Day 537: Mexican Food, Where are you?

Reference: Days 445 and 481

So, I finally bit the bullet… and so far my tip about Mexican food in Europe holds strong.

First, in Belgrade, I finally made it to the “Burrito Bar”. The name sounded promising and upon my arrival the décor seemed to be sending the right message. It appeared as though Santa Fe, New Mexico had exploded on the walls inside. The only drawback about Burrito Bar is the smoke. Cigarette smoke is an issue throughout Belgrade, but Burrito Bar was one of the worst in regards to the thickness of the smoke.

Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy the day I went so I was stuck inside.  However, although I my come across Debby Downer about the food, I plan to take Serena and the boys this spring when we can take advantage of the outdoor seating.

Okay… so the food. Well, first of all… it wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t exactly “Mexican” either. It was as if a Serbian had gone to America, eaten at a Tex-Mex restaurant, was like “wow”, went back to Belgrade and tried to recreate their take on 'Mexican' cuisine by memory.  Things forgotten?  

Cheese, cilantro, and heat.

To their credit, Burrito Bar’s tortillas were fantastic. Their meats were cooked to perfection (Serbians really know how to grill meats). And their homemade tortilla chips were pretty nice as well (but you had to pick through the over and under cooked ones).

Their salsa was actually kind of nice. It was more of a chipotle, smoky, salsa rather than the traditional salsa’s I'm used to in the States… but their Guacamole was a travesty… but a travesty that must be forgiven. Avocado’s are available here, but insanely expensive. What arrived at our table was pretty much a cup of sour cream with just enough avocados to turn the cream a very light shade of green. There was a hint of avocado flavor… but it was more reminiscent of a sour cream based party dip. You know the ones… when you dump the packet of French onion soup into the pint of sour cream? Yeah… that's pretty much what it tasted like.

The strangest part of the meal was the cabbage salad though. Cabbage is a pretty normal addition to every meal in Belgrade, so it wasn’t much surprise… but what was a surprise was the weird mustard sauce on top. It was kind of like a “wannabe” chalupa with a mustard topping. It was very strange and it took me a few weeks to figure out what the deal was with the mustard sauce.

You see, heat and spice is different from culture to culture. In the Americas heat is more commonly defined as coming from peppers. We have a pepper based heat. But in Europe there seems to be a stronger emphasis on mustards as their source of heat. The kind of heat you would get from a nice brown mustard.

I know… culture shock.

Anyway, Burrito Bar… you get an “A” for effort… but alas… you are long way from home… and so am I for that matter.