Biska, an authentic Istrian brandy, is made from grape brandy called komovica, mistletoe and several types of herbs. Name "biska" originated from the Latin name for mistletoe (Viscum album). Biska may be in sweet variations, and in combination with “medica” (also indigenous Istrian honey brandy) is called “medimela”. The "mysterious" part of the story about biska is its use in the Celts’ druid magic because they dwelt in this area about 2,000 years ago.
Versatile Istrian cuisine can be enjoyed in rural tourist households, in taverns and Ostarias, depending on your preference for seaside or inland atmosphere. To cup it all there are delicious cakes, dry figs and many more local unpronounceable sweets. Truffles are the pinnacle of good taste, believed to be aphrodisiac just like another Istrian specialty, wild asparagus. Magic and aphrodisiacs intertwined a long time ago in Istria.
Istrian ham is a unique product, protected by the strict rules. Istrians call it - vijulin, which means violin in local dialect. First of all, the pigs must be bred in Istria. Smoke isn’t used for drying. Ham gets coated with mix of seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic, and bay and rosemary) and dried in the fresh air.
From the distant past Istrian supa has been a specialty at the Istrian table. Recipe: 9 dl of warmed up red wine - Teran or Borgonja, are poured into the bukaleta, an earthenware jug. Then a teaspoon of sugar, olive oil, pepper and warm, toasted bread are added to the wine.
Specificity of soil completes the quality of wine - the red soil by the Adriatic Sea and the white soil of inner Istria. Istrian Malvasia is the most popular and greatest wine of Istria in the last hundred years. Its quality was confirmed in 1998 when Malvasia grape was declared the best autochthonous grape variety and one year later, the best white wine in Croatia. Malvasia’s counterbalance is Teran.
Marcus Valerius Martial, epigrammatist, wrote the best compliment to Istrian oil. Gratifying his hometown Cordoba he exclaimed "Cordova (...) perfect as the oil from Istria." The remains of ancient oil mills are located along the western shoreline, especially on Brijuni, in Barbariga, Porec, Cervar, where are large olive plantations of indigenous Istrian varieties of bjelitsa, karbonera, buza. About ninety olive oil producers have been involved in the project Olive oil Roads of Istria whose purpose is marketing the oil world wide. FAO experts have declared that the finest olive oil in Europe from Larun olive groves below Tar.
Heart-shaped peninsula has two kinds of soil, one intensely red in the coastal region and other gray, clayish, in the central part. Truffle grows just in that gray soil, in humid Motovun forest, close to river Mirna. The truffles’ zone extends further northward to Lanisce, then by river Rasa to the southeast towards Labin, and to the south to town Pazin. Town Buzet is known as “City of Truffles”. It is strange, mystical and under the ground hidden tuber. There are no visible parts and man can only find it with the help of specially trained dogs, and pigs! Istria is the habitat of the great white truffles, the famous "Tuber magnatum Picolo", and three kinds of groups of black truffles, which can be consumed throughout the year.
