Day 3 in Photos, Raw and Unfiltered:
Day 3 starts at the beautiful Karlic Estate in Paladini for truffle hunting...
But first, grappa. It's 10am.
Truffles that will be shaved on to our breakfast of scrambled eggs.
The coveted white truffles.
Pre-breakfast starters. Truffle cream cheese, truffle pate, truffle cheese, and truffle salami. Yes, yes, yes, and YES.
Soft scrambled eggs with truffles.
Gorgeous views from the Karlic Estate as we head out for the hunt.
With a full stomach, we hunt. Or, really, the dogs hunt and we watch and hopefully, grab.
Hunting with Ivan from Karlic. When he was 14, he found a 200g "joker" truffle. Incredible.
Truffle hunting like Oprah #bucketlist.
Paying respects at the birthplace of the biggest white truffle ever found at Zigante.
Lunch at Toklarija, a slow-food restaurant in a converted 600 year old olive oil mill.
Welcome bubbly. Toklarija is owned by Chef Nevio Sirotić. This is his son operating the front of house. A lovely father and son duo.
Fresh cow cheese with pickled dandelion buds, and sausages. To make dandelion buds, which taste sweeter and less acidic than capers, pick them before they bloom, salt them for two days, boil, and pickle. So good.
Wild asparagus salad with half boiled egg and pancetta.
Suckling pig with prosciutto and cheese ravioli and sautéed herbs.
Chef Nevio Sirotić prepares a dark chocolate soufflé for dessert.
Moody green Istria.
Roaming the old streets of Sovinjak.
It's been like 30 minutes since we've had anything to drink or eat. Time for an olive oil tasting at the renowned Ipsa estate.
View from Ipsa.
Another Ivan, also a hardworking son of the family, guides us through four different types of olive oils. When you taste the olive oils here, you have to wait a second for the surprising spicy finish.
Walking off the day's feasts so far in the adorable city of Groznjan, home to independent galleries and artist studios.
Artist Marko Brajkovic.
Marina Abramovic's old apartment.
Wine-tasting at Kozlovic winery.
A symbol of the deep family heritage of Kozlovic wine-making.
Another six bottles later, I think the Teran red was my favorite.
Dinner at the Stari Podrum konoba starts with the vegetable of the trip... wild asparagus soup. Loved the rustic, home comfort of the dishes here. Konoba's are like homey taverns or French bouchons.
Fuzi pasta with truffles (can never get tired of truffles) shining with that Istrian olive oil.
Perfectly cooked beef salad with buttery potato rosti and roasted zucchini.
Because I'm really starting to waste away here- blueberry panacotta, tiramisu, chocolate truffle... a lot of goodness on one plate.
There was a lot of father-son duos today but at Stari Podrum it's all about the mother-daughter love.
For more information on Istria, Croatia: