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Eureka! Candy, our truffle-hunting canine, has just struck pay dirt in Motovun Croatia. It’s hard to believe this little nugget resembling a deformed tuber that Candy has unearthed is worth a fortune. But then I take a whiff. How can I describe the funky aroma? Is it musk, garlic, chocolate, sweat sock? Whatever, it’s olfactory porn to my nose. We’ve discovered the illusive “white gold” of Istria. And the hunt has just begun.
White and black natural truffles.
Where is Istria Croatia?
Located in the Mediterranean on the shores of the Adriatic Sea the Istria peninsula is part of Croatia, Italy and Slovenia.
Istrian truffles
Istrian truffles from northern Croatia aren’t as famous as those from Piedmont, Italy, but international gourmands recognize them as being just as good. Istria also produces some of Croatia’s finest wines, honey and olive oils. It’s been called Europe’s best-kept food secret.
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Foraging for Buried Treasures in the Motovun Forest
In 1999, Giancarlo Zigante and his dog, Diana, dug up a “joker” (a term for a humongous truffle) weighing 1.31 kilos near the town of Motovun. Guinness World Records listed his find as the largest in the world, thus putting Istria on the truffle mecca map.
A shop owner in Motovun shows off black and white truffles. Photo: Anita Draycott©
Four fungi-loving friends and I have rented a house in Motovun, making it our headquarters for a week of fungi indulgence. We had pre-booked our truffle hunt with Candy and the Karlic family in the village of Paladini. We gathered at a picnic table while Kristina explained about the illusive fungi as she offered samples of truffle-spiked cheeses and sausages, washed down with family-made wine. Fortifying us for our upcoming truffle hunt, Kristina whipped up an omelette oozing with black and white truffles.
Booty from Livade Tuberfest in Croatia. Photo: Anita Draycott©
After lunch, we trekked into the nearby forest with Kristina’s brother, Ivan and his two dogs, Betty and Candy. Just as the fungi and tree roots have a special relationship, so do Ivan and his adorable mutts. When the dogs became rambunctious and started pawing the soil, Ivan grabbed the truffles before the dogs devoured them. After two hours, we scored two black beauties that we purchased to take back to our home for the week.
When they are three months old, Ivan begins training his Italian-bred Lagotto Romagnolo dogs, known for their faithful temperament, keen sense of smell and work ethic. By giving a pup some truffle bits, it acquires a taste for them and associates that taste and smell with food. Ivan then teaches the dog to fetch truffle pieces he has buried about three centimetres deep. Every time Fido finds a truffle, he gets a treat–an example of Pavlov’s dogs in action.
Eventually, Ivan buries truffles deeper in the woods. For final training, a pup accompanies an experienced truffle dog. When the senior pooch sniffs out a nugget, it is distanced from the find and the pup is brought in to dig it up. Judging from their wagging tails, Betty and Candy, seem to love their work.
On the Karlic truffle hunt Ivan and Betty find white gold in Istria Croatia. Photo: Anita Draycott©
On the Karlic truffle hunt Ivan and Betty find white gold in Istria Croatia. Photo: Anita Draycott©
Truffle Mania
Livade
In Istria, the truffle-hunting season is celebrated by a plethora of rural festivals. We literally followed our noses to Zigante Truffle Days (weekends in October) in Livade, where pungent aromas wafted from a large tent. We spent the afternoon grazing from stall to stall, sampling Istrian wines and an array of truffle-spiked products—even ice cream. As much as I adore truffles, I found the ice cream to be a bit of a stretch.
Festival of Subotina in Buzet
In 1999, the normally sleepy town of Buzet was proclaimed the “City of Truffles.” On the second Saturday of September, folks flock there to celebrate the Festival of Subotina, where they queue for a slice of the world’s biggest truffle omelette. This year, the egg count will total 2024, to which they add about ten kilos of truffles. Folk dancing, fireworks, pop concerts, and biska—the local mistletoe-flavoured brandy—round out the festivities.
Gigantic Buzet truffle omelet Istria Croatia. Photo: Anita Draycott©
Motovun
To say our group binged on truffles would be an understatement. Usually, we’d breakfast on scrambled eggs with truffle shavings. Later, we’d hike almost 300 metres to the top of Motovun where the cobbled streets are lined with truffle shops offering free tastings of oils, sauces, sausages, cheeses, pasta and chocolates.
Truffles from the Motovun Forest – White Truffles and Black Truffles Croatia. Photo: Anita Draycott©
View from top of Motovun in Croatia. Photo: Anita Draycott©
Konoba Mondo
At Konoba Mondo, a terrific old-world restaurant, white truffles are shaved over all sorts of dishes—from soufflés to steaks to pasta. They even infuse honey with truffles and serve it in a panna cotta dessert.
Carpaccio with shaved white truffles at Konobo Mundo restaurant. Photo: Anita Draycott©
When the late Anthony Bourdain visited Istria on his travel food show No Reservations on CNN, he remarked: “The next big thing is Croatia. If you haven’t been here, you’re an idiot.” I agree Tony, but when your burps taste like truffles, it’s time to go home.
Truffle Trivia
- Traditionally, female pigs hunted for truffles, but these days, truffle hunters use dogs because the sows tend to eat the truffles in their excitement, whereas the dogs are happy to give them up for a treat and a pat on the head!
- The white truffle is considered to be superior in smell and taste to the black truffle. It is best eaten raw in thin shavings over bland foods such as pasta, rice and eggs.
- The exorbitant price is because no one has been able to cultivate these rare fungi that grow in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of oak, hazelnut and poplar trees. The record price paid for a single white truffle was set in December 2007, when Macau casino owner Stanley Ho paid US$330,000 for a specimen weighing 1.5 kilograms.
Pasta with white truffle shavings. Photo: Anita Draycott©
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