March 3- 9, 2005

food

Serb Your Enthusiasm

station master: Balkan Express' owner, Radovan Jacovic, holds a plate of muckalica, spicy beef stew with djuvec rice. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Balkan Express gives a whistle-stop tour of Yugoslav cuisine, but it should linger longer at certain destinations.

by Elisa Ludwig

If you've never sampled Serbian cuisine, now's the time to hop aboard the Balkan Express. The restaurant, named for the train that runs from Paris to Istanbul, rolled into the Graduate Hospital neighborhood last fall. The owners, who also operate the hardware store next door, began by offering a mostly American lunch and breakfast and have just recently expanded their hours into the evening.

The concept, according to the restaurant's literature, is to serve Balkan specialties inspired by the many countries along the train line. While the Balkan Peninsula technically spans Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, most of the food here would fall squarely within the limits of former Yugoslavia. (A few Italian and American dishes have also been thrown in as a gesture to the wimpy diner.) In general, there's something tentative about the place, as though it is trying not to offend diners with out-and-out foreignness.

Unlike, say, an actual dining car, the Express is a place where you can sit comfortably for a while, provided you remember to bring your own bottle of wine. The warm, creamy peach walls are adorned with gilt-framed artwork on loan from Newman Gallery. But don't let the $3,000 paintings fool you: The dinner prices, particularly the weekend specials, are quite affordable. Generously sized entrees come with a choice of soup or salad, plus rolls or toasted garlic bread. (If you're there on a non-toasted night, be sure to try the pumpernickel-rye swirl roll with onions.)

There are only a few appetizers to speak of, since the included soup or salad are among the choices. The smoked meat appetizer, with pepperoncini and slices of hot pepper, cubes of feta cheese, green olives with pimentos and slices of smoked meat, was skippable. Supposedly smoked on the premises, the jerky-tough pork and beef tasted suspiciously like the kind of smoke that comes in a can. Better to save room for the freebies, like the cool shreds of pickled cabbage festooned with a single delicate string of a pepper, or the peasant-heavy white bean soup, flavored with fatty chunks of smoked pork.

Indeed, it's a true carnivore's paradise at Balkan Express, unless you want to sample the not-particularly-Balkan entrees, such as the daily grilled fish or pasta. It seems the general rule of thumb here is the more meat, the more authentic your meal. You might, for instance, encounter a special sauerkraut stew with turkey, pork and beef.

We tried the sarma, two rolls of cabbage encasing mildly spiced ground beef and rice. The restaurant grinds its own meat in-house — there's pljeskavica, a Serbian hamburger, as well as a homemade sausage served during the day — and the filling was pleasingly fluffy.

One of the most popular dishes among Express diners, we were told, is the muckalica, and it was easy to see how this paprika-flecked stew of thin beef strips, green and red bell pepper, tomato and onion might be a hit. A mound of golden djuvec rice cooked with tomatoes and laden with vegetables complemented the intensely spiced sauce.

If there is such a thing as too much meat, even for the lapsed vegetarians among us, it might be worth warning against the karadordeva snicla, a rolled pork fillet stuffed with ham and cheese. "Snicla" means schnitzel, so the whole package is then deep-fried, drizzled with tartar sauce and served with fries. One could see how such a thoroughly unhealthy dish might, in certain circumstances, be delicious, but here the flavorless breading came off in flakes and the meat had gone dry and leathery. A side of overcooked asparagus curled limply on the plate like an apology to the arteries.

Desserts include ice cream or the homemade pastry of the day, which might well be a rustic baklava — also known in Serbian quarters as a dry nut pie — that is darker in color, softer in texture and mellower in flavor than the usual wedge of nuts and phyllo soaked in honey you find in the region. Giant baked apples, filled with cinnamon and walnuts, came topped with a largely unnecessary puff of canned whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

Then the check came with an After Six dinner mint and a fruit drop. A hospitable touch, but like the apple's accoutrements, it felt like a plea of some kind. There's no reason, in a serious food town like Philly, to sugarcoat things. Come on, Balkan Express. Bring on the fermented cabbage. We can take it.

Balkan Express 2237 Grays Ferry Ave., 215-545-1255

• Winter hours (current): Sun. and Tue., 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Wed.-Sat., 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; otherwise, Tue.-Sun., 8 a.m.-10 p.m.
• Appetizers: $3.95-$4.95;
• Entrees: $6.95-$12.95
• BYOB
• Reservations accepted.
• Wheelchair accessible.
• Cash only.
• Smoking not permitted.