Something new, something different... Serbian Food.

Earlier this year.. in January to be precise, for the first time in my life, I tried Filipino food. Obviously, I was too lazy to blog about it at that time.... so moving on...

Last night, I tried Serbian food for the first time. It was something really random. My boyfriend's boss's boyfriend, Luka suddenly said he wanted a meet up and let us give Serbian food a try (since he is from Serbia). My immediate and (sadly) idiotic answer to my boyfriend was "What? Isn't it like Russian food?" And my boyfriend was like "I dunno, let's just meet for a catch up anyway..." I agreed and the rest as they say is history....

Not.

Before I continue, let me redeem myself by saying, I THOUGHT that Serbia was a part of Russia because it sounded similar to Siberia.. so I thought it's like somewhere near there, you know like a small town or state.. something like that... until I googled "Serbian Cuisine" out of curiousity and ended up on Serbia's Wikitravel page. Then I realised... "OMG, I got it completely wrong."

In my defense, I suck big time at geography (My worst grade was HALF upon twenty five.. who the hell gets HALF a mark for a test?!), that's why I gladly gave it up to take history class which I must say, I am remarkably wayyyy better at. That aside, I learnt that Serbia is actually located somewhere in central and southeast Europe.. nowhere near Russia. So my apologies for the assumption and for making an ass out of you and me.. well mainly me.

So back to the story, Luka took us to Sahara Authentic Persian & Mediterranean food (58 Boat Quay S049847). It's located right smack in the middle of Boat Quay (the restaurant not the country, mind you), just approximately two shop houses away from the Cat Cafe Neko no Niwa. As you can see, it's a shisha place where expats hang out.

We left it to Luka to order since we have no freaking idea what Serbian food to order and to our surprise the first dish that came was Naan and Chicken Tikka Masala. And can you guess why? Because Luka LOVES Chicken Tikka Masala. Yes, because he loves it, not because it's Serbian cuisine. This IS Singapore, so it's nothing to shout about for people to order a variety of food from different cultures.. I guess it's because we were anticipating Serbian food to come first, not Indian food. But hey, no complaints, the masala.. as my boyfriend puts it..is "DAMN ORGASMIC." Quote, unquote. And orgasmic it is.. I liked it too.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Next came the hummus. I know it's middle eastern cuisine but according to Wikipedia.. the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) once annexed the Kingdom of Serbia in the 16th Century therefore that is how it probably influence the cuisine... you can learn more about Serbia on Wikipedia and make the connections about it yourself. As hummus go, you can't really go wrong with it.. mashed chickpeas drenched with olive oil then you scoop it with naan. Healthy and delicious.

Hummus

Next came the Greek Salad. All I can say is.. I LOVE FETA CHEESE. And I LOVE how huge the cubes of Feta Cheese are. Some greek salads I have tried before, the feta cheese are so puny and sparse, I felt like I was only eating grass, not a greek salad. This is a Greek Salad.. with a capital G and S! I love how it is drenched with olive oil, not pathetically drizzled with it like some places I know. Could not stop eating this.

Greek Salad

 Anyway, before I go on, I bet most people are like "Huh? Why haven't you got to the Serbian Cuisine yet?" Well, according to Wikipedia, Serbian Cuisine is a heterogeneous cuisine, meaning it is diverse, like Singapore's cuisine. And because it is right smack in the middle of Europe, it shares the characteristics of the Balkans, the Mediterranean, Turkish, Austrian and Hungarian dishes. So technically, we have already begun the Serbian food.

The next dish, I forgot it's name, it's basically like chicken kebab with briyani rice. This dish was nothing special to me because it is basically barbecued chicken with rice.

Chicken Kebab with Briyani rice

And here's the best part, we completely forgot that we ordered garlic naan. When it came, I was like "OMFG, I'm so full already. T___T" But I had to take a naan anyway because it goes with the next dish...

Garlic Naan

The next dish is Ćevapi which is minced lamb and beef. Luka said that it is usually made with pork and beef back in Serbia. My boyfriend's and my first thought when the dish came was that it looks like........................ Ok, let's leave it as that. Luka taught us how to eat it. Basically we grab a naan, put the red stuff which are bellpeppers, onions, one piece of cevapi and eat it. The cevapi tastes like meatballs with the charred BBQ aftertaste. It's quite tender and the bellpeppers and onions really add flavour to the meat. The naan effectively keeps the meat juice trapped, which one bite, the marriage of the tastes simply explodes in your mouth. 

I had like four helpings of it before I surrendered. Simply too much food.    

Cevapi

The total damage for the four of us was about SGD$174. It was an interesting experience. Really love trying something different.