Weekend Reflection--a glass of Chardonnay

Serbian Chardonnay...there's quite a wine industry here.

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Boiled young beef with horse radish....

Doesn't this look good? Well, it was! And so were the grilled peppers with chopped garlic you can also see. Not to mention the two glasses of mulled wine I had....it was cold out....

This meal was enjoyed at this kafana that I wrote about a while back.

Apologies to Louis La Vache for having consumed this young beef....

Reflections Weekend--three glasses

Taken during a lull in the conversation....

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An old-fashioned restaurant

Last week my traveling companion to India treated me to lunch for her birthday. (Yes, you read that right. People who have birthdays here treat others to lunch or cake, and not the other way around!) We went to one of the few unrenovated, old-style restaurants that still remain. By this I mean that the restaurant is very unpretentious, the tables are covered with simple white tablecloths, a lot of people are smoking, and the waiters, dressed in dark pants, white shirts, and black vests, are professionals, but without the snootiness. This particular restaurant hasn't changed since I moved here over thirty years ago. The white plates with the blue trim and the paper napkins under the serving dish took me back in time, as did the salt, pepper, and toothpick holder. That's a mulled wine you see to accompany my sarma, rice and meat wrapped in cabbage leaves, with a piece of pork, potatoes, a corn muffin, and homemade bread in the basket. The only things that are atypical are the the bottle of balsamic vinegar and the olive oil that replaced the regular wine vinegar and sunflower seed oil!

Wine to Remember

This is Petar, a retired doctor who lives in a small town near Negotin in southern Serbia. He has a weekend house, and there he makes full-bodied red wine. He's holding two bottles of his last year's production, and my husband and I bought them when we visited him last July.

Today would have been my husband's 62nd birthday, but he passed away suddenly last August. I posted a tribute to him right here and hope you will take time to read it. We are all still so very, very sorry. We will toast his memory this evening with a glass of red wine.

In Austria and on the Titanic

Bermet (BEAR-met) is an elegant dessert wine, produced according to recipes held secret by a handful of families in the town of Sremski Karlovci (see the sign on the van) in Vojvodina, Serbia, about 50 kilometers north of Belgrade. The red or white wine is sweet, usually between 16 and 18% alcohol, with a pleasant mixture of spices and herbs. Every family has its own recipe, so you won’t find two Bermet that are the same.

Bermet but can also be served as an aperitif. In the old days, Bermet was very popular among the aristocracy of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Viennese court purchased it in large quantities. Several varieties of Bermet were found on the Titanic's wine list on its maiden and ill-fated journey.

This lady has saved her customers the trouble by coming to Belgrade in her van and setting up a street stand.

New shoes, new wine

Caught this little fellow the other day in Vršac (VUR-shots), a town about an hour or so from Belgrade toward the Romanian border. He's in a shoe store, as you can see, and is also loaded with bottles of locally produced wine. The sign in front of him invites passers-by to a wine-tasting. As for prices of the shoes, you can count about 60 dinars for $1.00 or about 73 dinars for one euro.

Radovan eats and drinks.

We held off our appetites until we crossed the Greek border, and then dug in. Above, Radovan is enjoying the first of many Greek meals, all fairly new to him. He's standing between a plate of olives, eggplant salad (grilled/baked eggplant mixed with yogurt, feta cheese, herbs, and olive oil), and of course the traditional Greek salad. Radovan recalled a similar well-known Serbian salad, and made me promise to post a photo upon my return.

Here's Radovan frowning a bit, since he likes white wine spritzers, but doesn't care for the taste of the Greek retsina, made exclusively of two kinds of white grapes, but with Aleppo pine resin added. Bibi's husband likes it, either straight or with soda water, as pictured above.