Goulash Paprikash: Guca Trumpet Festival, Serbia

"Beach" on Ada Ciganlija, a river island on Sava River complete with an artificial lake. 

Back in August, we found out one of our friends was doing an internship in Belgrade, and so we decided to go visit him since we haven't travelled eastwards ever since arriving in Europe.

Belgrade was definitely a nice break from Zurich. We could actually afford to eat... excessively... We had coffee about 3 times a day (cafe hopping along the pedestrian-only street of Knez Mihajlova), massive brunches for about 10CHF (at really nice restaurants!), dodgy-looking-but-super-delicious chicken burgers, and cheap beers were plentiful. The city is really urban, and the people are super relaxed and friendly. One thing I noticed (and obviously the guys I was traveling with..) were the girls, who well, made me feel really um... inadequate. Either Belgrade girls are very gifted or plastic surgeons get a lot of business here.. :)

During the day heaps people would flock the 'beach' for lazy beers, but come night time Belgradians party really. really. hard. Every night, literally. The busiest clubs are these floating boat-house type buildings which line the Danube, with each "floating club" playing different types of music. 

But aside from all the urban-ness of Belgrade, it was still pretty surreal though to see the remains of the NATO-bombed buildings which haven't been re-built, just within walking distance of shopping malls, the Old Palace and the grand churches.

Anyway, after a few days chilling out in Belgrade, we decided to do something a bit more cultural. So we hired a car and drove south to Guca for the annual trumpet festival. For a week every year the sleepy town of Guca hosts this awesome brass festival, where brass bands from all around Europe perform, not just on stage but all throughout the streets of Guca, in restaurants, and numerous impromptu street parades.

Brass band: one of hundreds (L); The boys trying not very hard to fend off rakia salesgirls busy at work (R)

Then at night groups of girls wander around town selling neon-coloured rakias (a really strong licorice-y tasting liquor) in test tubes, mainly to young male tourists. And since I was travelling with 3 guys, our group were definitely a primary target and got stopped pretty much every 10 steps!  So after rejecting rakias all night from these girls, they finally caved in and decided to buy just one shot. Unfortunately we picked the craziest salesgirl, who insisted that we buy about all 10 tubes she was selling because she just started her shift and didn't have any change. So after being yelled at in broken english by an 18-year in pretty much only her underwear and flashing devil horn headband, thankfully a nearby vendor came and saved us by giving her some change so we didn't have to buy all her rakias... Phew... 

Happy fat man with a massive pot of tasty goulash (L); Zombie goats (R)

But apart from the trumpets and rakia, there were SO much tasty traditional food around. The main festival food was Svadbaraki Kupus, a cabbage soup dish. Sounds pretty gross, but it was actually quite tasty. The soup is cooked in clay pots over a mound of coal, along with other traditional slow-cooked dishes like goulash and fish soup, over a few hours. Was definitely pretty fatty and oily, but soooo good. They were also pretty big on roasting whole goat on a spit, which looked pretty scary since the skull/teeth/all are still there, and made them look like zombie goats.

So anyway, back in Zurich I recently bought a new crock pot. And I thought there is no better way to christen it than trying to replicate that melt-in-your-mouth Goulash Paprikash :) It's super simple to make and for me it's an awesome winter comfort food... minus the trumpets blaring in your ears :) 

Serbian Goulash Paprikash (for 3-4 people)

500g of beef, diced (use tender cuts of meat like shank or chuck)

1 red capsicum (bell pepper)

1-2 cubanelli chilli pepper (or other peppers, if you like, this is just from my local supermarket)

1 chilli

2 tablespoon of tomato paste 

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

1-2 onion, sliced

500 ml beef stock, or enough to cover the meat

1-2 tablespoon of sweet paprika (I used powder, which was fine) 

2 bay leaves

potatoes (optional)

1. Sautee garlic and onion in crock pot with olive oil over high heat.
2. Brown the beef for a few of minutes, not too well done!
3. Add peppers, chilli, tomato paste, bay leaves, and sweet paprika. Mix well. If the ingredients start to burn, pour in a little bit of water or the beef stock to stop it from burning too much.
4. Pour in the beef stock to cover the meat. Add potatoes if desired. Heat until the liquid starts boiling, then turn down the heat to lowest setting and pop the lid on. 
5. Simmer for 45-60 min, stirring occasionally. 
6. Remove the bay leaves before serving

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