They say that when God finished creating the world, he chucked a handful of leftover rocks into the Adriatic. My ancestors hail from one of those rocks: the tiny island of Murter in Dalmatia, a 233-mile stretch of coastline in the middle of Europe staring at the back of Italy's boot. The former summer playground of Roman emperors, Hapsburg aristocrats, and comrades on workers' holiday, this part of Central Europe was passed back and forth between the Italians, the Austro-Hungarians, and sometimes the Turks for centuries. All of them enjoyed the coast's most prominent charm: its exquisite seafood.
For millennia, people here have drawn their livelihoods from the waters of Croatia's Dalmatian coast, which hugs the Adriatic Sea. The local cuisine is centered on the hundreds of fish and shellfish…