Looking for lamb

Now, I have mentioned before that lamb roasted slowly on a spit and served simply with excellent bread (usually still warm from the oven) is one of the great Bosnian delicacies. It is also pretty commonly found in many restaurants along the main routes in Bosnia. So I wasn't really expecting to have any problems in finding any lamb neck fillets to put into my favourite dish.

I visited the supermarkets, no lamb for sale in any shape or form. I visited the butchers (at least 3) and nothing. Finally I found a butcher that did sell lamb, but only whole ones. That would definitely be biting off more than we can chew so I left it well alone. I've asked people where I can buy lamb and no one seems to know. Admittedly it is not the season for lamb at the moment, but I was expecting to be able to find some lamb, somewhere.

Going to make my favourite dish with beef and see what happens. I'll keep looking though, maybe I'll have more success in spring. Until then, I'll just have to visit a roadside restaurant to get my lamb fix.

Lamb for lunch

On our way back from Mostar we stopped off at Jablanica which is famous for two things; a very great victory there by those resisting Nazi occupation during World War II (the bridge that was blown up is still dangling down the canyon) and more pertinently, lamb. The restaurants on the main road just outside Jablanica are known for their spit roasted lamb, and very rightly so - it is amazing. Served by the kilo with fresh bread, a sort of roasted potato and a salad it is the best lamb I have ever tasted and if we are ever in the vicinity we always make sure that we manage to stop and stuff ourselves stupid.

I was once told that to eat lamb in Jablanica was rated as one of the top 10 culinary experiences in the world. Now, I'm not sure that it truely merits a global top 10 mention but it would be up there somewhere. The restaurants perch on top of a canyon with huge windows allowing fantastic views of the emerald Nervetna river flowing away beneath where you sit and of the destroyed bridge. The lamb is roasted outside the restaurant, the spit turned gently by the water flowing past (although in reality there is a generator doing most the work but lets not let reality get in the way of the idyll).

As a motorway (or as close as it gets to motorway in BiH) stop it can't really be bettered.