Monday, November 14, 2011Good morning crew,
You never know what chain of events will result in a little bit of serendipity. For example; a man who is friends with a friend of my brother Nino was having a big birthday party a few weeks ago, and the main attraction was a half a roast pig. Since there are few things in the world old Nino loves more than a pig roast, this thoughtful friend suggested to the guest of honor that they should invite him.
Nino was so impressed with the food that he inquired where it came from. The answer turned out to be an ethnic Serbian grocery and cafe on the north side of Chicago called Beograd Cafe.
This would make a lot less difference if it weren't for that our family has Bosnian blood from my father's side. When Nino mentioned this chain of events to me last week I immediately expressed an interest in making a pilgrimage up north to find this place. I am always on the lookout for unusual and exotic dining experiences and I have never found any place that makes the ethnic dishes my father used to make my mother prepare when I was a little kid.
So Saturday night I took a sedative in preparation for Chicago traffic, and Nino and his wife and my girlfriend and I piled into the truck and we headed downtown.
As it turned out the experience was worth even 70 minutes of downtown Chicago traffic. First of all, the place was very unremarkable-looking. It is more like a bar than a restaurant. But when we walked in we encountered some very remarkable looking staff and patrons. The men were bedecked in tight, V-neck sweater shirts and gold chains and had that five o'clock shadow that eastern Europeans get by ten o'clock in the morning, and the women had an exotic kind of beauty which they masked with too much makeup. My overall first impression on walking into the place was that we were going to get shot because we didn't speak Serbo-Croatian.
However the staff turned out to be very pleasant and patient with stupid questions.
After some small debate we settled on an appetizer platter of fresh cheeses and cold cuts along with a plate full of red peppers roasted in garlic and a loaf of delicious, puffy, pan bread called lepinja. This was accompanied by several bottles of a delicious beer called Niksicko, imported from Montenegro.
After that we cleansed our palates with a round of plum brandy called Slivovitz and prepared for the main course.
Shortly our server brought out a huge plate of sausages and meat patties including; Cevapcici, Pljeskavica (which is the Serbian version of a hamburger) and an incredibly delicious and spicy pork sausage loaded with Paprika which I can't remember the name of.
We also sampled Burek, which is a cheese pie made with a kind of puffy, pastry dough, and also Sarma which is a Turkish influenced dish of minced meat and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves. It was a lot of food, but I think the generosity of the portions was probably due to Nino who managed to dig out a Serbo-Croatian dictionary from God-knows-where and tickled our server pink by conversing with her in a few, halting and undoubtedly mispronounced sentences.
By the time we got up from the table all of us had a bit of difficulty walking, of course, that didn't keep us from stopping at the Uberstein on the way home, because there is always room for 34 ounces of foamy, brown Bavarian-style beer.
Laugh it up,
Joe
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