Asmosia Banquet

Friday May 22

We were so entranced by the strawberries we saw at Noštromo last night, and so overfed (again due to Noštromo), that we went to the greenmarket just outside our palace walls and picked up a punnet of the sweet local fruit for a simple, light lunch.

That evening was the conference's wrap-up banquet, held as a buffet in the usual venue, the Split city museum.  So we trooped up to the second floor, where the armor display is (and where some unconventional participants were able to gingerly try some on). 

Our kind hostess, Prof. Katja Marasović, had wanted to give the banquet in the substructures of Diocletian's Palace, but there was already a wine tasting booked in there.  In any case, she confided to us that had hired the same caterers that had done a recent reception for the Queen of Denmark.  So we grabbed some glasses of local Merlot and Malvasija and joined the buffet line to pile up our plates.

The row of chafing dishes was too uninteresting to photograph, but the contents were cerainly good enough for a queen: octopus salad, tuna paté on lemon slices, surprisingly tender fried squid with dill sauce, breaded chicken tenders, Swedish meatballs (Croatian mtbls - no, just kidding), cones of salami rosettes with olives inside, shredded cheese, cherry tomato and ciliegine mozzarella salad, risotto with the ridged clams called brbavica (Venus verrucosa L., yes, warty Venus), truffle ravioli, tomato ravioli, and platters full of pastries, fritule (like loukoumades) and other desserty things. We were also fortunate enough to snag a comfy couch, along with our colleague Simon.

Down in the courtyard, a band played Django Rinehart specialties, and some of the Asmosians even danced.  A very festive evening, but as the next day showed, our Croatian hosts had yet another culinary ace up their sleeves.