After more than two months, last Saturday I went to cut my hair. It is Christmas time so I took a bottle of my olive oil (Oio Manjadico) to give it as a present to my favorite hairdresser Danijela. She was surprised and excited about the oil, but she also prepared a much bigger surprise for me.
She gave me something you can not buy in the supermarket. Something that probably was appreciated by the kids in ancient times, before the advent of chocolate. A dessert that was probably made also in ancient Mediterranean civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome…
Dried figs from Zaton near Šibenik
I got a garland of dried figs from Zaton Šibenski, a small village near Šibenik in Dalmatia. It is made of a black fig variety indigenous to Dalmatia that you can not find it Istria. Tasting the first one was like entering a teleport that beamed me from the cold windy Istrian winter to a sunny Dalmatian island in August. The figs were incredibly delicious that I ate four in a row! And I thought I do not like dried figs.
You bite it and it is so tender, definitely not a tooth breaker like some dried figs can be, the skin is nicely crusty and inside it seams there is some juicy marmelade. Each fig is separated with a bay leaf that gives a particular aroma to the fruit and protects it from rottening and flies. Apart the aroma of bay leaf, you feel cinnamon and clove (remember, no spice is added to the garland).
After the Sunday lunch, it was great to enjoy it with non-sugared Turkish coffee and a glass of red wine.
Dried figs, turkish coffee and red wine
This garland is quintessence of non-interventionist approach so common in Mediterranean cuisine. Danijela’s grandmother Golubica Martinović just picked the figs and bay leafs, made the garland out of them, left it for few months in a dry and dark place and that is the whole preparation procedure.
Golubica Martinović from Zaton Šibenski
No preservatives, no spices, no sugar. Just nature.
Many thanks to Danijela for such a beautiful Christmas present.
PS: If you come to Pula in December contact Danijela on her phone +385 91 538 6351 and you can get a fig garland for ONLY 35-45 kn (around 5 euros)! This noble stuff should cost at least twice as much.
