Buffet Upstairs, Band in the Basement
May 18, 2006 – 10:17 pmAfter ice cream from Vincek, I walked with Kornelija to her hiking club’s weekly meeting. It was held on the second floor of a multi-purpose building near Glavni Kolodvor that operates as a sort of community center with two independently owned cafes on the first floor. There was some work being done on the electricity in the building that night, so the lights periodically went out during the meeting. No one seemed to notice, and the meeting went along without a hitch. I was distracted, however, by the faraway sound of singing, and left the meeting to investigate…
As I descended the stairs, the sound of robust male and female voices singing a lively traditional Croatian song grew nigh. Then it became clear that the music was wafting up from the basement, so I propelled myself further down the stairwell and into the foundation of the old building. When I arrived at the bottom of the stairs, I could feel the music resonating in my chest. These were healthy, experienced male and female voices, and they were singing a bouncy little dialogue accompanied by a few tambura players. I turned the corner and saw the ensemble cramped into a small back room of this basement, rehearsing their hearts out.
Before snapping a few photos, I turned my recorder on and caught a portion of the rehearsal.
As you can hear in the recording, the string musicians then went into the hall while the vocalists went through an unaccompanied piece. The director of the chorus had to shush the instrumentalists from their noodling in the hall a few times during this vocal bit, as it went completely against the meter of the piece the vocalists were rehearsing.
After enjoying their music for a bit, I decided to leave the musicians to their rehearsal and return to the hiking club’s meeting upstairs. Tonight’s was a somewhat celebratory caucus of Planinarsko Društvo Željezničar. Two members of the club, Vavo and Vlasta, were recently blessed with a baby boy, Luka, and so after the club’s official business was taken care of, there was a modest buffet of roast pork, smoked sausage, fresh bread and spinach and cheese-filled štrukle.
Vincek’s may be the best ice cream in Zagreb, but make a meal it does not. I was all too ready to dive into this “light meal”, and I did so with relish. And mustard. And green onion, which is often served raw with meals in the Balkans. Put a small pile of salt on your plate, wet the end of the onion straw with your mouth, dip, and graze like a rabbit.
Croatia is the first place I’ve seen the practice of eating raw green onions with meals, and I rather like it. I’m somewhat hooked, actually. When I was in Budapest, I bought a bundle of green onions expressly to be eaten raw with salt. I now snack on them from time to time.
In addition to a wonderful variety of juices I never saw much of in the US (the sour cherry, black currant and blueberry juices were my favorites) there were a few cases of Karlovačko and Ožujsko on hand for the drinking. Croatian beer is generally pretty good, often a crisp pilsner-like brew with a slight yeast twang that lingers only briefly in the mouth. Beer isn’t often served very cold in Europe, you know, but I plan to find out what a few hours on ice will do for some Croatian brands (I can’t help it… I prefer to drink pilsners and lagers ice cold). So far, I prefer Ožujsko. Actually, I actually prefer wine.
Croatians are proud of their wine and the rich vinting tradition of this country, which dates back to the Illyrian period, long before the Romans arrived. They have every right to be. Croatian wine is an entire world unto itself, and I plan to dedicate much of myself to studying its charms and intricacies. Dingač, Postup, Graševina, Plavac… Each of these wines and more will receive my palate’s focused attention.
One Response to “Buffet Upstairs, Band in the Basement”
Chill the beer.beer sucks warm.. mike ryan
By msr6269 on Aug 15, 2006