My mother's people were from Belgrade, which is closer to Austria, my father's from Bosnia-Herzigovina. They all loved to cook. Consequently I ate a lot of stuffed cabbage and saurkraut growing up. We also had polenta and baked crepe dishes. Pickled Hungarian banana peppers were a must. I learned to pull dough for streudel, thin like phyllo, but more flexible.
There were Mediterranian influences too. There were lamb roasters in my home town. Sunday dinner in summer often meant going to the roaster and buying lamb off a whole animal on a spit. The meat was eaten with scallions and a crusty creamy white bread that was called Vienna bread. And beer. And whiskey. The author of the article doesn't mention how much these people drink.
There were Mediterranian influences too. There were lamb roasters in my home town. Sunday dinner in summer often meant going to the roaster and buying lamb off a whole animal on a spit. The meat was eaten with scallions and a crusty creamy white bread that was called Vienna bread. And beer. And whiskey. The author of the article doesn't mention how much these people drink.
1
Wonderful article
5
Excellent article. Thank you NY Times & Francis Lam. And thank you Bojana.
3
Shampita is one of my favorite deserts! Being from Montenegro it is refreshing to see such a wonderful article being published for the public to see.
4
The best article ever written explaining my homeland. The pronunciation of the desert is shampita, just to clarify.
13
This looks and sounds amazing. I will most definitely have to try it.
3
What temperature should the sugar syrup reach? That would be useful information.
Thank you for understanding the experience of Yugoslavians in America. My extended family is from Sarajevo (Bosnia), Belgrade (Serbia), and Split (Croatia). When we gather, they chat in a language that they still refer to as "Yugoslav". They find it strange that others refer to their Dalmatian dialect as "Croatian".
8
Great story. It's ironic that in many immigrant communities throughout the world, the nation of Yugoslavia continues to exist, while the real thing fell apart because of nationalism and intolerance. When faced with a a new reality, people cling to similarities and look past their differences.
12
A great reminder that nationalism is a political imperative, not a human one.
11
Thank you for this article, I will try this recipe. Plus it reminded me that I have not called her in the last few months.