Tanjga, Kotor 09-2018

Tanjga is well known in Kotor as the place to go for meat. Indeed I heard a local telling a tourist friend not to bother with anywhere else. It was conveniently located near the bus station and therefore near our flat.

Walking past during the day, I could smell and see the roast chickens rotating outside. Deep in the pits were potatoes left to marinade and cook in drippings all day. These chickens are only for lunch. So for the first night's dinner, we sat inside in front of the trays of raw meat waiting to be selected, the salads, the queue, and the staff who seemed a little stressed, a tiny bit aggressive, and occasionally missing someone's order.

After a reasonably long wait, our food arrived. You have to specially ask for them to put the ajvar on the plate, choosing between a normal looking one and a deeper colour spicier one.

- Mixed meat (600g meat, fries, salad, sauce) €10 - a cheap price for a lot of meat. 600g for one person? Surely enough it just fed 2, although I would contend there wasn't 600g of meat there. The dishes are also inconsistent as to which meats you get. They seem to big roughly at random (or maybe there's a hidden system I don't see). The meat itself included overcooked chicken, but soft pork and kebabs. All the meats were very flavoursome.  We also asked for grilled vegetables but they ran out and therefore gave 2 free pieces of eggplant. I could see more vegetables sitting there raw so...

I thought that I'd try roast chicken next time. Maybe for lunch there would be less chaos.

A few days later for lunch we managed to find a seat outside. We ordered a half chicken, french fries, salad, bread €7.5. They ran out of half chickens so gave 2 legs instead. It was pretty good chicken with flavoursome skin. Potatoes as expected were excellent after sitting in fat all day. There was also some beef which was only ok; crisp outsides but not much flavour otherwise.

I'd eat the roast chicken again, another serve of meat plate for dinner, or try the delicious large looking hamburger (250g meat for €4!!), but definitely not bother with the lunch beef.

Or'O, Zabljak 09-2018

The late morning bus to Kotor meant there was time for a nice sit down breakfast. There's a few bakeries around although none looked particularly good for a sit down meal.

Or'O has a nice looking dinner menu and a lovely outdoor space to enjoy the sun and watch people.

- Village Breakfast (2 eggs, beef prosciutto, beef sausage, kajmak, homemade ajvar) €4.7 - tremendously overcooked eggs but the meat was nice
- Homemade cheese pie 350g €4.3 - this was recommended over the buckwheat pie. The cheese flavour was minimal. It was basically twisty pastry. I was expecting a pie (ie. pastry outside with a filling) but sadly not.

3 different breads were given to eat with the breakfast but they charged €0.9.

Not a fantastic breakfast and would try somewhere else (not sure where exactly...) or get a takeaway bakery breakfast next time.

Casa de La Playa, Arrieta 12-2018

I had marked down the restaurant Amanecer in Arrieta. However when I spoke to the flat host Aduen (who is local and running for Mayor of the town), he thought that since Amanecer had relatively recently changed management, that he had a few complaints from guests who had been there. The more reliable option with good prices, specialising in seafood, and where he goes, is Casa de La Playa.

It has a lovely location on Playa de la Garita with views of the sun rising ahead and settling behind.

The staff are very friendly and accommodated my Spanish.

- Fideua Carabinero €29 for 2 - paella was an option, but the word carabinero drew my attention. It's been a long time since I've been searching again for these prized red prawns known in the waters off Portugal, Spain and Morocco. Considering in London they charge about £20 per prawn in Spanish restaurants, having two of these in the dish was a bargain. They were meaty with the most intense beautiful flavour. The bodies themselves were ok, soft but not very bouncy. The noodles were soft, the mussels nice, and although I was anticipating the lapas clams, they weren't as flavoursome as I hoped. The flavour of the dish was perfectly balanced, and not overly salty like many do.

They offered a chupito at the end and I discovered the delicious Ron Miel (Spanish for honey rum), a local Canarian liquor that is 20-30% alcohol and a sweet after meal shot. I nearly bought a bottle to bring home but opted for local gin instead.

A great restaurant and would happily go again, and so ended up a second time the next night.

- Morena frita €9 - after seeing an eel in a fishmonger live and staring at us, I had been meaning to order this somewhere. I expected rounds of flesh deepfried, but was pleasantly surprised to have long fries of meat instead. The batter was crisp and minimally seasoned, the fish was soft with a moderately strong flavour. Thoroughly enjoyed;
- Pulpo a la plancha €10 - the tenderness and flavour were ok, but it wasn't a particularly great version. There wasn't any char or crispness to the skin and so it lacked a little;
- Cherne €22 - this fresh fish was deemed to be 1.5 servings and was a splayed Stone Bass butterflied and panfried in oil/butter. It was expertedly cooked, excellent in buttery flavour and balanced well with a bit of lemon. The potatoes were a touch heavily salted and the salad added freshness. Ended up taking half home for another meal;
- Bienmesabe con helado €5 - a typical Canarian dessert broken down into bien me sabe ("tastes good to me"). We expected this almond meal based dessert to be more like a cake, but it was served in an icecream dish smothered in caramel and with icecream and cream. Very sweet and indulgent, although I wouldn't order it again.

Overall wonderful seafood and cooking. If I'm ever in Lanzarote again, I will stay in Arrieta and return here.

Chacho Fresh Burger, Playa Blanca 12-2018

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.

El Diablo, Lanzarote 12-2018

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.

Restaurante La Cuadra, Playa Blanca 12-2018

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.

Konoba Luna, Zabljak 09-2018

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.

Guesthouse Nedajno, Montenegro 09-2018

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). 

Buregdzinica Bosna, Sarajevo 09-2018

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.

Cevabdzinica Zeljo 2, Sarajevo 09-2018

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.