Neretva Valley restaurant guide

Frogs’ legs are not only a speciality of the French. Here in the Neretva Delta, locals prepare them in all kinds of imaginative ways, testament to the generations of unpretentious local cooks who have made best use of the produce freshly and freely available around them. Breaded, blanketed in bacon, bathed in all kinds of sauces or the essential element of any hearty stew, frogs’ legs, their taste not dissimilar to chicken wings, are a must-try almost everywhere in Neretva. Eel is another staple, ideally spit-roasted, also providing body and flavour to the Neretvanski brudet, the regional take on the stew usually layered with fish elsewhere around Dalmatia. Even stopping by one of the many roadside stalls here will have you anxious the try the juiciest of naturally organic oranges or watermelons. There’s a citrusy element, too, to the Žilavka white wine, produced nearby, south of Mostar just over the border in Bosnia & Herzegovina.