A new way of preparing and making food was presented in the Lika House. As it should be - Lika in the foreground

On Thursday in the cult restaurant "Lička kuća" of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, a new menu concept was presented, that is, a new way of preparing and making dishes. At the same time, an announcement was made about future activities in the development of gastronomy and catering in the Park.

The menu card was formed as the first publicly visible result of many years of changes and improvement of the Park's catering offer, and it was created according to the programs of staff education in kitchens, internal improvements of the sector of own bakeries, pastry shops and butchers, and technological investments in equipping food preparation rooms and kitchen facilities.

What is significant news are two key factors: quality home-made food from the Lika Quality system, ie from local family farms, and an authentic Lika gastronomic offer. As it should be, it is the very essence of tourism.

Namely, in the catering part of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, there are several facilities today; these are four hotels with their own restaurants, two independent restaurants, restaurants within two camps, as well as smaller catering establishments located at the entrances and inside the park.

Plitvička Jezera National Park is located in the destination of Lika, which is an ecological oasis in itself, as three national parks, a nature park, a cave park and a number of natural phenomena are located there. The specific taste of the food can be attributed to extremely rich pastures, and it is specific to Lika that on more than 50 species of plants grow per square meter, of which 25 percent are medicinal. The result is the LIKA QUALITY (LQ) certificate. There are currently 160 products in the LQ system, and many of them are used in the menu of the Lika house.

"Following market trends, as well as the national strategy of improving the hotel and catering offer and raising services to the level of 4 and 5 stars, the offer of dishes made according to high gastronomic standards, as the management and employees of the park have set themselves the task" stand out from the NP Plitvička jezera. Namely, from next year, two hotels will start with a thorough reconstruction and raising the service to 4* and 5*, two years ago the internal "gastro academy" program was launched, and in cooperation with the Lika destination cluster and the launch of the LQ quality system, the entire process was created .

The presentation of the new food menu in "Lička house" is thus a strategic cumulus of previous work, Plitivka Jezera National Park emphasizes, and the park's most promising personnel are led by young chef Igor Jularić.

"When creating new recipes and dishes, they kept the following facts in mind, among other things. The first is highlighting our own food production, which refers to ingredients made exclusively from vegetables and meat, dough for breads and desserts from our own bakery or processing of selected meat from our own butcher. All this without the use of any additives or artificial preparations. Another is the use of modern cooking technology, for example in the ripening of meat, in the cold and hot smoking of meat products, such as our own production of sausages, in the production of our own pasta, or in the production of the original local spread - Lička base. The third is creative play with traditional eating habits and dishes"

The new menu features dishes such as the "Lički zavežljaj" in which guests are served a dish that simulates roast lamb with a side dish from a bakery, but made in small portions, or "Lamb Orzoto" in which the traditional grain barley is skillfully combined with reduction of dark Velebit beer and our own Spanish beef bone stock with braised lamb meat from Lika.

Desserts, along with traditional Lika strudels, have received new future gastronomic icons; the universally popular "cheesecake" cake in Lička kuča is made from Liča base and glazed with plum jam. Pekmez is also part of the program to improve the gastronomic offer of the Park. For two years now, park employees have been picking local plum trees themselves through a kind of "team building" program, and the park's kitchens are cooking jams in cauldrons from the fruits, pasteurizing them and using them to make desserts throughout the year.

However, in Lička house you will still be able to enjoy flavors and styles that already belong to the gastronomic past, such as lamb on a spit or under the oven, veal under the oven, potatoes from Lika...

Stara-nova Lička kuća will launch a new menu on July 20, and throughout the year it will be improved, changed and upgraded depending on the seasons as well as new ideas, of which there is already no shortage.

Finally, we present a new concept of the Lika house's gastronomic menu:

• Tortellini filled with cottage cheese
  • (handmade tortellini on pumpkin cream, arugula pesto, fried pumpkin seeds, sautéed mushrooms, mature cow's cheese)
• Rolls filled with smoked trout and prosciutto
  • (handmade potato rolls from Lika filled with cold smoked trout and prosciutto, stewed in white wine)
• Lamb orzoto
  • (stewed lamb meat from Lika, barley porridge with dark Velebit beer)
• Lika soup
  • Traditional soup with lamb meat, potatoes and vegetables
• Lamb cutlet with herb crust
  • (lamb cutlet from Lika slowly cooked in a vacuum and baked in the oven, cauliflower cream, sauteed vegetables, thyme sauce)
• A personal bundle
  • (lamb meat from Lika, plum wine from Lika, potatoes from Lika, carrots, celery, tomatoes, herbs)
• Lamb burger
  • (minced lamb meat from Lika, skripavac cheese with potatoes with onion and bacon, bass and dill sauce, onion chips, roasted pepper)
• Homemade sausages on a barley bun
  • (pure beef sausages in lamb intestines, cold smoked over selected wood, barley in stewed vegetables, sautéed onions in white wine)

Potatoes with onions and bacon

• (potato cubes from Lika boiled and then fried on onions and smoked bacon)
• Homemade duvec with barley
  • (braised root vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, boiled barley and potatoes...)
• Rib-eye steak
  • (steak of aged beef from the front part of the back, 400 g)
    • Fried onions, sautéed vegetables
• Base cake and plum jam
  • (bass from Lika house, jam from the Lika Quality system)