The plentiful "souls" of Trieste influence the every-day life with the habits of the numerous populations which inhabited it during the centuries and which are still alive: the dishes proposed in the city "buffets", the typical restaurants of Middle-European origins, is an experienced and flavoured mixture of the local Austrian and Slavonic tradition. The snacks are still today based on pork meat boiled in the typical pot called “caldaia” and many varieties of ham, sausages, often served with sauerkrauts and Kran sauce, paprika or cumin.

As a first dish we suggest jota, a soup prepared with the pork skin, potatoes, beans and cappucci agri or the goulash, tripe or sguazeto, or veal stew. Among the typical dishes you will also find the gnocchi of bread and ham, those with jam or stuffed with plums.

Many dishes are inspired bi Venetian tradition, among the most typical ones are: the brodetto (fish soup), risottos, the sardoni in savor, (flavored pilchards) and typical of the hinterland are the salads (chicory and rocket), the bruscandoli and last but not least wines that alternate with beer on the table. The DOC local wine is Terrano, red and thick: in order to make it popular, in 1986 the Terrano Wine Path connecting Opicina to Visogliano. In the restaurants of the province you can taste other DOC wines of the Carso: the Rosso, Malvasia, and the white Vitovska Garganja.

Farmers of the highland who had been allowed by an imperial decree to sell their own products during a period of 8 days, organized the so-called "osmizze", where it is possible to taste local wines and products: Tabor cheese of Monrupino and honey of San Dorligo are other typical products.

The pastry shops in Trieste offer delicious local varieties of the most famous Austrian cakes: Sacher cake, krapfen, strucolo cotto and strucolo de pomi (local varieties of local kinds of "strudel"), chiffeletti (typical cookies made with four, eggs and potatoes and fried in oil).

During Easter you can taste the pinza, a sweet leavened bread that many women still prepare at home and take to the bakery to be cooked. Richer variants of this are: the titola, that is decorated with a hard egg, the putizza and presnitz. Fritole, pancakes stuffed and fried in oil and fave, small round cookies made with almonds and aromas are typical during Carnival.

Let's not forget the Trieste of Joyce, Svevo, and Saba, the crowded port pervaded by voices and exotic flavours, wonderful cafés considered by the citizens of Trieste as a place where it is possible to discuss, work, write, read and study. Some historical cafés still well-known and popular have been recently restored took back to their ancient beauty.