Meanwhile, back in Serbia

So, attentive readers will note that I didn't update you on my way to Novi Sad as promised. I had a plan to wrap up the Serbian chapter of my blog with a post about street food and I wanted to get photos of all the various types of street food available, especially after arriving in a beautiful ski resort (I know it's summer, but it was still full of people) called Zlatibor (meaning Golden Pine). The forests around this area are beautiful pine forests and people were everywhere on the first night. That was when I decided that the next night I would come back to town and photograph all the street food available in the area. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse the next morning and it didn't stop raining all day, so when I got out the umbrella and wandered into the town there were only a few brave souls wandering about, usually from a restaurant to a bar or the other way around. I did manage to take a photo of the most common type of street food.

The Rostilj.

As you can see, they have all types of meat available to grill; sausages, hamburgers, pork fillet, chicken, cevapi, etc some in various forms (different spices or flavourings in the meat). This meat is already cooked and usually just gets a refire on the grill before serving. Basically you select your meat and the type of bread you want it in - either a bun or pita bread - and they put it on the grill to heat up. You pay for that and then add any/all/none of the various free condiments or additions available; White onion, cabbage, coleslaw, tomato, cucumber, chili, ketchup, mustard, etc. The price is very reasonable, with most choices being in the 200-300 RSD range (which you can see on the board to the left if you click on the image above) which is about $4-5 AUD. Other forms of street food you will see often in Serbia include Pancake Stalls, Corn Stalls (popped or boiled) and of course Icecream stands.


While the street food is cheap and filling, I really wanted to find somewhere that was showing real signs of moving Serbian cuisine forward. I was hoping to find that in Novi Sad which is said to be the most cosmopolitan city in Serbia. Unfortunately it turned out that after all the driving through the mountains I was not feeling very well and couldn't face the thought of a meal on our first night, so I just had a sandwich. The following day, I still wasn't feeling great, but we made the march from the centre of town across the river and up to the Fort overlooking Novi Sad. The view was impressive, but the stairs were not so much fun.

We decided to stop at a Carda for lunch which was right on the river. A carda is a hungarian style restarant specialising in fish dishes. We were told by everyone we spoke to that eating at a Carda is a guarantee of eating very fresh fish and since my dad is obsessed with fish soups, we decided to go and try out their thicker hungarian style called a Perkelt. This is served with noodles and is a blended soup made from vegetables and fish (usually Carp and/or Catfish) which is boiled together to form the soup base which is then blended and then fresh fish (usually firm, white fish like Pike or Perch) is added to cook in the soup before serving.


This had a very nice fish flavour and had a dense creamy texture, although there were several bones still in the fish which was a little annoying.

The next day we went for a drive and decided to eat a a place called a Salas there are many of these around and they are basically like hobby farms. We were recommended to try one called Salas 137. On arrival, we walked around the property which was neat and well cared for, had many horses and looked to be a working horse farm. The restaurant is mainly outdoor seating and the mismatched tablecloths and rustic chairs of various colours - rather than detract from the overall ambience - really gave a warm, friendly character to the place. The menu supported this feeling with dishes like Neighbor's Pork - A pig stolen from the neighbor and it's loin stuffed and rolled so even the neighbor wouldn't recognise it. The menu was quite extensive, with many foods used in different ways to what I had seen previously, but also some very traditional meals I had eaten when I was young in my grandparent's house but hadn't seen available in any restaurants so far. Seeing things like Koh (a sponge cake soaked in a bowl of milk) and Snenokle (egg white islands floating in a custard sauce) really brought back a lot of memories from my childhood. I was looking forward to this meal.

Firstly, my parents both ordered the traditional chicken soup, which is something I remember being served on Sunday lunches since I was a baby. I chose the Daska (or Board) which is a chopping board filled with various cheeses, pates and meats made either on site or locally.


This is an entree for one and yes, I did sample it before I took the photo...:) On there you can see from top left, Persut (prosciutto), pate with paprika and garlic, kajmak (a creamy cheese), above that is Gibanice (a cheese filled filo pastry), a fish pate (trout is my guess), cornbread, above the cornbread you can just barely see a slice of the house-made Kulen (spicy salami) which was the best I had yet tasted, then on the bottom row another piece of the Kulen, 3 different cheeses and a slice of a beef salami. The black thing in the middle is a prune...you'll see more of these later.

For mains, my dad liked the sound of the Neighbor's Pig, mum chose the Ham Hock cooked casserole style with cream and I chose the Goulash in mustard sauce.

Neighbor's Pig

This was served cold with raw radishes, raw hot pepper and a side of horseradish. The raw vegetables were no surprise, but this time I think they added to the rustic feeling of the dish and in this setting they seemed to work, although they were all very spicy according to my dad. The skin on the pork was rubbery, but the taste overall was ok.

Ham Hock with horseradish and cream

As promised, another prune! This dish was rich and decadent, but unfortunately the garlic and horseradish were was too strong and killed what should have been a nice smoky flavour from the hock.
Goulash in Mustard Sauce with Mashed Potato

Yes, I know you've already noticed....another prune! They might want to look at some variety in their garnishes at some stage. The mash was creamy and delicious, the meat was tender and broke apart at the touch of the fork, but the sauce didn't taste at all like mustard and the entire dish was cold. I put this down to the fact that even though they used a cast iron dish to serve it, they didn't cook it in there or even heat the dish before serving so as soon as they put the hot food into the cold dish, it started to get cold.

The portion sizes were again way to big and I couldn't even eat half of mine, although I was saving some space for dessert.

Snenokle have long been one of my dad's favourite desserts so he had to try them here.
The flavour was quite good, being enhanced by the caramel sauce and the custard was a smooth texture.

Mum chose the Krempita (literally Cream Pie, but similar to Vanilla Slice).
This was much lighter than any vanilla slice you would find in Melbourne, with the custard being more of a light whipped cream texture than the dense custard you would normally get.

I was going to choose the Koh, but once I say the baked palacinke filled with walnuts and cooked in milk I had to get that instead since this is so similar to a dessert that my grandmother and mother taught me to cook and that I have always enjoyed.

Unfortunately, this was also served cold. The crepes were tough and took several tries to cut through with the spoon, the walnuts tasted great, but 30 seconds in a microwave would have made this a much better dessert.

Overall, Salas 137 is showing real signs of wanting to move forward and even though the execution really leaves a lot to be desired, I'm encouraged by what I see here and recommend anyone who visits Novi Sad to make the 10-15 minute drive out to this place and support what they are doing. Don't miss out on the Kulen!