I ndigenous herbs have been used for centuries in the gastronomic tradition of the Bay of Kotor, and although it has no distinctive specialities of its own, it is precisely these wild plants that give dishes from the Bay of Kotor their speci city. Such dishes, in which the lo- cals use grasses in abundance as the main ingredient, or just add certain kinds of medicinal herbs for taste, are indigenous and belong to the gastronomic cultural heritage of Montenegro. Steamed, boiled or served raw in salads, only occasionally dried, these herbs are al- ways drenched with local olive oil. And when prepared cheaply, served with a glass of local wine, they provided everything that was needed by the farmers of the bay. Among the edible grasses of the Bay of Kotor, the humble chicory, a form of dandelion, is the uncrowned empress, a veritable holy grass provider. Her ower is rich in colour and beauty, and there are many legends of the emergence of this blue owering beauty, one of the most beautiful of which emerged on the shores of the Mediterranean. and cattle, when the streams bled, it was always there NICA A blue-eyed beauty loved a young sailor greatly. They bequeathed themselves to one another, with their wedding announced for the com- ing spring – as soon as the sailor returned from another voyage. He had to earn money for a ring and a wedding! The girl joyously count- ed the days and months awaiting the return of her dear- est. A year passed, her smile froze, and tears increasingly splashed on her face. A second year passed, then a third... The blueness of her tear- lled eyes, tears, love, dis- tress and the pain for her lover, who has been covered by waves, somehow far away, in the in nite blue – everything owed into the land, from which sprout- ed a grass with the most beautiful blue ower in the world. Chicory! Her gentle petals blossom with sunrise and turn everything around them blue, like the hope of a girl waiting on the seashore. Then, with sunset, the petals close, grieving until a new spark of dawn and a new exhale – and perhaps Our Lady will return him to me. Chicory dandelions are characteristic of an impoverished table, years of star- vation and war, but also a speciality of spreads for feasts, when the people could a ord meat or sh. It is present throughout the Mediterranean region, though it isn’t used everywhere as an edible ingredient in the same way. It can even be con rmed that it has always been con- sidered a nutritional staple and is today a speciality in the Bay of Kotor, Istria, some Dalma- tian islands and Southern Italy, while in other areas it has only occasionally been mentioned as an edible plant. The people of the Bay of Kotor are indebted to this edible grass. The debt is huge. Like the burden of history. Chicory was on the table when thunder struck, when the sh ed to the kingdom of the seabed, when it wasn’t possible to leave one’s own yard, when tributes and banks were paid, when children cried waiting for a handful of mouldy our to cook in copper pots, when diseases decimated the people and cattle, when the streams bled. Chicory dandelions have always been on the table and have never been paid for... nor prayed for. When thunder struck, when tributes and banks were paid, when diseases decimated people
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