Some restaurants wow their tourists with exquisite menus and stunning wine lists. Others like to keep it really simple, but have you ever been to a restaurant with a menu consisting of just six items, four of which are drinks?
Living on the lush island of Hvar for so many years, I had always felt that the Kornati Islands were somewhat boring in comparison. There seemed to be little vegetation, inhabitants or reason to go there. Not being a sailor, it was many years before I made my first trip, which was when I realised that National Park Kornati was rather a fascinating place, stuffed full of hidden gems and characters for sailors to discover.
My first trip was on a filming project called Legends of Croatia, hosted by Ashley Colburn. More than 100 islands make up the national park, and its raw and rugged beauty dragged me in. Our destination was an incredible olive grove in this seemingly barren collection of islands, an olive grove with 365 trees sitting in total isolation on the main Kornat Island, with rather a nice story behind it.
According to our guide at the time, there was an ancient tradition in Dalmatia when a young man asked the father of a Dalmatian girl for her hand in marriage. It was the custom for the father to ask his potential future son-in-law to prove himself by planting 50 olive trees, which would also provide an income for the young couple. In this case, however, the father did not like his daughter's choice and - as you can see in the video reenactment above - he demanded that the young man plant 365 trees before he would consent. Planting olive trees at the best of times is no easy task, but add in to the mix the rocky terrain of the island and the fact that the young man lived on the mainland and had to come by boat, and it was a formidable task. A task which apparently took ten years, after which love conquered all, and the couple lived happily ever after.
Or so the story went. It was only on a return trip to Kornati with Gastronaut last week that I learned that the story is actually based on a true story back in the 1920s or so, and it had rather a different ending, with the girl deciding after the trees were planted that she did not want to marry the poor chap after all. Dalmatian women!
One of the abiding memories of that first trip was sailing into a delightful bay called Stiniva where incredibly two brothers lived all year round, herding about 300 sheep. We sailed into the bay, but did not moor up, for our business was further up the coast, but I remember an old guy with a beard coming out to greet us, one of the brothers who was a permanent resident of this very remote spot.
I was having a beer with my neighbour in my village near Varazdin last night, discussing my recent visit to Restaurant Festa on the island of Zut. A keen sailor, my neighbour started to talk about his love for Kornati and then went to his phone.
"I have to show you this," he said. "There is an unbelievable restaurant, which has just six items on the menu, which is stuck on a window shutter. And four of those items are drinks!"
Not a place for vegetarians, that's for sure. The menu consists of lamb by the kilo (350 kuna - out of this world, says my neighbour) and salad (20 kuna). Red wine or white (80 kuna a litre) and a choice of still or sparkling water (20 kuna). And that's it. Phenomenal. Could that even go into the Guinness Book of Records as the world's shortest restaurant menu?
And the bay more than matched the experience of this unique restaurant - a video snapshot above.
"But that is not all," said my neighbour. "This is Spiro, a truly amazing raven. He talks, barks and does all sorts of things." I checked out Spiro online when I got home. He does indeed have a few words and knows how to bark. He arrived as a young raven, all alone, and was adopted by the brothers and seemingly learned various habits from them and the dog. He spends some time in a cage when tourists are around, as he likes to take things like cigarettes, but mostly he roams free, flying away to explore other parts of this magical nature park by day, but always returning at night.
Sadly, my neighbour heard that one of the brothers passed away this year, so things will no longer be quite the same, but the restaurant should be open for next season. Will you be sailing in?
Amazing Kornati - just one of hundreds of unique experiences.
