Favourite lunch in Drače: oysters and mussels buzara

We had our favourite lunch of this year’s trip on 8 October 2026 near the village of Drače on Pelješac, at the seaside mussel and oyster farm Školjka Ledinić, which our book also mentions. On the table were a plate of opened oysters with two lemon wedges, a basket of bread and a large metal tray: mušule na buzaru, mussels buzara.

We had lunch at the same place back in 2013. A photo from that time shows two oysters with a lemon wedge on a plate with a brown rim, on a tablecloth printed with pebbles. This year the same tablecloth and the same plates were on the table.

According to the Zadar region tourist board, mussels buzara is a classic Dalmatian dish. The shellfish are cooked in olive oil with garlic and parsley; the wine goes in only once the mussels begin to open, and no salt is needed, because the mussels release salty seawater into the sauce. The recipe is in the book. The Istria tourist board describes buzara as a special kind of sauce made with a base of garlic, parsley, olive oil and wine, most often with shellfish or crustaceans; scampi are also prepared na buzaru.

In 1889 Captain Stijepo Bjelovučić founded the first rational oyster and mussel farm in Dalmatia in the Sutvid cove near Drače, according to the specification of the protected designation Malostonska kamenica. In 1983 Mali Ston Bay was declared a special marine nature reserve, the Ston municipal tourist board writes. According to the official gazette Narodne novine (no. 83/2015), the trade business Školjka, whose owner bears the surname Ledinić, held shellfish farming plots in the reserve of Mali Ston Bay and Malo more.

We cooked the mussels from Drače twice, differently each time: first the day after the lunch, with spaghetti and parsley, then a few days later, with spaghetti in tomato sauce.