FLAVOURS OF THE SEA

Opis

Flavours of the Sea

This time, Lucija Čok’s research focuses on the everyday life of the former Istrian populations and, specifically, their cuisine. Her work showcases Istrian culinary art, with the richness and diversity of its flavours and ingredients featured in an interplay of commonalities, affinities, and idiosyncrasies characterising the broader Mediterranean region.

The strong connections between diet and tradition and between diet and identity are vividly and exhaustively illustrated in the section on the authenticity and origins of Istrian cuisine, which takes the reader on a journey through the menus of simple Istrian families and their old recipes. The author’s selection includes only the most genuine and typical Istrian dishes, using local in ingredients and traditional preparation methods, which have a long-documented presence in the native diet.

Employing a seasoned methodological approach that relies on several relevant sources and literature to investigate the history of Istria and its dietary characteristics, the author convincingly addresses the question of whether the label ‘old’ Istrian cuisine is supported by valid arguments. In doing so, she also brings us closer to understanding Istrian cuisine as a specificity that has endured centuries of diverse synchronous influences from the broader geographic area and the social and national traditions, and has survived to the present day. Alongside the typical town vs. countryside dichotomy, it was precisely these historical circumstances that most decisively shaped the identity of Istrian cuisine into an amalgam of multicultural rural and urban diets or foodways. All of this is reflected in the culinary heritage, which this book presents in an original, well-substantiated, and most comprehensive manner, thus firmly establishing Čok’s research at the forefront of previous scholarship in this academic field.

Dr. Salvator Žitko