Pula, Istria - that "raffish port"- James Joyce; and Cuisine

Dan Widing and James Joyce, Pula, Istria, Croatia

Istria is the peninsula from which Trieste was carved and given to Italy after WWII. Croatia retained most of the rest of the peninsula, with Slovenia keeping a port area and pathway to it.
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.  It has a literary and kitchen heritage.
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I.  Literary heritage.
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Pula claims James Joyce, the Irish author, see http://www.jamesjoyce.ie/detail.asp?ID=19; see also http://www.pulainfo.hr/en/jj.asp. He lived there with Nora Barnacle (inexplicably misspelled as Barncale here and there), his significant other and then his wife, 1904 until WWI, and then on to Zurich and then Paris.  We found him by the Roman Gate in Pula, outside a pub.  Pula is variously spelled Pulj, or Pola.
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Why was he in Pula? Joyce taught at the Berlitz school, established to serve navy officers.  He taught English to Italians, Germans and Serbians.  He was insulting as to the Slavs ("who wear little red caps and colossal breeches"), and Austrians (" ... this Catholic country with its hundred races and thousand languages, governed by a parliament whih can transact no business and sits for a week at the most and by the most physically corrupt royal house in Europe."). See Richard Ellman, James Joyce, at p. 186, below.

The school apparently was by the Roman Arch, built by the Sergiii, a prominent family in Roman and Medieval times. He and Nora lived in a furnished room and kitchen, 3d floor, Via Giulia 2. See Richard Ellman, James Joyce: New and Revised Edition, Oxford Univ. Press 1982 (1959).  At page 156:  "Her name was a little comic, Nora Barnacle (she spells it Norah, see FN 1), but this too might be an omen of felicitious adhesion. (As Joyce's father was to say when he heard much later her last name was Barnacle, 'She'll never leave him.')"  See also http://www.26books.com/2010/12/james-joyce-by-richard-ellmann-jamess-book-38-2010/

Read pages 186-87 for fine descriptions of the city.
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A review of his life and work is in "James Joyce" by Edna O'Brien, Lipper/Viking, NY - reviewed in Vogue 1/9/2000; and more extensively in the New Yorker 1/7/1999. See http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/01/09/reviews/000109.09sullivt.html

 Pula, on the southern coast of Istria: see overview at http://www.istra.com/pula/, and a history at http://www.histrica.com/istria/blue/pula/.

Pula is famous for its Roman ruins, including the arch, and a large amphitheater and two temples.  The Romans built the town as a port, then the Venetians took over, then the Austrians came in 1863 and built their naval arsenal and dockyard for torpedo boats, and men-of-war. Italians, Germans and Austrians.  Neither James nor Nora loved the place; neither did they love Austria. But the employment was acceptable, if borderline poverty.  A letter from Nora to James Joyce August 16, 1904, see FN 1

II.  Istria and Cuisine

 Many nationalities now come for vacations, and settle, says the New York Times in a foodie article 5/16/07, "In Istria, Fresh from the Land and the Sea," by Mark Bittman in 'Dining Out.' http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DE3DB1331F935A25756C0A9619C8B63&ref=lidiabastianich.  Do a search for istria octopus potato stew and up comes the entire article and its recipes- at least as of 6/18/07 (today). There is also an asparagus frittata. It is becoming a culinary destination.  http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/travel/22istria.html?ref=lidiabastianich
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Lidia Bastianich, the chef, was born here, says the article. Look her up at http://www.superchefblog.com/1990/01/super-chef-lidia-bastianich .
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This site calls it "raffish." See http://travel.roughguides.com/roughguides..
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FN 1

Plate XIV, XV, Copybook letter from Nora to James Joyce, from the Cornelll University Library, in the Richard Ellman Joyce:  Periods and commas shown as they apparently are or are not--

"Leinster Street
16 August 1904

"My Dearest

"My loneliness which I have so deeply felt, since we parted last night, seemed to fade away as if by magic, but. alas.  it was only for a short time. and then I became worse than ever, when I read your letter from the moment that I close my eyes till I open them again in the morning.   It seems to me that I am always in your company. under every possible variety of circumstances talking to you walking with you meeting you suddenly in different places until I am beginning to wonder if any spirit takes leave of my body in sleep and goes to seek you, and what is more find you or perhaps this is nothing but a fantasy.  Occasionally too I fall into a fit of melancholy that lasts for the day and which I feel almost impossible to dispel it is about time now I think that I should finish this letter as the more I write the lonelier I feel in consequence of you bein so far away and the thought of having to write write what I would wish to speak were you beside me makes me feel utterly miserable so with best wishes and love I now close

"Believe me to be ever yours
Norah Barnacle"