Author: chris

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Truffle toasties

 

 

TTs or Truffle Toasties is a new and unique street food brand created by the people from Taste Croatia at Borough Market !
TT is a delicious toasted sandwich using the finest ingredients from Borough Market. Its ingredients are:
Smoked Raclette cheese from Jumi cheese, mozzarella, butter, toasted sourdough from an organic bakery, beechwood smoked salami seasoned with paprika ( a PDO; protected designation of origin product, from Taste Croatia), black & white truffle tapenade made with black and white truffles, green olives and champignons mushrooms, a sprinkle of black truffle powder and finished with a generous drizzle of  truffle honey.
We also have a vegetarian TT consisting of truffle tapenade, smoked raclette cheese, mozzarella, roasted red peppers, a sprinkle of black truffle powder  and finished with a layer of delicious dried fig jam.
And why not try or summer special TT.
Truffle salami, smoked raclette cheese, mozzarella, truffle mayonnaise and caramelised red onion chutney.
All truffle products are from Taste Croatia at Borough Market.
We have carefully selected the ingredients to compliment each other and provide a delicious and a tasty toasted sandwich.
The creators behind TTs have been at Borough Market for 15 years and have a well established customer base offering the best products from Croatia including fresh truffles and truffle products from Istria, a famous region for seasonal white & black truffles, extra virgin olive oils from Istria (now one of the best regions in the world for olive oil), charcuterie including 36 months old sea air dried prosciutto and truffle salami, cheese, jams and spreads, wines and other delicacies. A number of our products have received Great Taste Awards.
TTs is a unique and exciting food product and brand which brings together the finest ingredients from one of the best international food markets  in the world, offering customers a delicious and different toasted sandwich experience.

Everyone loves a Toastie so come and have a TT this summer at Paternoster Square!

Grab a beer or cocktail from the bar and sit and enjoy all the summer sporting events including the 2024 Euros!

 

 

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All of our Great Taste award winners

Great Taste awards are commonly described as Oscars of the food industry so it is no wonder we are extremely proud to say we have many winners in our shop.
Winning for us means we have a product(s) that stands out in the crowd while for you it means you have a guarantee that product you are purchasing is of best quality out there!

Dried fig and lavender jam is a 1 star Great Taste winner and pairs lovely with cheese. It can bring any cheese board to life!

We especially recommend eating it with our 3 star Great Taste winner Paski cheese.This lovely aged cheese comes from the island of Pag and is made with the finest sheeps milk.
Aged for up to 12 months.It is a true delicacy with crumbly texture and a rich aftertaste.


However, this cheese board we are building here wouldn’t be complete without Kozlar 2 star Great Taste winner.This artisan cheese is made with goats milk and soaked in olive skins which gives it pleasant bitterness to compliment its mild  aroma.

If we were to suggest something to round this cheese board up it would definitely be fig cake! Delicious Stella Croatica fig cake won 1 star at Great Taste awards and it is no wonder it did.
Dried figs, almonds and chunky walnuts is all it takes to make a healthy yet delicious fig cake. Eat it with cheese or on its own for a healthy pick me up, its up to you.

There are many amazing Croatian olive oils out there but we are especially proud of Belic Selection 1 star Great Taste winner. This oil is a blend of 6 different olive sorts which makes it perfect oil to use for various dishes. Full bodied, well rounded and  perfectly balanced it comes with tasting notes of artichoke, almond, apple and tomato. It has a scent of fresh olive, vanilla, chicory and modest bitterness and pungency in taste. Serve it with veal and lamb as well as asparagus, with eggs and prosciutto, grilled fish and vegetables, octopus salad and grilled salmon. Whatever dish you choose it won’t disappoint.

While on the oils note we certainly can’t skip pumpkin seed oil which won 1 star Great Taste award.Pumpkin seed oil is cold pressed and has intense nutty taste, rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and packed with vitamins.Healthy yet so delicious. Use it as salad dressing, add it to creamy soups, drizzle it on top of vanilla ice cream , add it to your hummus or try all of our suggestions and let us know your favourite!


And last but not least something sweet. Chocolate spread may not be the first thing to pop into your head when thinking of Croatia but once you try them…It definitely will.
Nadalina chocolate spread with cinnamon and with olive oil have both won 1 star Great Taste award and it is no secret they deserved all the recognition they got.
Made with coconut and olive oil instead of palm oil this also makes them environmentally friendly and who doesn’t like saving the world while eating chocolate ?
Low in sugar, high in chocolate and full of flavour.
Enjoy with pancakes, brownies, ice cream and SPOON!

As we all  await Great Taste awards 2020 why not make it your bucket list to try all the previous Great Taste winners!

 

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The 2018 Round up of the Best Bits from Taste Croatia

What a fantastic year we’ve had at Taste Croatia Deli, we’re so delighted and are truly proud of everything we’ve achieved this year, thank you to all our brilliant customers for supporting us and being such an inspiration!
Christmas is a time to reflect, be grateful and to recap all the joyful things that have filled 2018, so check out our moments that have truly given us happiness
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Let’s start with a true high for us, something we can’t get more pleased about if we tried, the wonderful success of Croatia in the FIFA World Cup, with our friend Luka Modric voted best player in the world. This meant we had the most stupendous time speaking with media, check out our wonderful time on tv here: https://tastecroatia.co.uk/press/
Secondly, we’ve had the roaring success of our Croatian Street Food brand, Chevapi London, with Street Food Union in Soho, AND we’ve created a fine dining Chevapi too, which was served at some of our catering events. This gorgeous Croatian feast is going to be popping up at some permanent markets in 2019, as well as available for catering, so watch this space for more information.
It’s time for celebration time! We hosted some luxurious catering events all over London, yet our favourite regular event was at the Croatian Embassy for the Dubrovnik Tourist board. Serving fine delicacies and traditional Croatian canapes to some wonderfully inspiring people, this was a show stopping night.
New delicious things have hit the shelves in our store in Borough Market, and we’re excited to bring in even more newness in 2019, some of the tastiest things we’ve brought in are:  Our honey range – lavender, apple, sage and pollen honey, all uniquely fragrant. Cheeses are special so we’ve brought back Paski Sir and a new Koslar cheese that have strong salty wonderful tastes. We love truffles so have introduced truffle crisps, which are divine and an easy snack. A firm favourite – figs! We’ve got artisan fig relish, fig cake with lavender and artisan family made fig vinegar with white truffles too. Other new vinegars include our tomato vinegar brilliant for salads and dressings. Lastly, but not least, our wonderful Ajvar is in store, the true Croatian relish made of aubergine, sweet roasted red peppers, garlic, seasoning and sunflower oil. Divine!
  
Awards! We have to shout about these as they’re such a privilege and honour: This year’s prestigious Great Taste Award winners!
1 star for our fig cake with walnuts and almonds
1 star Belic single estate extra virgin cold press olive oil, from Istria voted best region 3rd year a row in Flos Olei, the prestigious industry Bible, this year beating Tuscany and Andalusia!
1 star sweetly, creamy chocolate spreads in flavours cinnamon and plain, these are low in sugar, high in chocolate and no palm oil – what more could you want!
Our cheeses from Pag : 2 stars aged Paski sheep’s cheese and 2 stars for Koslar aged hard goats cheese soaked in Maraska cherry skins.
How can we not mention when we had a royal visitor, we have had the honour and privilege of having royalty at the store, HRH the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, which was truly a special moment. And in even more exciting news, one of the the wines served at this year’s Royal Wedding was Croatian, come try it in store if you’d like a drop of premium luxury.
In general, we love the fact that our customer base is so global and we get to serve our products to our wonderful international loyal customers who enjoy trying Croatian Cuisine, so many faces meet and greet us and tell us stories of their cuisine, the beauty of London indeed, we hope it never changes.
So, to let you know our plans for 2019 as we love giving you something to get excited about, we have some fabulous new products, our 24 months air dried Dalmatian prosciutto from an artisan supplier. Some decadent new wines in store and we’re looking forward to have you try them in some decadent wine tasting events. We’re also introducing a selection of traditional Raki fruit Brandy’s.
Wishing all our wonderful customers, suppliers and friends a happy Christmas and wonderful New Year!
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A Summer to Celebrate

This summer has been truly spectacular for the team at Taste Croatia, and we’re loudly celebrating in the joy of lots of exciting things happening.

With this beautiful weather in London, the fantastic experience of Croatia coming second in the world for their skills in football with the World Cup in Russia, and bringing lots of new products into our store, we’ve got a lot to be happy about.

As lovers of a summer picnic, we try and have as many as we can spending time with family and friends, we decided to bring a lot of wonderful perfect picnic snacks into our new range.

From our special new truffle chips, a gorgeous flavour of crispy, hand cooked potato crisps infused with specialist truffles, they’re wonderful as they are our with dips and salsas.

 

Another perfect picnic bite are our brand new, meaty pepperami truffle sticks, that are full of delicious black Istrian truffles.

Charcuterie is our go to ‘impress the guests’ platter throughout the whole year, our gorgeous Dinarski aged cow and goats cheese (from the beautiful Pag) truly melts in the mouth and served with our wild boar prosciutto and wild boar salami it’s a dish to show off with. A lovely serving suggestion giving a sweet and salty zing flavour is to have a dollop of our fragrant fig relish (made with fresh Croatian figs and lemons) alongside the platter.

Tomato vinegar is one of our newest beautiful products available, try this blended with olive oil and drizzled on a salad, or drizzling and dipping with fresh bread, even on fresh strawberries this beautiful vinegar is sublime.

Medicinal sage and flower pollen honeys have also been brought into store and they’re truly amazing with healing properties for sore throats, they act as an anti allergen, can be blended with salt as an exfoliating lip scrub and also, they taste great too! For a simple meal dollop in yoghurt for a lovely sweet uplifting breakfast, or with toast for a smooth spread, come try some in store and see for yourself how much you need this in your kitchen cupboard.

Ajvar is a traditional relish created in Croatian families that we are obsessed with, aubergines, roasted red peppers,  garlic, olive oil and sea salt, it’s truly a more-ish flavour. If you want to try it yourself then we recommend having it alongside sausage rolls, in a cheese sandwich, on any grilled meat dishes , as a dip, just however you want to try it! .

And lastly, because, it’s so truly great you can’t forget it, our organic milk soaked pork scratching’s that have been so popular all summer long. They are the perfect football beer snack and truly a taste sensation, have with a cold IPA in this summer heat, it’ll put a brilliant smile on your face! If you’re not a fan of beer, we have some fantastic new wines coming into store soon too!

In a summer where we are proud to be Croatian, we’d love to share our story with you, so pop down to the store soon and try some of our fabulous new products, our friendly staff will help you with delicious serving suggestions for all occasions.  We’ll also be releasing more information on our catering service, which can cater for all your celebration needs, so if you want to put on a unique event then please do get in touch.

 

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Saying Goodbye to 2017 and welcoming in 2018, a reflection of joy.

It truly is a truly special time of year, and after all 2017 has brought, we welcome in 2018 with warm open arms.
This time gives us the opportunity to appreciate all we have, and be surrounded by loved ones, eating good food, drinking good wine, sharing in joy filled spirits – it truly is the season to indulge in life.
In 2017 we celebrated our 7th year trading at Borough Market, and we are so pleased with how far we’ve come!
In our Taste Croatia store, we’ve had some wonderful happenings, and thought we’d recap a few for you, as well as let you know about what’s to come for 2018!
Firstly, all our lovely new products!
We introduced some of our gorgeous new wines being stocked in store and online, with a fabulous wine tasting event. After many requests, in 2018 we will be bringing back some of our old favourites from some of the best wine makers in Croatia.
We also brought some new Istrian charcuterie of wild boar salami, wild boar prosciutto and venison prosciutto.
And not just meat treats, we brought in new honeys and jams, a fragrant organic orange and ginger, and organic fig and ginger. As well, there was our lavender and apple honey alongside our seasonal favourite spread of chestnut puree.
 

We’ve had some phenomenal guests visit our revamped store, from HRH the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, HRH Prince Harry, and actor Colin Salmon too.

We won some Great Taste awards this year with the fig and lavender jam, and roasted cold pressed pumpkin seed oil, and we hope to have more awards to shout about in 2018!
We’ve got some very exciting plans for our arrival of our Street Food Brand, Chevapi in 2018, hitting the streets of Soho at the beginning of 2018, we can’t wait. Chevapi is a brand new Croatian Street Food to the UK, with all the ingredients sourced from Borough Market, and our Taste Croatia store – this truffle oil is used, but we’re not saying how just yet….!
Although let’s not forget, this year has been one to reflect, after the attack in June, which shocked and brought sadness into this amazing place, we’re proud to say Borough Market is thriving full of life, and stronger than ever. You only have to look around at all the international customers enjoying this place to know, London is strong, resilient, diverse and most of all, alive.
In lovely news, Istria, where our beautiful olive oils are from, proudly won best region in the world for a second year in a row in the international olive oil bible Flos Olei.

We got the pleasure of catering at some wonderful events too, including the Dubrovnik Tourist board Christmas party at the Croatian Embassy, and The Mall Galleries art launch, and we’re excited to cater more in 2018 with our brand new canapes, and Chevapi too!
2017 also saw us open a brand new stall at Partridges food market, Duke of York Square on the Kings Road, and we will be back there once the new refurbished full Market is reopened in February.
 What a year! We want to wish all our customers, suppliers , business partners and staff a happy and prosperous New Year, excited to see you all in 2018!
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Perfect Time For A Picnic!

In Croatian culture, spending time with friends and family eating good food is so crucial to daily lives and we love this time of year, filled with sunshine, eating outdoors, either on the beach, in the garden, or wherever we can basque in the rays!

Having a picnic or bbq in Croatia, the main showstopper on the table is the meat and fish! Nothing too fancy, just good quality, tasty sized portions of fresh, succulent and most of all grilled to perfection.

If you want to create a Croatian inspired picnic yourself, we’ve created some tips and recipe inspiration for something truly tasty and a bit unique:

1. Add a splash of zing to your fish with lemon olive oil before placing on the BBQ to ensure the skin is extra crispy and has a fresh flavour!

2. Love pizza? how about some delicious truffle salami as a topping on any home made pizza! Yet want to add even more taste? Truffle cheese! Once you’ve tried it you’ll wonder what you ever did without it.

3. Vegetarians, try our truffle honey, dripped over cheese and crusty bread, that sweet salty delight. Or why not grab some truffle pate,spread on tartines, or dipping in crudites, it’s a fragrant delicious taste

4. Charcuterie, grab some sliced meat – Kulin Galovic, an easy crowd pleaser to nibble on, by itself or in some fresh bread of your choice, it’s divine with truffle tapenade too! 

5. Drizzle some fig vinegar on your salad to get that healthy hit of calcium, as well as tasty sweet and sour sauce

6. Sweet Tooth? Our chocolate spread over fresh fruit salad, a true crowd pleaser! Choose from one of our three tasty flavours

7. Wine? We have lots of options, we’d recommend Skrlet as it’s tastiest in the sunshine!

8. Or why not grab some truffle tapenade – black & white truffle with cream cheese, ‘The posh Philadelphia!’  spread on tartines, or dipping in crudites with some delicious smoked salmon on the side!

9. Our outstanding cold pressed olive oil from Istria voted best region in the world for olive oil ( ‘Flos Oli 2016, 2017). Drizzle over some burata and tomatoes for the perfect summer salad.
10. Most importantly, have fun! The best part of picnics is the joy!
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Wine Alert!

Just a little message to let you know we’re having some hiccups with our wine supplier. Stock on the site will be back soon. If you really are in need of wine, pop into our store at Borough Market to come and see us!

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Time for some Croatian Wine

We are very excited to share the news that we’re officially selling our Croatian wines in Borough Market. And in the new year, we’ll have some tasting sessions around Valentine’s Day too. We’d love for you to share in this extra special culinary experience with us, so, watch this space for news and updates.

This time of year is perfect for indulging in lots of delicious drops, and we’re delighted to have the oh! so popular Tomic flying off our shelves, come try it for a festive treat.

Now, what makes Croatian wine special, there’s a lot to learn because, well, Croatia grows a lot of phenomenal grapes! We’ve written a top list of facts to give you the total low down so that you can be an expert in no time, although, the best way to learn, is through the tasting!

● There are four main wine regions in Croatia, Slavonia and Croatian Danube that

cultivate the speciality Graševina, Croatian Uplands for aromatic fruity drops, Istria and Kvarner for citrus flavours and Dalmatia, the famed Plavac grape. The region stretching along the Drava and Sava rivers, where winters are cold and summers are delightfully warm. There is a strong history dating back to the Ancient Greek settlers, and their wine production some 2,500 years ago.

● Three major varieties are cultivated on almost half the total vineyard area in Croatia : Graševina, Malvazija and Plavac Mali.

● Not sure where to start, the most recognised one to try, ‘Plavac Mali’ this means ‘small blue’, and this grape is the most planted red grape variety in Croatia, it’s divine, give it a taste, this robust wine is rich in taste and high in alcohol content too!

● Plavac Mali is such a delectable strong and rich wine, you should match it to red meat of bold flavors, such as veal and venison.

● Istria and Kvarner are best regions for a white wine with a lighter fresher flavour including aromas of citrus fruit, peach and apple. Supreme acidity and minerality (almost salty) making this wine great with fish dishes.

● And just fancy an easy drinkable white, the wines from the Uplands are delightful to match with all foods or just to have a relaxing drink to unwind.

● In Croatia, the wine is diluted with either still or sparkling water – producing a drink known as Gemišt – white wine and carbonated water, and Bevanda – red wine and still water.

But, if you’re intrigued and want to learn more, watch this space for information on our tasting events, or pop in for a chat, we’d love to discuss the wonderful world of wine with you!

 

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Croatian Christmas Time!

Christmas is slowly creeping upon us, and we’ve got some gift hampers to spoil you at this precious time of year, available for purchase both in store and online!

Do you have that one person who you never know what to buy for, a family where they really deserve to know they matter, or you just fancy indulging yourself with a truly spectacular bundle of deliciousness? Our Truffle hamper has everything you could ever need to make a feast for a truffle fan, and our Luxury Christmas hamper is full of Croatian cuisine, to leave you feeling particularly festive. The perfect gifts to make Christmas that little easier, and avoid the ‘ARGH CHRISTMAS SHOPPING’ frenzy that sometimes strikes!

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RRP£50-150

So, what does a Croatian Luxury Christmas hamper have in it? Be prepared to be blown away! There’s truffle cheese, truffle honey, truffle oil, black AND white truffle pate, fig jam, fig cake, Dinaski cheese, salami, chocolate spread, olive oil, chestnut cream spread, candied chocolate coated orange peel and then even more…!

AND THAT’S A LOT! So, if you’re more of a truffle fan then we have our truffle hamper with truffle cheese, truffle salami, white truffle oil, black AND white truffle pate, white truffle honey, truffle salt and sliced black truffle. YUM!

Our hampers come wrapped up beautifully with a bright red bow to finish them off too!

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Now, what’s so special about Croatian Christmas is that there’s a lovely tradition called Badnjak, it refers to a log brought into the house and placed on the fire on the evening of Christmas Eve, and this log keeps burning throughout the day and night announcing the arrival of Christmas and Jesus. Although, some homes have turned to a symbolic log some families still keep this wonderful tradition to its origins.

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We love bringing a little of that spirit to our London store, so why not pop in and check out how we’ve decked the place out!

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Come grab a hamper to get a taste of Christmas in Croatian style; we’re bringing a variety of products to the store and online that are perfect presents, big and small, so watch this space to find out which markets near you are going to be filled with Croatian’s finest Christmas goodies.

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Chocolate by Marinko Biskic : Nadalina

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The Croatian crown of chocolate is worn by our very own chocolate producer Marinko Biskic, the man famed for making the largest chocolate bar in the world, and if you haven’t tried our chocolate spread flavours yet, then you’re in for a DELICIOUS treat!

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RRP£5

Last year, in the imperial square Peristil at Diocletian’s Palace,  the oldest living Roman palace in the world, the team at Nadalina showcased a phenomenal Guinness world record, with the biggest slab of chocolate ever: 101 square meters with a length of 16 meters, a width of 6.5 meters and thickness of one inch.

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So, these guys know a thing or two about chocolate, and not only do they make their stuff to an impressive scale, they also have an eco-friendly approach to chocolate creation using old-fashioned techniques, eco cocoa beans, eco sugar, and special equipment that Marinko invented himself.

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Taking over 50 hours to make in a weather dependant manner, you’d think that’d be enough of a challenge, yet in true Croatian style these guys decided to be even more creative, and have made a record out of chocolate that plays music. Watch the video and prepare to be impressed by these over a quarter century year old artisans.

And, in exciting news, you don’t have to go all the way to Croatia to try some of their stuff; we’re bringing a variety of products to London very soon, so watch this space to find out which markets near you are going to be filled with Croatian’s finest chocolate.

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