Truffles Motovun

Slowly but surely Istrian truffles (tartuffi) have been making their name known in the world. Late summer, autumn and early winter are truffle finding time. Both the prized white truffle and the more common black truffle are commonly found in Istria. Restuarant menus offer them both in main and desert courses. You will know it is truffle time as the specially trained dogs go truffle-hunt mad and can be heard in the early hours. Some years ago Carlo Zigante found the world’s largest white truffle (1.3kg) near Buje. It entered the Guinness Book of Records. To promote Istrian Truffles, he cooked a dinner for 100 people using his prize truffle as chief ingredient. As a result attention was drawn to the area and today there are Truffle Events held annually. If you know nothing about truffles there is no better introduction than visting one of the truffle fairs - wine tastings and other local produce available.

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