One of the most confusing moments of my life was during this episode with Christian Skroce where I realized coastal Croatia might as well be Italy. We talk about Dalmatia where his family is from, the insane overlap between the Croatian and Italian taste buds, and the best World Cup jerseys in history.
This week Christian Skroce joins the show to break down Croatia, a place that even I couldn't pick out on a map until recently. We talk about Croatia, the regions of the country including Dalmatian (Where the dog breed is from!) and the history of the country including its modern definition since the separation of Yugoslavia. We make some casual comparisons between Croatia and New Jersey (where we both hail from) and move on to what Croatians love to eat. Christian describes every big gathering as being centered around a whole roasted lamb, and tells me one of his favorite things is Dalmatian soup his grandma makes. That's soup from Dalmatia, not soup made with Dalamatians. He also shares a soup from the region of Lika is one of his personal favorites. Christian describes how just about any Mediterranean restaurant will have some Croatiain items on the menu, specifically pointing out squid ink risotto as a common favorite for Croatians. We talk about Croatian pizza, a thinner, brick oven type of pizza typically made in coastal cities. Christian let's me know that Pizza Town is his favorite pizza in New Jersey, and I explain how to properly pronounce the word calamari. We talk a bit about the similarities between Italy and Croatia which should make more sense because there's maybe 50 miles of water between eastern Italy and western Croatia. Christian informs me of the GREAT World Cup jerseys of all time, the magical jerseys worn by the Croatian team (timestamp around 36:25). We talk about St. Joseph's Day and St. Joseph's zeppoles which Christian describes as basically shamelessly stolen from Italians by Croatians. We end with a bit of discourse around Croatian language and how certain words mean different things based on the context and finally wrap up hoping we can one day get to Europe after the pandemic ends.