Croatian home cooking through the generations

As a multi-generation Australian with English and Irish ancestry, I have been fascinated and envious of the food traditions held in the family of my friend Anita whose family are from Croatia.

Anita’s mother, Malfalda Zubovic, aka Draga (a childhood nickname meaning dearest) and Baba to her five grandchildren, came to Australia by boat from Croatia via Italy in 1963 at the age of 23. The second youngest of eight children, she came on her own with no money, no English and a small cardboard suitcase to join her sister Nela and brother-in-law who had already settled in Fairy Meadow seven years earlier.

Draga’s father died when she was five in the Second World War and her widowed mother, Maria Rose, worked hard to bring up her eight children on her own. I asked Draga how her mother felt about having two of her children move to Australia. She says she was quite happy because her children would have a better future in Australia. Life was hard in Croatia under communist Yugoslavia, with no prospect of owning property or having a good job unless you were a member of the Communist Party. Three brothers also immigrated but to the United States.

The girls of the family left school at 13 to tend the farm and sell their produce at the local village of Crno, near Zadar on the Adriatic coast. The boys were able to finish their schooling. Draga went from working on the family farm to a textile factory in Zadar at the age of 17.

Maria Rose lived to a healthy 96 years of age. Draga tells me that her mother was a strong, smart woman who lived and survived through wars and very hard times. She was bright and engaged until the end. Maria Rose never visited her family in Australia, but was able to make the trek to the US to see family there, although she needed assistance with travel as she couldn’t read the English signs.

So, Fairy Meadow was the destination for young Draga when she arrived in 1963 and moved in with her sister and brother-in-law. Draga found work in a factory in Unanderra. Here she worked alongside migrants and locals, inspecting high-end textiles and repairing the imperfections. These textiles ended up in expensive men’s suits.

She integrated into the Croatian community through the local Catholic Church and met her future husband Peter (also Croatian) at a gathering in Pioneer Hall in Wollongong.

In the 1950s and '60s, the Illawarra was a melting pot of nationalities mainly due to the lure of work at the Port Kembla steelworks. This is where Peter worked until retirement.

The young couple married within six months of their first meeting. They bought a block of land in Corrimal and lived locally while the house was built. The couple had three children with Draga managing the household until she began outside work as a cleaner when the children were older. When the children reached school age, Draga made a point of speaking to them in English, although she started learning English formally when she began working outside the house. The Zubovics remained close to their local Croatian community through the Catholic Church now in Figtree.

Her rule for her children has always been “no politics – everyone has the capability of being good regardless of ethnicity and we leave old tensions behind".

Peter and Draga remain in the house they built and middle child Anita was able to purchase the house on the adjoining block. Anita and her husband Eddy have two children and the extended family remains close.

The family keep Croatian traditions alive, and Draga and Peter are still involved in the church. Draga is a wonderful cook, often making traditional meals for herself and the extended family. She is passing on these traditions to her daughter and grandchildren.

Growing up on productive land in Croatia, Draga and her family were intimately connected to the food they ate. They grew vegetables which were their mainstay but also had animals that were slaughtered for their meat. Draga tells me that she has always cooked Croatian-style food for her family although she has had to adapt many dishes according to what is available in Australia. In Corrimal, Peter and Draga have a very productive vegetable garden with fruit trees and chickens.

One favourite dish, often appearing at celebrations including at Christmas, is sarma (pronounced with a rolling 'R') or cabbage rolls. Draga, Anita, granddaughter Betty and I gathered around the island bench in Anita’s kitchen for a lesson from the master.

You can find the recipe here