Cover pic: Daniel Ercsey
The coming spring may encourage many people to get out and about, to take a trip, to spend their weekends more actively. It's well worth a visit to Belgrade, and you don't even have to go all the way to the centre of Belgrade for a cosy weekend, just get to Zemun. The city used to be a border town, the Sava flows into the Danube not far away, Belgrade Castle is at the mouth, but on the inner bank of the Danube is Zemun, a town with a still very much Central European feel. The city centre here is largely pedestrianised, with cobbled streets leading to the market square, where you can admire Baroque buildings, unfortunately many of which are not in the best condition to preserve their glorious past, and charming squares that remind you of the former Habsburg Monarchy. On the Danube promenade, an endless row of restaurants and cafés, and above them, on the hilltop, the Hunyadi Tower (now called Gardos Tower) with its medieval castle ruins, tell of the city's rich history.
New Belgrade, Museum of Contemporary Art (photos: Daniel Ercsey)
We didn't come here for the history or the culture (although that's not a bad thing either, after the pig we still had to visit the Museum of Modern Art in New Belgrade and the Serbian surrealism exhibition), but for the roast pig. I've been hearing and reading for a while that the Zemun market has the best roast pig in all of Belgrade, but I've never had time to get there, especially since Pretop is open from 8am to 4pm, Wednesday to Sunday. The name of Pretop says a lot, as it is nothing more than dripping that comes with the roast pig, the meat is practically boneless and comes with crispy, crunchy skin, fermented cabbage and horseradish. And with fresh, sourdough bread, as the owners of Pretop originally ran a bakery. The place itself looks like a buffet, you can sit at small tables among the stalls of the market, we arrive just as it's filling up, but they take pity on us and open a table with two chairs in front of the already closed opposite neighbour. We are given placards, the waiter, who looks like the owner, looks at us and says: half a kilo of meat and everything else we need, will that be all right? All we have to do is say yes and choose champagne. Because champagne is the basic here, and it's no coincidence that the subtitle of the place is Bread&Schwein&Champagne. We chose a Bikicki pét-nat, a complete gamble in my opinion with all pétnats, but we were not disappointed one bit, because this one is good. And I've tasted few really good pét-nats, I'm not a big fan of the genre, but this worked, with the pork.
Photos: Daniel Ercsey
Just sitting here, chatting, a bite of pork, a sip of champagne, guests coming and going, locals, regulars, backpackers and tourists in fancy dress, everyone getting their pork, everyone happy. No more than giving people a good time. Whether it's in a funny hat or a makeshift table. Come here anytime. In the market, on the same row, is Koordinata Street, a different style, more sophisticated, with farm to table ideas, an exciting, ever-changing menu, Gault&Millau's Young Talent of the Year for the local chef in 2023, but there's no time or space to check it out now, but next time we'll start our tour here. But we did find a place for coffee, this time not in the market, in the Fuka coffee roastery, which is highly appreciated by the locals, but in the Baristro specialty café, opened last year, a few steps from the market, a cosy little place on a small street, with a selection of coffees, with friendly and polite staff who are at home with coffee.
Photo: Bogdan Djukic
It's a place where the hustle and bustle of Belgrade slows down a bit (of course, in the evening we check back in, Belgrade at night is a story of its own), where there's time to do everything, talk, read, browse, have a nice long midday coffee. Or just stroll along the banks of the Danube, you can just look at the water, if you like, reminisce about centuries gone by, you can do it all. The feeling is that we are at home anyway.
