Tag: cevapi

Country 098 – Montenegro (Somun Superstar)

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Somun SuperstarLocation: 998 Kingston Road, Toronto
Website: http://www.somunsuperstar.com/

Hey, look at that — country 98.  I’m halfway through this thing!  And it only took a scant four years.  At this rate, I’ll be done sometime around 2023.  Slow and steady wins the race.

And as it turns out, I picked a good restaurant for a landmark post, because Somun Superstar is absolutely fantastic.  Easily one of the best places that I’ve tried for the blog so far.

As you’d guess from the name, Somun Superstar specializes in somun, a Bosnian flatbread that they bake fresh throughout the day in a wood-burning oven.

Somun Superstar

And in case you’re wondering why I’m writing about this for Montenegro instead of Bosnia — I’ve already written about Bosnia, where I ate a similar but infinitely inferior meal at Sarajevo Grill & Meat.  However, Montenegro is Bosnia’s neighbour; they share much of the same cuisine, including somun.

I’m so glad I decided to check this place out, because that somun?  Magical.  They serve it still slightly warm from the oven, and it has an amazing flavour and a delightful fluffy chewiness.

Somun Superstar

You could put anything in that bread and it would be delicious.  You could eat that bread alone and it would be delicious (and in fact I did exactly that — it was so good that I bought some to bring home).

But of course, they’re not going to put that level of care and skill into the bread and then whiff it on the filling.  I got the Loaded Cevapcici, which comes stuffed with cevapcici (an Eastern European sausage), kajmak (a slightly tart, ricotta-esque dairy product), avjar (a spread made from roasted red peppers), onion, pickles, and hot peppers.

Somun Superstar

It’s incredibly delicious.  Even aside from the bread, which, as mentioned, is magical, everything works so well together.  It’s creamy, vibrant, crunchy, and meaty.  It’s everything you want in a sandwich.  The cevapcici, in particular, is way above average, with a nice amount of seasoning and a great meaty flavour.  My only real complaint are the onions, which are abundant and somewhat overwhelming.  But then I’m a weirdo who hates raw onion, so that’s on me, not the sandwich.

Somun Superstar

I also tried the somun bread pudding.  I wasn’t planning on having dessert, but everything was so good that I figured it had to be done.  And yeah: it was just as good as the sandwich, with a silky, substantial creaminess and a thoroughly irresistible custardy flavour.  It was honestly one of the best slices of bread pudding I’ve ever had.

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Country 077 – Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo Grill & Meat)

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Sarajevo Grill & MeatLocation: 225 The East Mall, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarajevo-Grill-and-Meat/1088266461319632

Sarajevo Grill & Meat is a bit odd; they have a few tables, but mainly, it’s a take-out joint and a little supermarket of sorts.  They have several shelves worth of Eastern European groceries, a butcher counter, some cakes and cookies, and a hot table with savoury pastries.

Sarajevo Grill & Meat

They also have a few meaty goodies you can eat in the restaurant, with their specialty being cevapi, an Eastern European sausage.

I ordered the large cevapi plate, which comes with a whole pile of little sausages on a plate-sized piece of flatbread called lepinja.

Sarajevo Grill & Meat

It’s not bad, but the cevapi at Royal Meats (which is about a five minute drive away) is better on pretty much every level.

The main issue here is that the sausages are over-salted and under-spiced, with a one-note salty flavour that gets a bit monotonous after a few mouthfuls.

Sarajevo Grill & Meat

They’re also extremely greasy.  This normally wouldn’t be an issue; there’s nothing sadder than a dried-out sausage.  But these go a little bit too far in the other direction.  It’s the type of dish where your mouth and lips immediately become slick with grease — a feeling that persists long after the meal is done.

It didn’t help that the lepinja (which was soft, fluffy, and a little bit chewy) was suffused with oil; some parts were downright mushy.

Sarajevo Grill & Meat

The dish came with a small container of a white substance that I’m pretty sure was just straight-up margarine or lard, just in case you want more grease to dip your greasy bread and your greasy sausages in.  It’s basically a heart attack waiting to happen.