Martinje

Saint Martin, the 4th-century Bishop of Tours, is the patron saint of winemakers and vine growers. He was a reluctant clergyman, however, and hid in a barn to avoid his duties. The resident geese were having none of it, and honked until he was taken to the cathedral to be ordained.

His feast day on 11 November marks the end of the agricultural calendar and the moment the fermenting grape juice officially becomes drinkable wine. In the vineyards of Zagorje and Međimurje, north of Zagreb, the day is still marked with a ceremony led by a ‘Bishop Martin’, who tells ribald jokes, insults local dignitaries in song, and baptises the new wine before the feasting begins.

Eating goose on St Martin’s day is a centuries-old revenge on the birds who gave the begrudging bishop away. Zagreb is full of hunters, but their apartments and ovens were typically too small to cook a goose, so duck became the tradition for our Martinje.

Purgerica (‘Poor-ger-its-sa’) is Zagreb slang that means a woman who is a true resident of the city, someone whose parents and grandparents are also from Zagreb since way back.

My mother Nellica (‘Nell-its-sa’) is from Zagreb. Croatia’s capital city is the center of a delicious continental food culture, which mixes indigenous specialties with influences from Italy, Germany, and Hungary as well as the wider Balkans. Although Nellica left home to live in England when she was 18, the way she cooked remained deeply Zagreb, revealing her identity as a Purgerica even when she was doing her best to blend in with the Brits.