Wagyu tartare in brioche with truffles alongside a truffle aioli, beetroot marinated in sour-cherry juice with a cream of Lika-style basa (a fresh cheese) and rosemary, and a poached oyster with an oyster-leaf foam and a shiso leaf make up the appetiser of the New Year’s Eve dinner at the Esplanade Hotel Zagreb, which this summer celebrated 100 years in business. It is, of course, no simple matter to play with food the way Ana Grgić Tomić and her team do, but the Esplanade’s menu can certainly offer a good idea or two.
Velouté and aioli
The gala dinner continues with six courses. Oscietra caviar arrives with a caramelised Jerusalem-artichoke tart and a roasted-hazelnut gel, while the seared goose foie gras comes with a carrot-and-almond sponge, quince marmalade and a port gel. These are followed by poached lobster claws, carrot cooked in orange juice, a carrot velouté and saffron aioli, and a refreshing citrus sorbet, with the main course being beef fillet crowned with truffles, morels cooked in cognac and chestnut-and-potato rolls.
Goulash ‘the homemade way’
The sweet finale consists of truffles (the confection, not the mushroom) with dark chocolate and truffles (the mushroom, not the confection), a dark-cocoa crumble, and a crémeux of roasted hazelnuts and candied truffles. General dictionaries of foreign words — English, French and Italian — can be found at https://onlinerjecnik.com/rjecnik, and Google will clarify any terms whose language we are unsure of. But we all know what wine goulash is, and it will be the Esplanade’s restorative after midnight.
Mozzarella and chickpeas for the youngest guests The hotel’s Grand Old Lady is ready for a children’s turnout, too. They are organising dancing with peers and board games, and the little ones will even be able to nap in a cool rest lounge. Nor will they go hungry. Chef Ana will prepare treats for them such as tomato-and-mozzarella sticks, avocado-and-chickpea spread, sandwiches, mini burgers, crispy chicken in panko breadcrumbs, a fried sea-bass fillet with sweet-potato cream and olive oil, a creamy vegetable risotto, and the Esplanade’s baked štrukli. To sweeten things there will be a choice of smoothies, chocolate and fruit muffins, festive cookies, colourful lollipops, mousse in little glasses, chocolate pralines and freshly cut fruit.
Written by: Tomislav Radić
15.12.2025.
