Showing posts with label Serbia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Serbia. Show all posts

Fêted film-maker Emir Kusturica to bring literary town to life in Bosnia?

Posted: Wednesday, 9 February 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: , ,
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The films of Emir Kusturica are essential viewing for any would-be Balkan traveller, from his earlier, bittersweet tales of growing up in communist Yugoslavia ('Do You Remember Dolly Bell?' and 'When Father Was Away on Business' being highlights) to his more volcanic celebrations of regional absurdity (such as 'Underground', 'Black Cat, White Cat' and 'Life is a Miracle'), resplendent with frantic pacing and brass bands. Now Kusturica could be adding to Bosnia and Herzegovina's physical landscape, not just its cultural one.

Having announced his intention to adapt Bosnian author Ivo Andric's Nobel prize winning 'The Bridge on the Drina', he's chasing funding in order to reconstruct the town of Kamengrad, near the titular Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge at Višegrad in Bosnia's semi-autonomous Serb entity, the Republika Srpska. He hopes if constructed, it'll be allowed to remain standing as a tourist attraction once filming is completed.

“In order to fulfill this grandiose cultural project, the state has to back it up,” said Kusturica to Glas Srpske. “As it stands, Serbia is interested to help filming Andric’s tale and the president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, is willing and very eager to help [with the] construction.”

It won't be the first time Kusturica has build a town from scratch and Drvengrad, near Užice in the east of Serbia, was built specifically for 2004's sublimely beautiful 'Life is a Miracle', and remains not only his home, but home to art retreats, a ski resort and a film festival. If he recreates a similar feat for 'The Bridge on the Drina', it'll not only bring much needed tourism to the Republika Srpska which is often overlooked in favour of Mostar and Sarajevo, but provide a sorely needed celebration of Bosnia and Herzegovina's unique history and culture.

Another easy to prepare vegan dish from Serbia

Posted: Monday, 24 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: , ,
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Rejoice, house-proud Slavophiles keen to host, another vegan-friendly Lenten dish, Djuvec is a Serbian casserole of seasonal vegetables, and while admittedly it has similar ingredients and preparation to last week's Posna Sarma, it's nonetheless absolutely ruddy delicious, especially when served with some rather un-Balkan Linda McCarty sausages and ketchup.

Watch out for it on menus though, as it can just as easily contain lamb as it can leek, and beef stock is the standard. As a main, the magic word is Posna, denoting its status as Lenten (and even then it could contain seafood!), but it's often served as a side dish to accompany the usual meataggedon and you're on much safer ground there.

Vague ingredients (to serve about four!)

Mahala Rai Banda's self-titled 2004 debut album
A good splash of olive oil
A vegetable stock cube
Two large onions
Salt, pepper, mixed herbs and paprika
Four carrots
Four small potatoes
Two courgettes
One green pepper
Three sticks of ribbed celery
A tin of chopped tomatoes
A cup of long-grain rice


Preparation

1. Stick Mahala Rai Banda on the CD player to give your cooking style a bit of vim, don't slice your finger off to the pounding Gypsy trumpets though.
2. Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius.
3. Stick the oil in a big pan.
4. Slice onions finely and sauté them in the oil until they go translucent.
5. Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes.
6. Chop courgettes, green pepper and celery.
7. Throw them in the pan and cooking for 15 minutes, throw a good dash of mixed herbs in.
8. Boil the kettle and make a mug of vegetable stock
9. Rinse and drain the rice a couple of times until the water runs clear
10. Add the tinned tomatoes, stock, rice, salt, pepper and paprika, and stir. The liquid should be about level with the vegetables, it isn't feel free to add another dash of water.
11. Pour your brilliant-smelling mess into a casserole dish, and stick in the oven for 45 minutes.
12. Eat well!

Serbia to bridge the Danube with smoke and mirrors

Posted: Thursday, 20 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: , ,
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The Balkans' place at the centre of European history goes back a lot further than the shooting of Franz Ferdinand and the relentless onward march of the Ottoman frontier. The Roman Empire was split into two by a man who retired to grow cabbages in the sunkissed tranquillity of the Dalmatian coast, Emperor Diocletian being the first of many unable to resist the lure of Split and the laid back, Mediterranean way of life.

Now Serbia is shining the spotlight on its considerable Roman heritage with a proposed tourist route called the Itinerarium Romanum Serbia, that'll drag history lovers from the cruise-choked tourist bottleneck of Diocletian's regal respite to the Empire's wild, warring frontier along the Danube. Kicking things off in suitably spectacular fashion, a projection of Trajan's Bridge, built 103-105 AD, will bring the structure looming from the fog of antiquity like a ghost ship.

“The hologram will show a replica of the original bridge for a length of 150 to 200 metres,” Project Director Miomir Korac told the AFP news agency. “We will install pumps that will spray a fine mist of water droplets which will allow the laser to project the image of the bridge.”

Trajan's Bridge was built by the Greek architect Apollodorus of Damascus to span the Danube from modern Serbia to modern Romania at the command of Emperor Trajan, in order to supply his embattled legionnaires in Dacia. Although it was demolished 150 years later by the retreating Emperor Aurelian, who'd had just about enough of pacifying the Dacians, Trajan's Bridge was the longest ever built for just over a thousand years and the remaining entrance pillars of the bridge are still visible on the banks, and twelve remain under water.

“The idea is to spruce up all these sites so that they can receive tourists by late 2012 and highlight that eighteen Roman emperors were born in this territory, including Constantine the Great,” explained Korac.

You can eat vegan in Serbia, and eat vegan in Serbia at home.

Posted: Monday, 17 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: ,
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Not eat a vegan, they don't do that anymore, that died with Milosevic. In a land where oil, fat and meat are king, it's hard enough trying to get by as a vegetarian, but explaining veganism to Serb friends, provided you get the central points across without you all dying of old age, results in either disbelief or pity. Lonely Planet's Guide to Eastern Europe recommends a couple of vegan-friendly salads, strengthening the conceit that you're up meat creek without a tofu paddle.


That's totally not true. As is usually the case with these things, people don't often draw the lines between what you're trying to do and what people are already doing. During Serbian Orthodox advent, both meat and dairy are strictly prohibited (well, 'strictly'), and as you'd expect from a people who love to eat, they don't exactly go to the sleep for this period – they carry on eating. One such dish is Posna Sarma, stuffed cabbages, which if you have a knack for rolling fajitas, will be right up your street.

Vague ingredients (I'm not a chef)


A couple of fingers of vegetable oil
Two finely chopped onions
Two finely chopped sweet peppers
Three finely chopped cloves of garlic
One big ass jar of Sauerkraut
One finely chopped stick of celery
Two small carrots, peeled and finely chopped
Two cups of long grain rice
Two tins of chopped tomatoes
A finger of paprika, salt and black pepper
A big cabbage, as big as you can manage
Three cold bottles of Jelen Pivo, or other suitable thirst quenching beer

Preparation

1. Splash the vegetable oil into a big pan. Don't be alarmed if it looks like too much.
2. Add the onions, and sauté until they go translucent.
3. Add the carrots, celery and peppers, and cook for five minutes.
4. Crack open the first beer and wipe your brow.
5. Turn on the oven to 350/215 degrees and forget about it. Obviously don't forget about it, but leave it for a minute.
6. Add the rice, tinned tomatoes (save about half a tin), salt, pepper and paprika, and simmer for five minutes.
7. Set aside to cool and mix in the garlic.
8. Gently pull apart the leaves (setting aside the tough ones, if you have them) of the cabbage until you get a little brain-sized ball that's too tightly packed to unpick.
9. Steam the cabbage until its floppy and pliable, brain first so you can pull away those little guys too.
10. Remove the tough stem from the steamed cabbage leaves and chop up any cabbage remnants.
11. Drain the jar of Sauerkraut, do it a few times if your stomach isn't hardened to it.
12. Spread the chopped cabbage and the Sauerkraut onto a large baking dish.
13. Line up the cabbage leaves and spoon two scoops of your filling into them, roll them up into little mini-fajitas, using the smaller leaves to patch up breakages.
14. Pack them nice and tightly on the bed of Sauerkraut.
16. Drench the neatly packed row of cabbage rolls in the remaining tin of tomatoes, add a bit of cold water/passata until the liquid is level with the rolls.
17. Lay the tough outer leaves (doesn't matter if you don't have them, it's just good not the waste the flavour) and some tinfoil, over your rolls.
18. Stick them in the oven for an hour. Wash out your beer bottle, stick it in the recycling and crack open another.
19. Settle down in front of a badly subtitled version of darkly comedic war epic St. George Shoots the Dragon – keep an eye on the clock.
20. An hour has passed and you've just about worked out what's happening, not helped by the slightly out of synch subtitles. Pause the film and get the cabbage rolls out.
21. Crack open another beer, and eat in front of the TV, feel free to stick anything you don't eat in the fridge.

Serbia turns open door to EU citizens into a slightly more open door

Posted: Friday, 14 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: ,
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In a step to bring Europe's once petulant black sheep/misunderstood romantic antihero back into the family and boost tourism, Serbia has made passport-free travel a reality for all citizens of the European Union, which is perfectly lovely and sweet of them but odds are you won't notice.

Originally considered when Icelandic ash clouds replaced Mladic on the most wanted list and sent panicked holidaymakers scurrying across country by coach, train and dogsled in order to make it back to work on Monday morning, in June 2010 they announced plans to make it a permanent fixture.

Instead of a passport, you'll now be required to present a valid identity card, such as a driver's license or, er, a passport. And if you fly you'll be required to show your passport anyway, probably every five minutes if you're departing from London.

Apparently the real benefit will be felt if you're driving to Greece or Turkey from Western Europe when you probably won't have to stop and can just power on straight through the country which is a major overland transport hub. This should shave, oh, nearly fifteen minutes off your 34 hour journey that you'll be able to invest in three shots of espresso at whichever deserted service station you find yourself in at 3am.

Easyjet rules out flights to, well, most of the former Yugoslavia

Posted: Thursday, 13 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: , , , , , ,
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Britain's biggest low cost air carrier Easyjet has completely ruled out the possibility of flights to Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite earlier breathlessly reported claims to the contrary according to the Macedonian International News Agency. The airline currently flies to Slovenia, Croatia and, bizarrely, given their reluctance to fly to what might be lazily considered the 'shadier' Balkan counties, Pristina in Kosovo.

Serbian flights about to get a whole lot cheaper?

Posted: by Jimmy Christ in Labels: , ,
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For the penniless flyer, the map of Europe might as well have a big swirling space void where Serbia is – direct flights from the UK are few, and most indirect flights involve either Alitalia or Lufthansa. Trains can be problematic thanks to inconvenient mountains and the wheezing spectre of yesterday's politics, but a modest wind of change is blowing, one that'll potentially invite the Serbian capital into the warm, lager-sozzled embrace of the budget airline community.

Hungarian-based regional powerhouse Wizz Air started flying between London Luton and Belgrade twice a week last summer, but as of 2011 there's a pretty good chance that not only will their fares go down, but more carriers will start making the run as Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport lowers its service charges by 7% and expands its capacity in keeping with its epic 15% boost in passenger numbers in 2010 – no doubt the most air traffic they've seen since 1999 filled the sky with shrapnel. Though fares ultimately rest in the cold, damp hands of the airlines themselves, one estimate is that it could reduce ticket prices by a saliva-worthy 100 euros, pretty exciting stuff when Wizz's cheapest existing flight from London Luton is a reasonable £156 (including blahdiblah).

Belgrade has long been making noises about wanting to echo the tourist boom of its Westerly neighbours, and in 2011 it just might – provided of course airlines are prepared to pass their substantial savings onto their customers.