Our favorite thing about the World Cup eating challenge (and also WorldEats) is that it can introduce us to a cuisine and a culture that we've always wanted to learn more about but just never tried. In 2010, that was Paraguay. This time around, the one new cuisine we tried and loved was from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We were rooting for Bosnia during their games, mostly because this was their first time in the tournament, they were huge underdogs, and it would've been so amazing for their nation if they were to progress in their first chance. Unfortunately (and probably unfairly), things didn't go their way but we were really looking forward to when we could try out Bosnian food to honor them.
The day after our Independence Day food crawl, we decided to undertake another mini-crawl, this time in Astoria. Our first stop and the one we were most excited about was Cevabdzinica Sarajevo, a spot that specializes in cevapi, a grilled minced meat sausage. Walking down the block, we spotted the Bosnian flag proudly flying outside and knew we were in the right place.
Cevabdzinica Sarajevo is a small and casual spot. They had a TV set up for the World Cup (but we were there between games) and lots of football paraphernalia around, including jerseys for Dzeko and Ibisevic. Lots of Bosnian pride. We took a seat, scanned the menu (even though we knew we were just going to split a plate of cevapi), and placed our order.
The first thing to arrive was a basket of bread called lepinja, a traditional bread in the Balkan region. It was warm, soft, and chewy. We couldn't wait to eat it with our cevapi.
The drinks at the restaurant all come out of a self-service refrigerator. They had the usual stuff you could get anywhere, like sodas and teas, but they also had two drinks that appeared to be imported from Slovenia. We went with the Jupi orange soda, mostly because they had an article on the wall about celebrating the World Cup and how they were all going to be drinking orange soda during the Bosnian games. This was pretty good. Unlike some orange sodas, the orange flavor was natural and none of that artificial stuff.
We went with the larger plate of cevapi, which came with 10 sausages. The accompaniments on the side were chopped raw onions and ajvar, a type of spread (or sauce or relish) mostly made with red peppers. The sausages are made in-house and grilled after you order them, so everything is very fresh and you can taste the difference.
The cevapi was incredible. We joked that this was like the best breakfast sausage we've ever had. The meat was grilled perfectly. It wasn't hard or chewy or tough, but just right so that it was a little bit pink inside. The spices mixed in with the meat aren't overpowering at all, but very complementary. The sausages were good on their own, but even better when mixed with the onions and ajvar.
We were so happy with the cevapi that we briefly considered ditching the rest of the food crawl and getting another plate of cevapi. (We didn't do that but it was so good that we thought about it.) Even though we hadn't yet finished our World Cup journey, we knew that, without a doubt, this was going to be a contender for our favorite meal of the challenge.
Cevabdzinica Sarajevo is located at 3718 34th Ave in Astoria, Queens.
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