Olito – gastronomy Cres

Cres is like many other Croatian islands a true treasure chest, a place where traditional knowledge and skills are still alive, including those that we will not find anywhere else in the world. Those skills made facilitated the daily life of the local population, and some even sweetened it, literally. One of these skills is preparing a traditional cake Olito, which was delighting the generations of islanders here. Even though it sounds Spanish, Olito is a specialty in Orlec on Cres, where you can still taste it and therefore, if you rent an apartment, room or vacation house on Cres, do not miss the opportunity to indulge your taste buds with something you will not have the opportunity to taste anywhere else. The traditional dish Olito from Cres is an indigenous cake of sheep's fat. It may not sound particularly tempting, the more that "olito" means the gut, and Olito is a pastry cake made by sheep growers on the island of Cres. The recipe is seemingly simple, flour, dry figs and raisins mixed with sheep's fat give a homogeneous mixture to fill the sheep's stomach. The stomach was previously cleaned, dried, stuffed and cooked for several hours, then sliced and fried shortly on olive oil. This gives us the unique flavor of a cake that is impossible to stop eating until the last crumbs on the plate disappear, and the pleasure of vacation on Cres remains permanently imprinted in our taste sensation. Today, the delicious Olito cake is prepared in just a few places on Cres and on special occasions. Look for those places and take a peek at the Cres cookbook in search of traditional recipes, like Olito, a delightful island life pleasure.