Croatia

Croatia splits between a Mediterranean coast of seafood, olive oil, and pršut ham and a hearty continental interior of stews and roasts. Truffles, wine, and slow-cooked peka dishes reflect Italian and Central European ties.

The peka is a bell of iron or clay set over meat and potatoes and buried under embers so the heat comes from every direction at once, the same principle as the sac used across the Balkans. Istria's white truffles are a genuine and documented claim, dug in the Motovun forest in autumn, and they sit in a region that also produces olive oil and prosciutto.

The country folds in the middle. The Adriatic side cooks like the northern Mediterranean, grilled fish, olive oil, capers and prsut air-dried in the wind, while the continental interior north and east cooks like Central Europe, with paprika, freshwater fish stews and roasts. Pasticada, the Dalmatian braise, has an unsettled origin, and the oldest known recipe for it comes from fifteenth-century Dubrovnik.

Thin crepes rolled around jam, walnut, or chocolate, a Croatian breakfast and dessert.