News

The executive chef for Casbah restaurant in Shadyside -- affectionately known to family, friends and patrons as "Spudz" -- Wallace is up to his elbows in chunks of sweet red peppers. Around him -- furiously chopping garlic and onions and trimming slabs of pork -- are parishioners of St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church in Monroeville.

It is 10 days before the church's second annual Food Festival, which drew hundreds of people for its debut last year. Event chairman Nicholas Jokola, Wallace's father, is proudly corralling his grandchildren, Abby, 4, and Maddy, 2, so their daddy can give instructions to helpers and stir up a vat of the peppery stew, laced with hot Hungarian paprika and cayenne pepper.

The braised dish is a Serbian version of the French coq au vin, Moroccan tagine or Hungarian paprikash, Wallace says.

"Every region has their own version," says Mila Prpa, Jokola's sister. "This is the version Eric learned."

Kitchen helper Linda Jovanovich's mushkalitsa is less of a stew, she says, and more like "a plate of meat and vegetables." When she and her husband, Dan, visited Serbia -- then a republic of Yugoslavia -- about 25 years ago, they tasted the dish in Belgrade. She searched for recipes and finally found one -- but it was written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

"The Serbian National Federation, a fraternal organization of Serbs in Canada and the U.S., had the recipe," Jovanovich says. "I was thrilled."

Most of St. Nicholas' parishioners are Serbians from the part of Yugoslavia that is now Croatia, Jokola says.

"Some of the foods may be familiar to Croatian people," he says. "But people from Serbia might not even know what we are talking about."

An influx of Serbian immigrants to Pittsburgh, however, has brought a broader base of recipes to the church's kitchens, so it's difficult to pick and choose what to feature on the festival's menu, he says.

"A recent immigrant prepared corn bread baked with feta cheese for us," he says. "It is a true Serbian dish, and many of our own Serbians agree."

Because of the political frailty of Yugoslavia over time, Serbian cuisine shows the influences not only of neighboring countries but of ethnic groups that passed through the area, considered a buffer zone between the Ottoman Empire and Europe. Turkish, Greek, Mediterranean and Austrian accents can be seen throughout Serbia's fare.

One ingredient that's a mainstay of Serbian cooking is sweet red peppers.

"They grow like dandelions there," Jovanovich says. "In any village, there are mountains of them in the markets. So, there are pretty much peppers in everything they cook."

A favorite way to enjoy sweet red peppers is to roast and flavor them with a bit of vinegar and oil and sometimes garlic.

"You serve them as a spread with bread, cream cheese and butter," Jokola says. Watermelons also abound in the country, he adds, and pork is a common meat.

St. Nicholas originally was located in Wilmerding, where the church held its first service in the spring of 1905. The Monroeville structure was consecrated in 1971.

Last month, the congregation celebrated its 100th anniversary over Labor Day weekend, with music, dance, and, of course, traditional foods that are on this weekend's menu.

Items include sarma, cevapcici (ground meat rolls), burek (meat pie), raznici (skewered spiced pork), Serbian potato salad, cicvara (cooked cornmeal), corn bread with feta cheese and sweets such as palachinke (crepes with a custard topping), tortes, strudels and fruit/nut rolls.

And, for children with picky palates, there will be hrenovke.

Translated: hot dogs.

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News