Hvar Night 1 - "Slow Food"

On our first night in Hvar, the biggest island in Croatia, we went to a restaurant I had found on Trip Advisor called The Golden Shell. They are known for their "slow food". What is that, you may ask? It is exactly the opposite of fast food. Everything is fresh and local, and the chef doesn't prepare your meal until you walk through the door. Well, actually, he doesn't even decide what to cook until you speak to him. We were the only ones in the restaurant for the first half of our meal. The chef came out, we asked him a few questions before deciding to go for the four course challenge. He asked if we had any "problems" which is nice for me as I have many food allergies. He also asked our preferences - sea or land animals, cheese, etc. and prepared everything to our liking. It is definitely a family run restaurant  - with the dad as the chef and the son as our waiter. We even overheard them bickering in the back during our meal!

I had falled in love with one of their local wines that I tasted earlier in the afternoon - a full-bodied red wine from Plavic Mali, a hillside on the island of Hvar, which is believed to produce the best wines of the Dalmatian Coast. I can't wait to enjoy this wine every night on this amazing island!

I started with an eggplant sesame paste, a marinated & fried anchovy, and black and red caviar. 

My sister started with a cucumber salad, roast beef and a baba ganoush.

Second we had a chicken satay with candied onions and...

shrimp risotto with Buzara sauce (both our favorite)

My main course was a white fish over potatoes with a tomato caper sauce.

Ariana's main course was a steak with chocolate mole sauce over potatoes.

My dessert was an almond semifreddo (amazing) and a chocolate cream

Finally, this was a chocolate lava cake and a carob cake.

One of the reviews on TripAdvisor said if we are "lucky" the owners will serve us homemade fig brandy. And lucky we were! We got to try this strong and sweet brandy to finish off our meal.