Meet Teta Mara: 30 years creating best čvarkuše in town by hand
- by croatiaweek
- in Food & Wine
Teta Mara and her famous creations (Photo credit: Pivovara Medvedgrad/Instagram)
Pogačice s čvarcima or čvarkuše, which are little fragrant bread rolls with pork scratchings, are popular in the east of Croatia.
They are also enjoyed across the country and some of the most famous can be sampled at the small craft brewery Pivovara Medvedgrad in the capital Zagreb.
“Without them, no beer gathering in Medvedgrad’s taverns can go by, and whenever they arrive at the table, at least one person from the group will comment on how these are the best čvarkuše in town,” says Dobra hrana.
For the past 30 years, ‘Teta Mara’, as she is affectionately known at Medvedgrad, has been hard at work creating their signature čvarkuše. Every čvarkuše she kneads by hand, sometimes handling up to 50 kilograms of flour in a day.
“This wonderful woman in the photos is an institution within Medvedgrad. She has been with us from day one for a full 30 years and deserves these lines dedicated to her – this is Teta Mara! Čvarkuše and kiflice, such recognizable bites in our taverns, are her masterpieces,” Pivovara Medvedgrad wrote on their social media.
Teta Mara (Photo credit: Pivovara Medvedgrad/Instagram)
They added that over the years they have offered Teta Mara machines to assist her in kneading the dough, but she firmly declined them all because, as she said, she wouldn’t have that feeling, ‘that touch in her hands.’
“The standards for the recipes for čvarkuše and kiflice were made by measuring how much flour Teta Mara used from the bag for one batch of pastries. Because Mara doesn’t have a recipe, she does everything ‘by eye’ and by feeling – and everything always turns out perfectly.
The famous čvarkuše and kiflice (Photo credit: Pivovara Medvedgrad/Instagram)
And why wouldn’t it, when she does what she loves, as she says, having her hands in flour since she was a little girl,” Medvedgrad wrote, wishing their employee luck and health in the coming years and, of course, that we all continue to enjoy her delicacies together for as long as possible.
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