Travel By Jury

Going from Western Europe, such as France, Germany, England, etc. to Eastern Europe can be a bit of a different trip than what one might expect. Despite Serbia’s haunted and aggressive past, the city has a great deal to offer, and the younger generation of Serbs are concerned with having a good time, not hurting anyone. A great place to glimpse this “new Belgrade” at the popular Three Carrots Pub. Sitting a little outside of the main drag, the Three Carrots is inconspicuously located around a few stereo stores, government buildings, and the downtown shopping district. The pub is done up to look like a traditional Irish pub, with gleaming polished wood accents and sturdy little chairs padded with green leather, and the wide variety of beers begets a wide variety of customers. The staff is friendly and patient, as the majority of Belgrade is not super fluent in English, and my Serbian is pretty basic. There’s fries and pub grub on the menu, as it is an Irish pub, but I dove in and got some corba od luka (onion soup) with some phyllo-bread-type pastry that had some sort of meat and vegetables in it (I can’t recall what it was called, sorry!). Both dishes were warm (a must, as it was chilly out) and fairly simple, though I’d been told that Serbians tend to flavor their food with lots of pepper, these were both pretty mild dishes. Washing my meal down with my Corona (the beer list at the Three Carrots is excellent), I looked around me and watched various people drift in and out of the pub. One of the people I met in Serbia, a young man with the most beautiful accent, told me “it looks like Serbians don’t work because we’re always out,” and his comment stayed with me as I watched an animated argument between a young man (dressed in sneakers and jeans) and an older man with a white-tipped cane; after their argument, they made a point to say goodbye to the bartender, then they separated on the sidewalk outside. Off to work? It doesn’t matter, as long as the onion soup is warm.

Filed under: Eastern Europe, Europe, Great Eats Tagged: | beer variety, Belgrade, Corona, friendly folk, fries, great eat, Irish pub, meat, onion soup, phyllo bread, pub grub, Serbia, Serbian, Three Carrots Pub, vegetables