Zagreb Day Two

Two highlights from today were dinner at Gostionica-Restoran Purger followed by an evening at the Zagreb Piano Duos Festival.

I went to Purger two years ago when it was recommended by a local, and remembered it as being delicious, traditional and good value food.  And it was actually better than I remembered.  It feels old-world, in the sense of being gracious and homey, but still with formal but friendly service.  The wait staff wears black pants and white shirts, and the male wait staff also wear black vests.  They are wonderful.

Our waitress, who has a beautiful name that means white snow but I can’t remember it in Croatian, brought us pumpkin oil to try with the cabbage salad, and then bread to try the pumpkin oil.  Pumpkin seeds and oil are very popular in Croatia.  For lack of ability to decide, I chose the country lunch, which had an assortment of meats – sausage, ham, pork, and cabbage roll, with sauerkraut and potatoes.  One friend ordered turkey, in honor of Canadian Thanksgiving.

The house red wine was Plavac, a Croatian standard, and was good. In keeping with the good value, the entire meal – 3 main courses, 2 salads, 1/2 liter of wine, a bottle of water, a Teranino digestivo (from Istria, for me), dessert, and coffee – came to about $30 Canadian per person, for a great meal at with fine dining experience.

And continuing with the deal, the piano duos concert cost me $12, and the pension/retired person price was $6 CDN!!  There were three duos, a male and female, two females, and then two males.  They sat side by side and played, four hands on the keys.  Each alone would have been impressive, but two at a time was quite mesmerizing.

Dinner and piano concert was quite a way to end a leisurely day of sightseeing in Kaptol and Gradec.