Food experiences in Beautiful Bosnia

Interrail Stop 8

To round off our interrail tour of Eastern Europe before hitting the Croatian beach, we visited the beautiful Bosnia and Herzegovina. Definitely one of my favourite places on our trip, with amazing scenery, fascinating markets and welcoming people, but a country still feeling the after effects of the devastating war in the 1990s. We chatted to the locals and absorbed ourselves in the history, and, of course, sampled some of the food!

Sarajevo

We stopped firstly in Sarajevo and walked all over the city, visiting the many different places of worship and browsing the markets full of interesting items. Down one of these side streets we stopped for a bite to eat in a little cafe and shared a huge plateful of ćevapčići - tasty little sausages that are a national dish in Bosnia and Herzegovina and can also be found in some of the other Southeastern European countries. Served typically with a flat bread, raw onions and sour cream or soft cheese... it's a kind of kebab that tastes AMAZING!!


After having this for lunch in the cafe, we later found the hostel guys cooking it on a BBQ... which was soooo much more delicious! Less grease but still all of the flavour, and a great way to line the stomach before a night in Sarajevo!
 

Mostar

We then traveled down to Mostar, a city you might recognise by its Old Bridge (Stari Most), which proudly stands now as a handmade reconstruction of the same bridge that stood before the war and a symbol of Bosnia's recovery.


During our brief stay in Mostar we went on a trip in a small group to see the small village at the source of the Buna river, Blagaj and the Kravice Falls (the gorgeous scene in the photo at the top of this post). At the river, we we lucky enough to eat a traditional breakfast of Burek and Bosnian Coffee.

 

We had already sampled Burek on other stops, but this was a different dish again... with the pastry formed into a different shape and filled with either cheese or meat... it was a hearty breakfast for a day of walking, swimming and jumping in at the waterfall!

The Bosnian coffee was strong and rich - not my cup of tea (or coffee!!!) as I tend to prefer it super milky - but it was worth a try and I'm sure it would be delicious if you weren't a wussy coffee drinker like me!!


So there you have it... a brilliant end to our touring around Eastern Europe with some delicious food and some of the best sights. If you've ever wondered about visiting Bosnia, then stop wondering and just go!

Thanks for reading about the food we tasted on our trip! I can't wait to go and see some more amazing sights and try some new dishes some time soon! But for now, keep popping back to see some recipes, cookbook and restaurant reviews...

Fabulous Food in Slovenia

 The sun's out and it's taken me back to my interrail tour around Europe in the summer... so today I thought I'd share a few of the delicious food experiences we had in Slovenia. This beautiful country was probably up there as one of my favourites - some of the scenery reminded me of Italy but without the price tag and some of the buildings reminded me of Austria! It was absolutely lovely and we managed to try a range of tasty dishes...

Interrail Stop 7

 

Street Eats

We stayed in the capital Ljubljana for a couple of nights, exploring Lake Bled and Lake Bohenj on one day and the city and castle the next.

Just around the corner from our hostel was a bakery called 'Dunajska Pekarna' that made the best chocolate croissant I have ever had. Seriously. It was warm and soft with melted chocolate in the middle and crispy pastry around the edge...  YUM!

 
On the topic of tasty sweets, we also sampled this traditional Bled cream cake: 'kremšnita'. Lake Bled (photo above) was probably the highlight of our stay in Slovenia. Famous for the island in the middle of the lake, the area has also got a name for this incredible cake. Looking at the photo you might think that it would taste sickly or stodgy, but you must trust me when I say this is just SO GOOD! Light, fluffy cream and custard in the middle, with a satisfyingly sweet pastry base and topping... I repeat, SO GOOD!

This next street eat is Börek (or burek) and doesn't just appear in Slovenia. With Ottoman origins, we came across it in the former Yugoslavia countries, each putting their own twist on the style. In Slovenia, the burek that we ate was meat filled and tasty! Shaped in a spiral and then shared between the two of us, this was a great meal on the go. We couldn't decide exactly what it was made from - it seemed to be a dough somewhere in between filo pastry and pasta (!!) - but whatever it was, it was delicious!

And last but not least, the smell of Nutella tempted us to try another pancake - very similar to those that we had in Belgrade, but this time we chose a sweet filling. I don't think that I need to say very much for you to know that this was just awesome!!

So by the end of our stay in Slovenia we had sampled several of the street eats and (though I may have left with a couple more pounds in weight!) none of it broke the bank!

Meal Out

 

As none of the food was particularly expensive (and all totally yummy!) we also treated ourselves to a meal out to a restaurant recommended by our hostel owner. The restaurant was called Gujzina and was not far from the main square and the triple bridge.

It was a beautiful restaurant and we were lucky enough to be seated at the window. We admired the loveliness of the whole thing and then proceeded to order the cheapest meal we possibly could (I know it's a bad way to choose from a menu but we were running out of money!!), settling for a set two course meal for two, including a white wine spritzer each! When the food arrived, believe me, we could not have been more delighted at the meal we had chosen!

A cold meat board starter with freshly baked bread was our first treat of the evening - a tantalizing selection of meats with smooth pate, a tuna mix, cheese and salad accompaniments - I don't think I could have picked a better starter than this, it was absolutely delicious!





A warm, hearty stew of red meats and potatoes was our next treat - a prekmurski bograč - served in a delightful little dish hanging over a candle. The flavours were similar to that of a Hungarian Goulash, but not quite the same. The menu described it as a Slovenian stew, including pork, beef, venison, potatoes, onions, garlic, pepper and salt. I'd love to know what other spices they used to create this yummy dish!

And our final treat for the evening was the bill... 22.90 Euro for both of us, including the drinks!! So if you're ever in Ljubljana then make sure you try this restaurant!





Delicious food, friendly locals and amazing scenery, Slovenia is definitely one to go back to for a longer stay. To round off our trip to this lovely country, I just want to leave you with on last photo...

Food Delights in Belgrade

Well after a few weeks of dissertation madness, I've finally found time to blog again! Apologies that it's been so long, but I will attempt to make up for it with some more regular posts this month... finishing off the amazing food we had on our interrailing tour of Eastern Europe, some delicious meals from a family holiday to Pollenca, Majorca, and of course, some of my own recipes!!

Interrail Stop 6

So back to the interrail tour... this time I'll share with you some of the tasty treats we had in Belgrade, Serbia. We had a couple of stops before this in Budapest and Bratislava, but chose to spend our money on the beautiful and relaxing public baths instead of tasty dinners out.... so we were back to trying the local cuisine in Serbia.

? Kafana

One of the famous landmarks in Belgrade, the ? pub and bistro is about 200 years old and serves traditional Serbian food. From our experience of the local food, that means basically dishes with lots of meat and carbs - very  filling, stodgy and greasy - but oh so tasty!!


I think these few days in Serbia just about finished us off with greasy food, but we loved eating it at the time! The meal out to ? was absolutely delicious - I had a traditional burger which was nothing like burgers that we know in the UK, but more like a huge slap of meat mixed up with onions and shaped to about the size of my face!!








 My friend had something that we expected to be chicken... but it was unlike anything we had eaten before... basically chicken flattened to within an inch of its life and then rolled up around something that we couldn't name and coated in a sort of batter/sort of outer crisp. And somehow it tasted amazing! Then we shared a Serbian salad (basically cheese, tomato and white cabbage) and it just about balanced out all the stodge and grease.

The atmosphere of the place was awesome - we didn't get there until about 11pm as we had to run back for more money (being cheapskate tourists, we hadn't brought out enough cash!!) and the restaurant area was still buzzing. There were musicians playing to the tables and waiters happy to advise us on dishes.





A lovely meal and great place to try some of the unusual traditional dishes... definitely would recommend if you are visiting Belgrade. There's also an interesting history to the current name (involving the Church opposite disapproving of its name years ago as it was suggestive of a place of drinking and merriment, so they changed it to ? as a temporary name and then never changed it to anything else!)

Palačinka/Pancake

From a street cafe we also tried a Serbian palačinka... much like French crepes but somehow thinner and bigger, and we watched them make them like this!














We had them filled with ham, cheese, sour creme... yummy!! (although not to be eaten often - each mouthful felt like a day's worth of calories!!)

Pijaca/Green Market

Now a lot of the fruit and veg was cheaper around our Eastern Europe travels than it is in the UK, but nowhere was a cheap as the Belgrade Pijaca - we must have spent less than £2 and ended up with all of this!! Needless to say we had an all veg stir fry that night (and the day after, and the day after that!!) A great place to just wander around but you will come away with a lot more than you went for!!

So there you have it... after several weeks of not posting, here is a lengthy post about all the different food we sampled in  Belgrade!! I'd definitely recommend the ? Kafana and the Pijaca. Oh yeah, I should also mention that they give you a free shot of rakija on the morning walking tour... it's absolutely gross so take a bottle of water!!!

A Real Wiener Schnitzel

Interrail Stop 4

While in Vienna we couldn't leave without trying the famous Austrian dish. We wanted to go to a traditional restaurant that would serve us up a real wiener schnitzel and we had a recommendation for a small restaurant cafe called Schnitzelwirt that would do exactly that.

We got so lost trying to find it that we thought they might have shut the kitchen by the time we got there... they were closing up outside as we arrived!

But luckily, my friend speaks fluent German and managed to ask them if they'd do a quick schnitzel and mixed salad for us to share with a couple of glasses of their house white.

We sat at a table surrounded by awards and newspaper clippings of the restaurant. It was a very traditional setting with lots of wood and a smiley Austrian couple sat opposite smoking, and chatting to us about our visit!

When the food arrived not long later, it was absolutely huge and so tasty - very simple with the apple and cabbage salad perfectly complimenting the pork - YUM!

As we hadn't looked at a menu, and the order had been a quick chat with a waiter at the door, we were a little concerned about the bill.

Knowing that it was recommended as a cheap place we were hoping for the best, but when the bill came we couldn't believe how cheap it was!!! 15Euro for the huge meal and two glasses of wine! I would have paid double that and felt we had got a good deal... so all in all a fantastic evening out and a delicious wiener schnitzel!

Vienna Naschmarkt Treats

Interrail Stop 4

We didn't have long enough in Vienna - a city with so much to see and so much to do - but we had a lovely time sightseeing as much as we could and eating as much tasty food as we could!!









Here are a collection of photos from the Austrian Naschmarkt - a lively market full of everything from meats and cheeses to fruit and veg, dips and snacks to bagged up gifts of dried fruits and nuts, olives and peppers to fudge and nougat, herbs and spices to selections of wine... So much to tempt us that we ended up with a few prezzies for our fellas and families, and a few treats for ourselves (as well as all the tasty things we were given to try on our way through!)!!

I would definitely recommend a visit to a Naschmarkt if you ever get chance to visit the beautiful city of Vienna, or anywhere else in Austria or Germany - and take lots of money because you will be tempted! We ended up getting a selection of sweet peppers, olives and sun-dried tomatoes to mix with some mozzarella and pasta in the hostel to create this simple but tasty dinner!

Cafes and Food Stalls in Prague

Interrail Stop 3

Firstly, an apology for being entirely absent from this blog the last couple of weeks... After the first few hostels on the interrail tour it got pretty tricky to upload photos, so I couldn't blog the delicious food we were sampling on our way around!! On the plus side, that basically means a short blog a day for a while with all my snaps and thoughts on the various Eastern Europe cuisine we managed to get our hands on!! So I'm sorry and please keep checking back for more! I will pop a couple of recipes up as I go along as well...

So, Prague - GORGEOUS city - everything you heard about the cobbled streets, colourful buildings, beautiful places of worship and red roof-top landscape is absolutely true!

We had an amazing time wandering the streets and the castle on walking tours, and managed to try some of the side street cafe culture as well as the delicious food offered on stands in every square!!

Street Stalls

The icecream in Prague was yummy - so many different flavours - from fruity and fresh to rich and creamy! We also saw stall after stall of various grab-and-go foods, such as this pork cooking in the main square and giving off a delicious smell!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warming Goulash

Still not in Hungary, but another goulash tempted our appetite in an underground cafe full of wooden walls, ceilings and furniture and great beers (which are unfortunately completely lost on me!) One portion plenty big enough for two, served with dumplings that had a texture somewhere in between potato and bread and soaked up the rich sauce just lovely.

Eating Cheap in the Side Street Cafes

The currency conversion is about £1=30 Czech Koruna, so it takes a little bit of thinking about to realise that your 110CZK is actually worth very little! It did, however, manage to get us a set menu (intended for one but we shared it!!) in a lovely little outdoor cafe off a side street from the main square. We had a mushroom soup for starter, which was delicious and actually very filling in itself!

Then a mixed salad with chicken and a tasty bowl of chips followed - the fresh salad was very welcome after all the warm, hearty food we had eaten so far! 

 

Ironically, we had ordered this set menu deal because it looked like the most food we could get for the money we had, and didn't want to withdraw any more Czech currency before we left.. but later that afternoon we ran out of water and had to withdraw far too much money just to buy some more! So we probably should have just taken more out in the first place, but oh well, we tried to do it on the cheap!!



So there you have it... the selection of food we had in Prague. A lot more traditional food from a range of different countries to follow, so hopefully see you soon!