French Connection

Ahhh, Paris - the city of a thousand cliches. The home of towers and temples, bistros and bars, food and fashion, bakers and brandy, merchant and markets....I could alliterate all day.

French cuisine has long been held in high regard by cooks the world over and is home to many classical cooking techniques and dishes. The list is long and I certainly don't have time to experience them all in the few days I am spending here, but I do intend to try as many as I can. Let's start with a bistro classic and one of my personal favourite dishes of all time. Confit de Canard (Duck Confit) is a preparation of duck (usually the leg and thigh) where the meat is basically cooked in its own fat. The usual result is meat that is rich and strong in flavour and usually falling of the bone tender and delicious.


In this version, the duck was not as tender as I have had it previously and not as strongly flavoured, but still delicious. However, the highlight of the dish is the potatoes. I could smell them coming from a mile away they had so much garlic on them and I suspect they were also cooked in duck fat because the taste was amazing and they didn't skimp on quatity either as you can see.


This next classic of French cuisine often has people covering their eyes or avoiding it all together. Steak Tartare (raw steak) has always been one of those challenging dishes for some people, although many who try it actually enjoy it, some people just can't get past the fact that they are eating raw meat.


The meat in this case is Limousin Beef, one of the highest grades of beef available in France and is minced moments before coming to the table and is normally served with condiments and additions like onions or capers and sometimes raw egg. This was a very large serve and after about three quarters of the way through I gave up because I couldn't even taste it anymore. I'm a big fan of steak tartare, but in smaller quantities.

For dessert that night I didn't go for a classic, but I was very interested in the Peach Soup.


Served cold and with icecream this was delicatly sweet in flavour with a strong peachy aroma and taste. A very nice way to end a meal.

Another food commonly associated with the French is Foie Gras. There is much ethical discussion about the process surrounding Foie Gras and I'm not going to get into it here, but if you would like to discuss it, there is a comment section below and I'm happy to put forward their feelings about it or start a discussion. In many bistros around Paris you will see Pate de Fois Gras and that was the way I tried it first.


This was rich, smooth and delicious. Much nicer than many of the liver pates commonly available in Australia.

To follow this, my eye was caught by a sausage listed on the menu as Andouillette AAAAA. Now I have heard of Andouille sausage which is a spicy cajun pork sausage and thought this would be similar, and with all those A's after it it had to be something special right? Well when it came out I was a little taken aback.

Not the prettiest looking sausage in the world is it. That was the first surprise. The second came when I cut into the sausage and discovered not mince or ground meat, but chunky roughly cut substantial pieces of meat. This had a very strong porky flavour and the texture was not like any cut of pork I had had before.


I figured that mystery meat is what most sausages are made of anyway and this is no exception, so I got over my initial trepidation and got stuck into it. This was not the most delicious sausage I had ever had and it had a very powerful, not altogether pleasant flavour. The texture was quite gelatinous and took some getting used to. Now that I have done some research on this sausage I have discovered the reason for the unusual texture and flavour.

Andouillette is a very traditional French tripe sausage. Made from the stomach and intestines or the pig and wrapped in bowel. This sausage has a large following in France and even has an association devoted to it, that is what the AAAAA stands for, The Association Amicale des Amateurs d'Andouillette Authentic (the Friendly Association of Authentic Andouillette Lovers). Anyone who is not adventurous in their tastes may want to consider avoiding this one...:)

Ok, to get your minds off that one for a bit, here´s something pretty.

People in Paris love their Macaroons. These are a delicate baked good, almost like a meringue, crisp on the ouside, soft and delicate in the middle. These are usually served with two of them sandwiching a creamy filling. The flavour combinations are almost endless and the most famous name in macaroons is Pierre Herme, who has been known to make many weird and wonderful flavour combinations, including Ketchup flavour.

Walking down the street where he has his store, it's impossible to miss it as the line of customers goes out the door. I had to wait at least 10 minutes just to get in, but once I was in, it was worth it.

I could sit here all day just taking photos, but people were pushing me to get moving, so I ordered a few (they are not cheap by the way), including the Olive Oil and Vanilla one and moved on. Now I would love to describe how all the different flavours tasted and how amazing they were, but unfortunately, by the time I got back to my hotel room they had started to break down due to the humidity. I scoffed a few....I wasn't going to throw them out after all that, but the flavours had all started to run together and it was hard to distinguish anything in particular.

That was my quick Paris wrap up, there is one more dinner which I will talk about next post because it deserves its own. I loved this city and all the bizarre and delicious food that is available, if you're ever here get out and try something new. You may not like it, but maybe, just maybe you'll find something amazing.

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!

The Village People

Once again thanks for the comments and emails, keep them coming!

This update has been a while coming, but there is a reason for it. We have spent the last week in the countryside of Serbia, mainly based in a town called Sremska Mitrovica. Mainly, this time has been spent catching up with family and friends I have never met (or met a very long time ago), but who are very important to my family.

I didn't feel that in depth discussion of each visit would relate to the subject of this blog and I know this would have had very little relevance to many of you. However, it has revealed many things about the hospitality of Serbian Villages and the food and drinks associated with it.

Firstly, some background info. From anecdotal evidence, the unemployment rate in Serbia is currently near 50% and this is reflected in a very big way in regional areas. Driving through the various villages and towns, I noticed a large number of older people and very few young people. There are very few jobs available in these areas and many of the factories that had previously supported the regional economy are now sitting empty and derelict. The pensioners who have lived here most of their lives are surviving on pensions that are roughly in the range of $200 - $300 AUD per month. This may be barely enough to sustain a minimal existence for one person, but often this money is being used to support a household of people due to the lack of jobs.

To supplement their incomes, many of the homes we visited raise animals to support some of their food needs. Almost everyone has at least a handful of chickens to supply eggs and some raise pigs, cows and/or goats either to sell for extra income or to slaughter for food for winter. Also many households have much larger gardens than we are used to in Australia. This is still barely enough to support families that are at or below poverty levels.

One more thing that is very different to the way we know things at home is that many of these villages are made up of farming families. They don't actually have residences on their farms in most cases as their land is spread out in various lots, not all in one place. They head out in the mornings to work their land and come home at night. This means that instead of being spread out like many of our farm families are in Australia, the villages are a concentrated population of people who work the surrounding farmland.

Having said all that, every single house we walked into, we were offered shots of Rakija (often made in that particular family), coffee and food - many times a full meal. As much as we saw how poor these people were, they were also very proud of their home-made foods and would not accept any refusal. I can't say I felt hungry once in the last week.

Sorry for the lack of photos, but I don't feel quite comfortable about taking pictures of people's cooking inside their homes. Some of the highlights were: Rakija (of course) in copious quantities and varieties and many people offered to pack a bottle for us to take home to Australia, Sarma (cabbage rolls filled with rice and meat), Kulen (home made salami), chicken livers and giblets, snails and the cakes.

I did eat out at the local pizzeria and tried the icecreamery and both were sensational. The pizza base was delicious and thin, just the way I like it and the local salamis, hams and bacon really work well. The local specialty seems to be a combination of the above with a topping of sour cream, I recommend it wholehearedly, but don't expect the sizes we have in Australia, the small is easily larger than most of the medium pizzas in Melbourne and the largest size is close to a meter wide! The only note of discord here was that the tomato sauce they use for the pizza is actually Ketchup and they serve their pizza with a side of ketchup to add onto the pizza as you eat. I tried this once to see what it was like, but never again. For anyone coming to the area, the restaurant I sampled was Pizzaeria XL which is in the mall in the centre of town and the beer is great, with local 500ml beers only costing 90 dinars (about $2 AUD). The icecreamery of choice by the locals is called Sport and is in the same area. If you don't understand the name of the flavour, just try it anyway. They won me over when I couldn't make up my mind and the server took a very small amount from each flavour so that each scoop had about 5 or 6 flavours. I have no idea which were my favourites, but as a whole it was great!

Another highlight of this week is that it is right in the middle of cherry picking season. Almost every house we went to had a cherry tree and many had more than one. On a 30 degree day we went out to help one of the farmers harvest cherries from their orchard. This involved a group of about 8 or 10 people loading into a trailer towed by a tractor over land that you wouldn't be able to take a normal car through. With no suspension, this was a fun, but painful journey while hanging on for dear life. When we arrived, most of the group went about picking cherries, while I and a couple of others worked on building a fire to grill the meat we had brought with us. The beer was placed to cool under a nearby flowing spring of cool, fresh, delicious water. After we had built the fire, we placed the grill on top to heat and got cooking. On the menu were cevapi, kobasice, various salads and lots of bread. Not to mention all the cherries you could eat. To drink we had - yes, you guessed it - rakija, beer and fresh water directly from the spring.


There are plenty of green lizards running around and someone did say they spotted a snake, but don't anyone tell my dad, ok? I'm not sure that we were a huge help harvesting cherries as we only spent half the day out there and there were still plenty left on the trees when we left, but it was a fantastic day.

New friendships were made:



And we loaded onto the trailer for the trip back.