Serbia!

 Jason's parents came up for a visit last week and I was so excited to share a meal with them as my very loyal (only??) blog readers! I let them choose the country, fully expecting an African one since they had spent some time in Nigeria when Jason was young. But I think Jason's hatred of egusi and fufu and their love of Jason led them to choose Serbia. That gave me an excuse to check Belgrade Gardens off of my list! 

Belgrade Gardens is one of several restaurants in the Barberton area that specialize in what's known as "Barberton chicken" or "Serbian fried chicken." It's a huge place reminiscent of Dubrovnik Garden Restaurant from my Croatian meal: Lots of artwork depicting the old country. Lots of mauve. Lots of fake floral arrangements. Lots of etched glass. Lots of carpet. It reminded me so much of the Macedonian restaurant I worked at in Mansfield when I was 19 (RIP Chris's Cafe). 

Belgrade Gardens featured lots and lots of chickens, too. Chickens in glass display cases. Chickens on shelves. Chickens everywhere! But I guess when you're cranking out hundreds of plates of chickens every day, you gotta show your respect. The kitchen was full of older Serbian women talking to each other or taking phone calls on their breaks in Serbian. Customers coming in to pick up their carryout orders were speaking in Serbian to the cashiers. It seemed like the real deal in there! 

Of course we all ordered the fried chicken as well as a shared plate of the Balkan Grill featuring cevapi (grilled Serbian sausages). What we didn't really factor into the order was that each entree came with THREE side dishes. So in addition to the two pieces of chicken, we also got a crock of chicken & dumplings soup, french fries, cole slaw, macaroni & cheese, and hot sauce (rice in a spicy tomato sauce). Guys, it was SO. MUCH. FOOD. 

Here's a brief history of Barberton chicken courtesy of Wikipedia: Barberton chicken began with Milchael and Smilka Topalsky, Serbian immigrants who arrived to America at the turn of the 20th century. Like many during the Great Depression, they became burdened with debt and were forced to sell their family farm. They opened a restaurant called Belgrade Gardens in 1933 in which they sold a distinctive style of fried chicken, along with a vinegar-based cole slaw, a rice and tomato sauce side dish seasoned with hot peppers (usually referred to as "hot sauce" or "hot rice", which can also be eaten as a dipping sauce or a side dish), and freshly cut french fries. Barberton lore holds that these were exact replicas of what the Topalskys had known back in Serbia as pohovana piletina, kupus salata, djuvec, and pomfrit.

Soon other restaurants emerged which copied the distinctive style. Helen DeVore, who had worked for Belgrade Gardens, opened up Hopocan Gardens in 1946. White House Chicken Dinners was founded in 1950 by the Pavkov family, who owned the restaurant until the late 1980s when they sold it to the DeVore family. The Serbian-American Milich family opened Milich's Village Inn, in 1955. The Milich family announced in July 2014 that they would close down their restaurant on December 31. A month later, the location reopened under new ownership as Village Inn Chicken, still serving the signature fried poultry.

Today, the four chicken houses serve over seven and a half tons of chicken per week. (!!!!!!!) The chicken has become so popular that it is often shipped around the United States, usually to transplanted Ohioans.

Time to eat! 

I'm pretty sure we all had a What Have We Done moment when the food arrived. Piles upon piles of food. 

First up, chicken and dumplings and chicken noodle soup. This isn't gourmet fare; this is grandma fare. And it's exactly what you want to be eating on a cold winter night. The soup was like the kind you ate when you were sick at home watching The Price is Right. 

Next was the cevapi - a mixed meat sausage popular in the Balkans. It's really similar to kofta and the name is actually derived from the Persian word kebab. It's considered one of Serbia's national dishes. This version was a good one - nice char, good flavor, tender. It was served with diced white onions (??) and a piece of pita. The mac & cheese we ordered as a side was unremarkable and likely pre-made, so skip that if you happen to go! 

The Barberton chicken was the main event and the plates came out overflowing with hand-cut french fries (that could have used a longer time in the fryer). This is very simple stuff. From Wikipedia: 
The basic tenets of Barberton chicken are simple, yet strictly adhered to by the competing restaurants. They are as follows:

• "True" Barberton chicken is fresh, never frozen.
• Neither the chicken nor the breading is seasoned with anything.
• The birds are fried in lard.
• The cut of the bird is different from usual. Birds are cut into many pieces, including breasts, thighs, legs, wings, drummettes, and backs. This is probably rooted in the Great Depression, when creating the most pieces per chicken without yielding any waste was necessary.

The traditional sides to the chicken dinner are the previously mentioned fresh-cut fries, cole slaw, and hot sauce. The cole slaw was perfect in my opinion - vinegary threads of cabbage and the hot sauce is not a sauce at all, but rice with a tomato sauce that has hot peppers in it. I think the tomato sauce is similar to the lecho I had with my Georgian meal, just a little spicier. I'd like to try it without the rice as a dip for the chicken next time! 

As you probably guessed, we eat took home at least half of our dinners. Over-ordering strikes again! We were even too full to eat the sweet potato pie that Kit baked! 

16 down, 36 to go! 

Belgrade Gardens

401 E. State Street    

Barberton, OH 44203

330.745.0113

Website

Operating Hours:

MON - SUN | 12pm - 8pm