A highlight of the meat binge was the cevapcici, due to its brisk salute to fine seasoning. The Greek salad squealed in vegetarian protest.
Tara Lee
Sun
A great meal of roasted veal, soup and all the trimmings for $8.50 is held by Vidomir Cucukovic of the Balkan House restaurant on Edmonds Street in Burnaby. Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
Admittedly, Balkan food rarely comes to mind when I’m deciding where to dine for the night. Vancouver has a plethora of food options but Balkan cuisine is sadly under-represented. As a result, I wasn’t sure what to expect when we walked through the doors of Balkan House on a dreary Monday night.
My sister and I felt like we had been transported out of Vancouver to Belgrade as we tentatively looked askance at the hostess who had almost magically materialized from the kitchen. She ushered us into a room of exuberant Eastern European ditties, dark wood panelling, and sombre leather booth seating tall tinged with weary notes of Old World charm.
I was curious to learn more about Balkan food since this meal would be my first visit to one of the lone purveyors of a proud culinary tradition. Owner Vidomir Tucukovic, who also runs an establishment in Germany, explains that his Balkan kitchen produces food “that is similar to Greek and German food — shishkebabs, rice, several kinds of schnitzels.”
Their cuisine is strangely familiar for those diners who have never journeyed to the Danube river region. My sister spied kalamari on the menu and was immediately at ease. When our server wordlessly placed this first dish in front of us, we quickly forked the battered tentacles and prepared ourselves for the mammoth piece de resistance: the Balkan platter for two.
Suddenly, our server stood framed in the kitchen doorway carrying a huge platter of mounded meat, with two shishkebabs speared into half onion garnishes. The Greek salad at the table squealed in vegetarian protest.
Six different kinds of meat were plated alongside token servings of scalloped potatoes and rice. We counted the meat together: bacon, sausage, veal and pork meat patties (pljeskavica), chicken and pork shishkebabs, smoked pork neck (dimljena vjesalica), and finally, uncased ground veal and pork sausage (cevapcici).
For a moment, we were speechless, and then in unison, we picked up our well-sharpened knives and ravaged our food. A highlight of the meat binge was the cevapcici, due to its brisk salute to fine seasoning. The potatoes, however, were a tad heavy on the salt.
Our meat pilgrimage temporarily came to a halt as a couple of men at the opposite table tried to win our hearts with their ancestral roots. “Your first time eating Balkan food? We’re from Yugoslavia. We like our meat — no rice!” they said.
Our response, after a mutual giggle: “Yes, we’ve noticed.”
Unfortunately, neither of us became Yugoslavian brides that night but we did end up with an astonishing amount of leftovers as we made our escape into the drizzle of Edmonds Street. A serving of baklava beseeched us to stay but we were far too satiated to heed its call.
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BALKAN HOUSE
7530 Edmonds St., Burnaby,
604-524-0404
Open daily 11a.m. to 2 p.m. and
4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
