Filed under: Ivan
I came home Friday night feeling awfully tired. I just swam three events at the CUNY championships and now it was time to go out and eat. Now, our family doesn’t usually go out to eat, but this was a very special occasion. It was my mother’s birthday. She had just turned 49, and there was no way i was staying home on her birthday. My mother and sister have been telling me about this small hole in the wall restaurant on 8th street and avenue C. They say that you could hear the music coming from it even if you were a block away. I was born into a traditional Serbian household, where most of our diet consisted of meat, meat, and, you guessed it, meat. However, the longer we stayed in the U.S. the more we have assimilated, so now my dinners consist of Pasta, and pie for desert. I was thrilled, maybe even ecstatic, to finally be going to a restaurant that cooked traditional Serbian cuisine. Much to my surprise, we could hear the music a block away and each step i took i felt as though i was getting closer to home. The restaurant is fairly small, cozy, and cute. There are photos, mirrors, and signs that are all in Cyrillic. You could smell the food coming out of the kitchen. Out waitress sat us at our table, which we reserved a couple of days before (You really need ot is you plan on going, its a very small place and the chances that you will get any table when you come in without a reservation are slim to none.) The first thing we got from the waitress was the menu. All of the dishes are written in Serbian, but because this is America they give a small description in English. I was looking around, and observed a table that was getting their food. Their faces lit up when the waitress brought out the food and placed it on the small yet sturdy wooden table. They looked like lower east side hipsters who have never ate Serbian cuisine before- it was very funny. I ordered my favorite dish, the one i usually get when i go out to eat in Serbia for two reasons. One, it was my favorite dish and it never failed to satify my hunger and taste buds. Two, I wanted to see if at all the food here had assimilated to American culture in any way. What i mean is substituting Serbian ingredients for American ingredients. I am currently reading this wonderful book called Gastropolis and in one chapter the author talks about fusion of culture in NYC. One way cultures fuse is if you have food that is a combination of different ethnic backgrounds. for example, pizza with falafel on the top, or Vietnamese sandwiches. Another kind of fusion is the fusion between the outside culture and the American culture. Anyway, i ordered the food and while we were all waiting three plump men came into the restaurant. Two of them were holding guitars and the other was hold an accordion. This is exactly what i was waiting for, the product of which this restaurant was famous for. Once they started playing these beautiful Serbian songs, I was sold. I had ordered “punjene pljeskavice” which basically means a beef patty filled with ham and cheese, with fries and a salad. The first bite i took i felt as though i was home. That, combined with the music REALLY made me forget i was in New York. It was midnight, the restaurant was crowded, and people were eating, singing along, and the ones that had enough to drink started dancing, giving money to the accordion player requesting songs. The funny thing was, almost everybody knew the words to the songs! I have never had more fun in a restaurant eating food. This restaurant makes eating an interactive experience. The combination of the food with the music, the singing and dancing really reminds me of home.
