Dalmatia’s Most Unusual Festival? Puhijada, the Edible Dormouse
Travel is about new experiences, particularly food, and some of the most interesting tourist destinations have their own indigenous cuisine, which perhaps you might not indulge in back home, but when on holiday…
High on the list of unusual delicacies in Central Dalmatia is the edible dormouse, or ‘puh’ in Croatian. It is hunted and eaten in only three locations in Croatia, two of them in Central Dalmatia – in Dol on Hvar and Dol on Brac. The practice is to grill the dormouse whole, then pick the meat off the bones.
Several years ago, some enterprising locals from Dol on Hvar decided to celebrate this rather unique culinary tradition, and they founded a festival called Puhijada, which celebrated this and several other traditions of this fascinating inland village. It all starts on August 7 – see the full programme below and a video report of a previous Puhijada. For more information about Hvar, click here.
Balote (Croatian Bowls) tournament on the Balote court in Dol, every afternoon
– Exhibition of paintings entitled , “Ča znodu dica“ (“What Children Know”) with musical accompaniment by the D-ante group.
A lecture by dr. sc. Mladen Domazet – “Trebalo je samo izdržati- don Ivan Kuničić 1917. -1918.”
(It just needed to be endured – don Ivan Kuničić from 1917 to 1918)
– Presentation of the book “ Dobri naši zahodi“ (“Our Lovely Toilets”) by Damir Carić
– The premiere of the play “Kako se živilo pri” (“How we lived in the past”), from the book of the same name by Zorislav Posinković. Presented by the Petar Hektorović amateur theatre (junior group).
– The final tournaments of the “Dol Open” Balota (Croatian Bowls) competition. Afterwards a party organised by the football club N.K “Sloga” of Dol.
– in the late afternoon – Puh – Doormouse free climbing, the clowns Bumba and Šarenka
– 20:30 – a performance by the children’s kindergarten group “Sardelice”
– 21:00 – the presentation of the 13th edition of “Tartajun”(the village magazine)
– 21:30 – a performance by the Klapa group Priženca
– 22:30 – a performance by the Bravo band from Split
– Midnight – the band “Mjesni odbor” from Šolta entertains…
Stories from the heart