Thursday, June 13, 2013

Goop

I wrote a couple of days ago about the pros and cons of the local cevapi. Last night, I experimented with a Balkan take on one of my personal favorites, a dish that nobody else in the family really likes, and my brother once dismissed as "goop."

I'm a beans and rice guy. I love risotto, red beans and rice, jamaican rice and peas, and I've tried endless variations. I always keep cans of black, white, kidney and refried beans in the cupboard, and I even added blackeye peas to the arsenal when we moved down south.

I am allowed to use the PX here (the American grocery store at the embassy) although I don't think I will. It's inconvenient to get to, and into, and I can't see wanting for anything. Maybe I'll crave a pint of Ben and Jerry's, but I doubt it.

Which is a long way of leading up to the fact that the former tenants of my apartment left a few things behind, including a jar of Tostitos salsa, which I'm sure came from the PX. The aformentioned goop is basically a pot of cooked rice, with some sliced chorizo, a can of refried beans, cheese, salsa and sour cream mixed in. I tried it last night with the cevapchichi subbing for the chorizo, some local white cheese (similar to edam), a can of white beans and Frito-Lay's best salsa. The results were good. As I suspected, the local sausages did a nice job complementing and soaking up the flavors of the dish.

I don't think we'll be seeing a Slav-Mex restaurant anytime soon, although, who knows, there may already be one in Belgrade. I asked one of my colleagues about a nearby Chinese restaurant, and he said that "Serbian Chinese food is different." That sounds interesting.

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