I had the best meal of my life at the Zure family’s restaurant in the tiny village of Lumbarda, on the Croatian island of Korcula.

We found it my accident, just wandered past. The Zure family has a full agro-tourism business: they fish, grow olives and grapes, make wine, raise and cure their own meats. They have accommodation near the beach, though we didn’t stay there.

We did stop at their restaurant, though, and it’s hard to describe how wonderful it was. It was a cool night, so we were inside, rather than at the outdoor patio tables.

Once we found out that they catch/raise/grow/make so much of their own food, we just sort of trusted the server - a really pleasant woman - to recommend some choices. And are we glad we did. They brought tons of starters, and their locally-grown olives were the highlight, but there was also some delicious cured meat.

For the main course, my wife took the lobster - cut in half and grilled - and I took the Scorpionfish. Yes, that’s one of the ugly, deadly ones if you step on it, but it was one of the tastiest grilled fish I’d ever had.

The sides of grilled vegetables were plentiful. We got through a couple of bottles of their own red wine, which was delicious. There were shots of slivovijca to finish…I think.

There were a few other groups dining that evening, including one older couple who were celebrating a significant anniversary. At one point the lady started singing Croatian songs, and it made the whole evening even more amazing. We bought them a drink and congratulated them: no translation necessary.

It’s a friendly, family run place, with amazingly fresh, local ingredients, in beautiful surroundings. I had to call my Croatian friend back in Canada just to tell him how wonderful it was.