In the kitchen
Tecia
The frying pan. Hence patate in tecia, slowly browned. Anyone who grew up in Trieste recognises the smell before seeing the dish.
Traditional Trieste food
What to eat in Trieste, dish by dish.
Adriatic seafood, Venetian and Istrian recipes, flavours that came down from Vienna: in Trieste they share the same menu. At our osteria too.
A border kitchen
One city, three kitchens.
For centuries Trieste was the main port of the Habsburg Empire, on the sea and a few kilometres from Istria and the Karst. Its food has stayed that way: a border cuisine.
From the sea and from Venice come creamed salt cod and sardines in savor. From Istria, buzara. From Vienna and Central Europe, goulash, breaded everything, kren (horseradish) and strudel. And then there are the dishes born right here, in the city’s buffets and osterias: the caldaia of boiled pork and the potatoes in tecia.
At Osteria La De Jure these dishes sit next to our seafood and a few recipes of our own. Below are the ones we cook, photographed at the osteria. If you’re visiting Trieste and want to taste the city, this is where to start.
Triestine dishes
What to order to eat like a local
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Patate in tecia
In Triestine dialect a tecia is a frying pan. The potatoes are boiled, roughly crushed and slowly browned until they form a crust; usually with onion, at our place with pancetta.
It’s the side dish for everything: caldaia, meat, a plate of goulash. Order one portion more than you think you need.
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Caldaia with mustard and horseradish
The signature dish of Trieste’s buffets: pork cuts boiled in a big pot – the caldaia – and served hot. Next to them there is always mustard and kren, freshly grated horseradish root, sharp and pungent.
Ours comes with patate in tecia. There’s more on the page about the Triestine buffet.
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Goulash
It arrived from Hungary in the days of the Empire and became a home dish in Trieste: meat slowly cooked with onion and paprika into a thick, dark sauce.
The sauce is for mopping up with bread, shamelessly. It’s the dish for evenings when the bora, Trieste’s famous wind, is blowing.
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Sardoni in savor and baccalà mantecato
Venice’s legacy on this coast. The sardoni, large Adriatic anchovies, are fried and left to rest with onion and vinegar; the salt cod is whipped with olive oil into a cream.
At our place they come together in the seafood starter. The rest of our fish is on the seafood page.
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Breaded snacks – impanati
Breadcrumbs are the part of Vienna that Trieste never gave back. In our display case: breaded aubergines and courgettes, meatballs, pork loin (ombolo), breaded chicken and breaded creamed cod.
Eat them at the counter, standing up if you like, or at the table as a starter.
Triestine at the table
Three words for ordering
You don’t need them to be understood, but they help.
On the plate
Kren
Horseradish, freshly grated. Sharp and pungent, it goes on caldaia and boiled meats. The word comes through German and Slovenian, like half the cooking of this city.
To finish
Strudel
Strudel is on our dessert menu: Central Europe’s last goodbye before coffee. Otherwise, crêpes with Nutella or the dessert of the day.
A review
“Truly delicious food, both the meat and the fish, and above all Triestine specialities.”
Before you come
Where to eat Triestine, on Via Giulia
We’re at Via Giulia 51: look for the red sign above the awning. For dinner it’s best to book – just give us a call. If you’re passing by, you can also stop at the counter for a quick bite.
- Where
- Via Giulia 51, 34126 Trieste
- Hours
- Monday–Saturday 08:00–23:00, closed Sunday
- Bookings
- +39 040 265 0413
- Come for
- Lunch, dinner and snacks
Book a table
Eat like a Triestine.
You bring the appetite, we’ll take care of the rest. To book, just give us a call!