I was on my way to Osijek, the largest city in eastern Croatia.  I was invited by a friend to attend a silent film festival. Since I’d never visited the region before, I took the opportunity and caught an early morning train from Zagreb’s main station. As the train pulled away and across the flat plains of Slavonia, my fellow passengers offered advice and local insight, chalking up an interesting itinerary for my two day trip. One of the suggestions was that I try the local speciality – fish paprikash – a special fish stew prepared with hot peppers and fresh water fish. They thought the spicy stew might appeal to my Indian taste buds.

Osijek is situated along the river Drava. The city’s proximity to its borders, and as result to the Balkan war, is still visible. Land mine warnings continue to guard the limits of the forests and bullet holes are sprayed across a number of walls. Navigating past these grim reminders I made my way to a local restaurant where we had pre-ordered a pot of fish paprikash.  And a pot it was!

Prepared with freshwater fish, paprikash is served hot, in a big black pot. I took my first spoonful, unsure of what to expect. It was an explosion of rich flavours – fish, wine and paprika. Needless to say, I picked out ladle after ladle of the orange coloured soup and the tender fish pieces; accompanied by (homemade) bread, noodles and local wine, this makes for a complete (and mouth smacking) meal.