to meet the owner of the restaurant Trilogija, little place in the old upper town.

10 am, the chef just come back from the market and start the "mise en place" for today. Everything is fresh and daily made, so he's got a lot to do.

As I step in the restaurant, I'm straight away welcome by Boris, the owner.
I contacted Boris few weeks ago when I learnt about his restaurant ; first place on trip advisor, between all Zagreb's restaurants, so I figured it would be the perfect place to learn about local wine and cuisine.

Trilogija is located in the upper town of Zagreb (old center), and look like a wine cellar. Perfect place when in 40°C outside, and also perfect place ton conserve more than hundreds kind of wine that Boris brings back from many trips : "I travel a lot to find and discover new wine".

It is the only restaurant of the city, which propose 56 kind of wine by glass, and has in total more than 100 kind of wine : Croatian at 90%, but also Slovenian, Italian, french, Californian, Australian...
Some are really rare, and Boris manage to get them because of his reputation (like the "Bura", only 6 bottles a year), he also told me about this producer who doesn't really care to sale his wine, so if a normal person wants to go and buy some, he might find it closed, but Boris knows when to go, and bring every time more bottles that we would hardly find somewhere else.

My visit has also a lot to do with the food. I wonder is there is a traditional Croatian cuisine.
On the menu, I see a lot of famous dish : Safran Risotto, Beef Ragout, roasted Mackerel, roasted Trout, cheese cake...
Does Croatia has something very typical ?
The chef explain to me that Croatia is a multicultural region (being bordered with Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina, it's also right in front of Italy), so it's not rare to have Risotto, Soups, Truffles (black and white), roasted fish come from the coast.

I try the Mackerel with roasted zucchini and red pepper/strawberry coulis, absolutely amazing. Fresh, light, rich in flavor, the strawberry match actually perfectly with the red pepper flavor.
Then the chef wants me to taste the grilled Skribavac, it's a hard cow cheese served on crouton with a cream of truffle.
Truffles can smell and taste horrible when it's not the right season, but here, the cream is really well made (pure mushroom and oil cream), and the flavor married with the grilled cheese, stay sober. Not too much, just the perfect dose for a gastronomic dish.

Of course Boris, the "wine man", want to introduce me some.
The truffles are coming from Istria, so he recommend me a wine coming from the same area, saying that they grows in the same soil so should match for taste... I think this is the poetry of cuisine, and show how important our lands are. Good product = Good cuisine.
A little trick, when you pass from a wine to another, it's good to drink a little bit of sparkling wine, that way, your mouth will get cleaned and you'll enjoy better the new one.

Very good wine, fresh and delicious food, and the warmest hospitality I could have imagine.
More info on their home page