Peka is the Dalmatian iron-bell cooking technique: lamb, octopus or veal slow-roasted with potatoes, herbs and olive oil under a heavy iron lid covered with hot embers.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Peka is the inland Zagora cooking technique that arrived on the coast with the hill migration into Split through the centuries. The iron lid is called a peka or cripnja, and the cook covers it with hot wood embers, raked back into the oven floor for the 3-hour cook. In Split it is most often a Sunday-lunch order, with the peak in winter for lamb and autumn for octopus.
Tip from the editors. A proper peka needs embers above and below. A heavy Dutch oven on a roasting pan, with a hot oven, is the home approximation.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Konoba Marjan at the foot of the Marjan trail in Split serves classic Dalmatian dishes from a tiny kitchen in a centuries-old Veli Varos stone house.
Signature: Pasticada, Soparnik, Grilled fish platter
Order: Pasticada with gnocchi.
Tip: Cash and card both accepted; small terrace, book ahead in peak season.
Konoba Korta sits on a small Split palace courtyard in front of the Church of St Philip Neri, serving Dalmatian seafood and meats under ancient stone walls.
Signature: Squid with barley, Cuttlefish broad-bean pasta, Brudet
Order: Squid with barley and broad beans, finished with new olive oil.
Tip: Open daily through midnight; the cloistered courtyard tables are the ones to book in summer and shoulder season.
Konoba Fetivi in Split's Veli Varos is the Bib Gourmand family konoba on Tomica Stine, cooking grilled Adriatic fish and pasticada to a daily Pazar buy.
Signature: Grilled Adriatic fish, Pasticada with gnocchi, Crni rizot
Order: Whole grilled white fish by weight with chard and potatoes.
Tip: Tue-Sun 15:00 to 23:30, closed Mondays; book ahead for the early dinner sitting and the best whole fish go by 21:00.
More cities are in research. Want peka (under the bell) covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.