Javna ustanova Nacionalni park Plitvička jezera

In the past the dwellers of this area were mostly cattle - breeders, farmers, millers, lumberjacks and woodworkers. Their way of life greatly determined their diet and cooking.

The food was kept on the earth, in "rukace", the earthenware. Bread, the basic food, was made mostly of corn, and baked covered by ash and live coals in the hearth. Later "peke" or "pekve" (earthenware) were used, made by the local potters. Hard - boiled corn mush was also often prepared which were cooked from the cereals (oats, barley and millet), and seasoned with butter.

Milk, which was plentiful in this cattle breeding parts, was prepared in various ways: sour or sweet. "Kiselina" (sour milk) as well as cheese, butter, "basa" (soft cheese made of "skorupa") and cream were made on daily basis.

In cheese making rennet was used, and butter was prepared in "stap", the special container. The dairy products were mostly used during summer, with fresh or cooked vegetables, and dry - cured meet (smoked ham, bacon, sausages). One of the main delicacies was roasted lamb.

The most popular cakes were "masnica" (shortbread filled with onion, cheese, smoked ham or sweet cheese and raisins), potato and cabbage pies, form cakes, doughnuts and different sorts of strudels.

In wintertime smoked meat was mostly cooked with potatoes and sauerkraut, beans, turnip or kohlrabi. The pickled vegetables was eaten as a salad with the hard - boiled corn mush.

Since the woods were the part of the dweller's lives it was used as the source of food. People went game hunting often (dormice were a delicacy) and they gathered wild berries. Mushrooms were collected in the woods, too: morels, beech - sticks, field mushrooms. It is quite surprising that, even though the lakes were nearby, the dwellers rarely went fishing. they mostly caught trout in the brooks of Plitvica, Sartuk and Jasenica.

Even today, a part of that old feeling is at disposal to our visitors through the rich gastronomical offering of Plitvice Lakes National Park. Visitors that only pass by, can here acquire some of the more traditional food of the area, while ones with acquired taste will be indulged by specialties and ambiance of the Licka house restaurant. Within the complex of the Park there are two more restaurants - Borje and Poljana, accompanied by many smaller establishments offering refreshments to weary travelers.