Gastronomic journey through Karlovac

Karlovac, which is also known as the “city on four rivers” and a city of “greenery and parks”, is rich in historical and cultural heritage, beautiful nature and artistic heritage, but will also delight its visitors with a rich selection and offer of traditional dishes and cuisine.

Traditional and contemporary menus of Karlovac County and Karlovac, in particular, are intertwined with different influences of Western, Central, Southern European and indigenous civilization, so in Karlovac cuisine, everyone will find something for their palate.

Of the various influences and cultures, traditional Austrian, Hungarian, Turkish, Italian and majority of Croatian traditional cuisines such as Dalmatian, Slavonian, and cuisine of Lika had the greatest influence on Karlovac traditional cuisine.

The cornerstone of authentic Karlovac cuisine is the untouched nature that surrounds the city and has always been generous with its fruits to the people of Karlovac and Karlovac County. Thus, on the menus, you can find a variety of dishes from various types of river fish from the Karlovac rivers – Kupa, Korana, Mrežnica, and Dobra, to game from untouched Karlovac forests.

However, Karlovac County’s menu is based not only on meat products but also on the work of the valuable hands of its farmers who grow a variety of vegetables and crops – from forest mushrooms, corn, pumpkins, potatoes, cabbage, “koraba” and other locally produced home-grown foods.

Some of the most famous continental delicacies are dishes like deer ham, boar sausage, smoked trout and perch in seed bark.

If you want to treat yourself with something sweet, you will be greeted with Karlovac’s menu of indigenous chestnut cake, popular plum dumplings, and a variety of apples, cheese, and pumpkin strudels. And when it comes to sweet desserts, it is worth mentioning that the world’s longest bent (strudel), 1479 cm long, has been made in Karlovac and as such is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

However, if you are a fan of soups or spoon dishes, you will be delighted with the mushroom soup and the cabbage rolls with autochthonous Ogulin’s cabbage, which is protected as an original Croatian product. Soups wise, the most popular are simple country soups, such as scorched soup, thick mushroom soup, and various meat soups.

Some of the more traditional Karlovac dishes are pike, perch and carp fish dishes, as well as various cereal porridge and vegetable and bean stews. But we must not omit the traditional ”trenci”, pickled soup with eggs, gingerbread, boneless turkey, sauerkraut or yellow bark, dumplings with plums, forest fruit pie, and fried frog legs.