When you're a guest anywhere in the balkans you are King and I mean that literally, you have never experienced hospitality like it, family members who will sleep on the couch in their OWN home so you can have the bed, the piles of food and drink, when I'm in Croatia I quite like staying in rooms let by little old "baka's " ( grannies ) who needs a concierge when you have a granny who's only lived oh say 50 years in the medieval sea side town you're visiting, and bakes biscuits and cakes for you in the morning before you hit the town, and has a shot of rakija waiting for you when you come back...anyway many years ago whilst on a visit to Croatia I stayed with my Aunty Boja who is an exceptional cook, and after a few days of catching up and reminiscing, filling her in on her sisters life in faraway Australia she asked me what I wanted for a farewell dinner I don't know if it was the slivovitz but I grinned like an idiot and shouted out "SKAMPI," the room went silent for a moment before my Aunty said " sure of course " so the next day I wandered the well laid out streets, admired the buildings from the Austro-Hungarian era and came across the fish market where I noticed these tasty little mini lobster like crustaceans which Rijeka is famous for, were the equivalent price per kilo of my Aunty Bojas Oh I'd say MONTHLY meagre wage !!!, now I felt really bad but I knew there was no way she was going to NOT buy some, even if she had to borrow the money from the neighbours. So that night I turned up to dinner with plastic bags full of cartons of Marlboro's, Champagne and Whisky we smoked and drank till dawn and man I tell you those scampi tasted good...this recipe is from my good friend Ino Kuvacic head chef and owner of Dalmatino restaurant here in Melbourne Australia and his great blog.
http://inokuvacic.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-max=2011-11-20T05:37:00-08:00&max-results=7
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