Eat Like Ushi

After a lazy day at the beach, the option was between eating out, cooking at home or getting takeaway. The takeaway option won in the end, only really because the restaurants around the island are all relatively similar, but there's only one Chacho Fresh Burger in the world (that I know of). And the reviews were very good.

It's a large venue with its own bar.

They asked how I wanted the meat cooked (a great sign) and I opted for medium-rare which they cooked to a nice pink. The beef was lightly seasoned and excellent quality with a small thick mince texture. Really good patty. 200g is also a large size patty.

- El Patriota (carne 200g, jamon iberico, pimientos salteados, espinacas frescas, queso de cabra ahumado, salsa de tomato y pimiento) €9.95 - the Spanish burger with local ingredients and a good one too. Lots of flavours, colours and elements along with the perfectly cooked patty. Very enjoyable;
- Avatar (carne 200g, queso azul, queso cheddar, mozzarella, queso ahumado de cabra, cebolla caramelizada al vino tinto, espinacas frescas, bacon) €10.45 - the mega cheese burger had cheese flowing out of everywhere. It had a hint of blue, but otherwise just tasted like mild mixed cheese (not salty). The beef was 
- Chachipapas (papas fritas, salchicha, beicon troceado, jalapeños, salsa de queso cheddar, salsa BBQ) €4.8 - a great list of ingredients that made me hope it would be chilli fries. The fries themselves were soft and not crisp at all. The sausage slices were alright but looked a bit too processed. It doesn't compare to chilli beef or lamb that usually comes with these.

I received a €0.5 discount on those burger prices to not get the fries with it. That way I could order the chachipapas and not end up with a ridiculous amount of fries. Next time I think I'd just stick to the normal fries.

It's been a long while between volanic heat cooked meals. Even though I didn't expect to eat here again, the timing coincided with hunger (and lunch) and to be fair, after re-reading what I wrote last time (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/el-diablo-lanzarote-01-2013), I could easily have gone a steak again.

But my advice to my future self was the try the chicken, since there always seems to be so much of it cooling on the grill. And so I had to listen to me.

The complimentary bread was slices of rounds, not warm and not very good.

- 1/2 grilled chicken €13 - a delicious roast chicken, perhaps slightly overcooked, but pretty good (albeit expensive expectedly). I couldn't honestly say there's much difference between this and the standard oven/rotisserie chicken thought... The vegetables had some nice vinegar contrast;
- King prawn salad with fresh goat's cheese (guacamole, Canarian tomato, onions, lettuce crudite, thousand island sauce, basil oil) €10.5 - 3 prawns and a layer of avocado sitting on a circle of tomato. A fancy salad.

Next time I would order the steak or try the pork (if they are local, I don't think lamb is).

Interestingly outside the restaurant, there is a public grill where you can bring your own food to cook... that's definitely the better alternative for next time.

As we touched down in the sunkissed island of Lanzarote, away from the cold of London, and drove south to Playa Blanca, I could only think of seafood. For a Sunday evening, the only place I had marked in Playa Blanca (Los Hervideros) was closed. I asked the Airbnb host who suggested El Pelegrino for Spanish/Canarian food. Unfortunately that was closed to.

So we ended up at La Cuadra, with it's decent reviews and surrounded by Germans and a few Spanish. It was a busy night there and the staff were almost impressed of my attempts to decipher the Spanish menu. Warm bread was served (€1.1pp)

- Croquetas de jalapeños con guacamole €6 - simple croquettes. Not entirely sure what was inside, but there was some jalapeño and the guacamole was outside;
- Crujiente de cochino negro canario €7 - black pig meat squashed into a cube and then fried. Simply seasoned and delicious. Quite tender too;
- Papas arrugadas de Lanzarote con sus mojos artesanos €5 - the island's famous potatoes cooked until dehydrated and soft and seasoned heavily with salt. Nice;
- Pulpo a la plancha con mojo verde €8 - charry, crisp and full of flavour. A definite winner;
- Caracoles con jamon y chorizo €7.75 - strange for snails. They didn't seem to have much of their own flavour and also the texture was very soft and without any bite. Wouldn't get them again.

Overall a nice meal to start the trip. A little too much food for 2. I don't think anything here is particularly special or different from the other menus around. Next time I'd try for Los Hervideros or somewhere new.

After 6 days of wilderness, rehydrated food and the occasional luxury of carrying around a fresh vegetable (not including Guesthouse Nedajno's meals of course), we finally ended our hike in Zabljak. After securing a last minute random room somewhere, the booking agency recommended Luna as somewhere with traditional Montenegrin food and also very closeby.

It was a very busy dining area. The first person we saw said no space and walked off. The second (a few seconds later) said wait and he will check. The third soon after sat us at a nice empty 4 seater booth that had just been vacated.

The menu had delicious sounding items, and my hiking stomach wanted to try them all. Njeguski steak seemed to be popular with it being a large rolled chicken schnitzel. As tempted as I was, I was craving lamb since seeing it cooked at Trnovacko Lake several days earlier.

We ordered about 300-400g of the roast lamb (€20/kg). There was a lot of bone, but the meat was very tasty and simply seasoned, and the flavour drifted into the potato underneath. Grilled vegetables including excellent zucchini and mushroom followed. We also tried the specialty mountain dish kacamak (corn porridge) for €4.5. It was 300g of polenta with rich cheese and butter through it. Very nice but so heavy to finish between two.

Finally a pancake with chocolate ended the meal. Thick soft with some crisp. With that, we waddled back for a much needed sleep.

Very cheap meal and would happily go back for more lamb or try the Njeguski.

The hike from Piva dam directly upwards over the pass was meant to take about 1.5-2h. 4h later after going back and forth and back and forth, falling and nettled, we turned back and licked our wounds. It turns out there are old markings on the trail of a red circle and they removed the white centre, rather than removing the whole lot. We got this mixed up with the normal red circle with white middle. Not the most helpful.

The guard at the dam took solace. After he had initially filled our water bottles before the climb, I offered him some dried figs which he accepted. Maybe that's why he took pity on us and eventually offered to drive us to Nedajno for €50. It was worth the saving of our souls and we ended up at this guesthouse.

Usually there are 2 daughters who speak English. However they were studying for exams and so it was more difficult to decipher.

Camp or cabin? Cabin comes with a bathroom and hot shower. Cabin it is. Dinner? Definitely.

After freshening up, we sat and were served our meals.

- Soup with some meat, maybe lamb;
- Fish with crisp skin on both sides. Reasonable soft flesh;
- Cevapi had more grainy texture and thicker than those in Sarajevo. The potatoes had incredible flavour. But neither the cevapi nor potatoes had any crisp bits;
- Free fresh salad.

€13 was for the whole meal. If I was ever there again (unlikely) I would ask for lamb.

Breakfast was ustipci fried doughnuts (similar to Chinese donuts in a different shape) with pine honey and jam and two different types of cheese (one sheep and one milder). 

Much like there are cevapi-ries, there are also burek-aries. Bosna was recommended by the free walking tour Meet Bosnia as the best in town. On the mid-morning before taking the bus to Tjentiste and Sutjeska, my inquisitiveness brought me to walk there enroute to a taxi.

The outdoor seating in the sun is warm and pleasant as the burek comes out. On the first morning in Sarajevo (actually enroute to the free walking tour) we had a slice of pizza and burek from a random pizza shop (it may have been Merak?). The burek was outstanding - filled with strong meaty flavour, salty pastry that was wonderfully crisp. Easily the best I'd had to that point.

Bosna was equally delicious in all the same aspects. At 12-14 BAM/kg, it isn't expensive at all. They also have a range including meat, spinach and cheese, and also some that looked in different shapes and sizes.

It would have been nice to be able to sit longer to enjoy it all. Next time.

After the first cevapi experience in Nune (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/cevabdzinica-nune-sarajevo-09-2018), I couldn't resist my own urges to try the famous Zeljo before leaving Sarajevo. And so on the last evening that's where we went.

There's 1 and 2 - they are across from each other and I'm sure there is no difference in food or prices. I went for number 2 as it looked a bit quieter and had more spare outdoor seating.

The prices are marginally higher than Nune, at 10 for 7 BAM (vs. 6 BAM). Oddly Zeljo serves only cevapi, with no sides available. Kajmak cream cheese was added on request for 1.5 BAM and was thick and slightly sour. The bread was drier and crisper. Meat was soft and tender. They were very stingy on the onions.

Overall I thought Nune had cheaper prices, more onions and available sides for balance. Zeljo has a more atmospheric location (and is bigger also), but otherwise I'd pick Nune.

There wasn't much in the way of gelato in Sarajevo. But luckily I found one down the road of some central backstreets near the flat.

This place is essentially a large dessert cafe with plenty of seating space. I couldn't figure out the pricing system easily - it seemed to be 1.9 or 2.4 BAM per scoop depending upon the flavour.

The Sicilian pistachio was very thick with bits of nut. As per advertised it was slightly salty, whereas I tend to prefer a slightly sweeter one. On the other hand, the pear was quite odd and tangy. Not the finest, but good enough for the afternoon.

Nablus is the place in Palestine where kunafa (aka kunefe as I've had it previously in Turkey) originated, and the owner/cook in this place is from there, hence the name. I was reassured by one of his friends and customers that was the real deal.

We seemed to have entered at a busy period in the late afternoon, where a host of orders were ahead of us (mostly coming from a few who ordered many to takeaway) and as a result had to wait 20mins. Not so bad in the context of things and gave me an opportunity to see his technique from pale shreds of white cheese to a finished product, dark and crisp and inviting.

It is definitely different to the Turkish ones I've had. Particularly the stringy cheese tastes very much like mild cheese, and had a smoother texture than the wisps of kataifi I'm used to. Additionally the sugar syrup wasn't nearly as sweet.

It was nice, it was good, I liked it. I can't say for certain which version I like better, but perhaps the Turkish very slightly.

Superfood isn't very convenient to central Sarajevo. But we had to get to Penny Plus to get some screw-in camping fuel and it was hopefully somewhere much closer than OBI (although since discovered there is a store right in central that now sells it too).

We could have taken a taxi but thought a nice walk in good weather (although hot) would be a pleasant way to see Sarajevo, a park and a local suburb enroute. Superfood is remarkably highly rated (TA #4, Google 4.7, Facebook 4.8) for a place out of the way.

I really wanted some meat. The Gulash with 300g high quality grass-fed beef was my preference. But they said they had no meat. What? That doesn't make sense. Chili con carne? Nope, no meat. Just burgers. Hmm. It didn't makes sense - maybe the beef patties are pre-prepared and they don't have meat chunks for goulash and can't elaborate the patty to chili. Who knows.

Anyway so I ordered the Snake Bite burger (200g beef patty, pico de gallo salsa, dijon mayonnaise, jalapeño peppers, homestyle potato fries) 10 BAM. It was a nice burger, cooked through (sadly) but the patty was still tender and quite thick in the middle. Mustard mayo was smeared on a large soft bun, and the salsa with chopped tomato was fresh.

We also tried the Shakshuka (poached eggs in a spicy tomato sauce with onions, chili & cumin) 7 BAM. This was almost a semi-assembled version, since I'm used to it arriving in a little pan with bread on the side. It had minimal cumin in it and oddly no sauce either.

It was a decent breakfast. I can't say I'd seek it out specifically. Strangely others seemed to be eating a meat looking dish similar to goulash... maybe the meat arrived soon after...