Croatia is becoming increasingly known for its truffles. In fact, there are those who argue that they produce some of the finest in the world. Of course, this meant that we had to go truffle hunting while we were there. So, after a long day of touring Zagreb, we had an early dinner and met our guide at the hotel where Stinkerbell promptly lay down in the hammock and took a quick snooze.
We picked up another family, loaded all of us into the jeep and headed...to the center of town? Yep, there is a huge park right on the outskirts of the town center and here is where the truffle stashes are located. Of course, we went just before sunset so no one else would see us and steal our guides secret location. And with sunset, that meant headlamps for all...
Our guide and Easy, the truffle hunter.
Easy has been trained since birth to hunt (and not eat) truffles. He wanders through the woods following his nose. When he stops in one spot and paws at the ground the guide comes over and digs right under the ground and 9 times out of 10 there is a truffle. The other time Easy is being a stinker and he paws at one spot so his owner digs and he then goes to the real spot and eats the truffle.
We headed off
We walked around the lake just as the last of the sun was setting and head into the deep woods where we followed Easy's lead and struck pay dirt time after time.
After about an hour of searching and finding truffles, Easy got a swim in the lake...
and a bone for a job well done.
We weighed our finds at 103 grams which would about $1000 or more at a farmers market!
Finally, we got to taste. We had wine, we had truffle cheese and we had truffle infused honey all made by our guide. It was delicious and the girls really wanted to take some home with us but we were traveling on in the morning and had no way to refrigerate it.
If you are ever in an area where truffles are found, go on a hunt. It's a really fun way to spend an hour or two and it's kid approved.
No comments:
Post a Comment