ĆUŠPAJZ: A spoon of comfort

A lot of people around me, including myself, seem to suffer from the same syndrome. Let's call it the “spoon syndrome”. During childhood, our mums and grannies used to stuff us with enormous quantities of homemade soups and stews for lunch, which we unanimously hated. Leek or kale stew was like a unit of measurement for yuckness. We dreamed of pizzas, fries and burgers while negotiating another spoonful of the dreaded dish. Today, when we are grown-ups juggling family life with jobs, and the hectic rhythm of modern life is leaving us little time for healthy eating, food on the go is often the only option. Who would have guessed, but surrounded with processed food and fast food, we often find ourselves craving for a bowl of hot soup or a stew. Basically, anything home-cooked and eaten with a spoon. Mum’s stew has now become a dream object! Yes, sooner or later Zagrebians come to learn what it is all about and start to cherish mum’s ćušpajz.

Ćušpajz is the local word, derived from German language. We can define it as stew made with several kinds of vegetables and almost regularly with the addition of some kind of meat, or at least bacon for flavouring.

Mostly it’s leek, kale, green beans, root vegetables, and there’s a whole genre dedicated to beans and grain legumes. Ćušpajz is always made to be hearty and last for several days. There isn’t really a special stew native to Zagreb only, our counterpart to maneštra od bobići in Istria, but there’s a whole wide range of standard stewy dishes that are popular and omnipresent in Zagreb and surroundings. One might say we have quite a developed stew culture. Naturally, ćušpajz stews tend to follow the season and seasonal ingredients. In winter, you can expect a lot of beans, sour cabbage and turnips, as well as strong support in dried meat and sausages. In spring, pots turn green and celebrate new life in the garden, so there’s plenty of peas, broad beans, carrots, leek and scallions. Summer is full of young vegetables, ideal for light stews bursting with the flavours of tomatoes, zucchini, corn, marrow, young potatoes and fresh herbs like dill, thyme, basil. In autumn, we make the best use of wild mushrooms, pumpkin, cabbage, kale and leek.

So when you finally overcome your childish resistance to the delightfully warm and nourishing ćušpajz, where can you find it, other than make it yourself? Yes, simple old-school stews have always thrived in the underworld of company canteens and lunchtime greasy spoons, but those usually stand for bare necessity and not a true gourmet experience.  Occasionally, you can also find very decent classical stew dishes in most mainstream traditional restaurants, like the busy Vinodol in Teslina Street. But what if that’s still not enough? Well, things have been changing for the best! When the focus on Zagreb dining scene switched from fancy and upscale to affordable, everyday and casual, ćušpajz saw its chance to become exciting and reinvent itself. The trend started a few years back, when a cozy little bistro called Ćušpajz (nomen est omen!) opened in downtown Zagreb. Freshly made, colourful, creative seasonal stews are the only thing on the menu - that was quite a brave new concept, but it took off. Ćušpajz became something cool. You’re not hip if you’re walking and munching on a slice of pizza for lunch, you’re hip if you’re sitting down over a steaming hot bowl of veggies. Some other bistros followed in offering a selection of daily stew specials, like Perica in Vrbik neighbourhood, downtown Bistroteka or fusion-oriented Potato House, to name just a few.

And there you have it, the circle is complete: from childhood nightmare to a trendy lunchtime treat. Ćušpajz has come a long way, connecting the simple cooking of our grannies with modern-day culinary experience. It’s definitely here to stay, so grab a spoon and dig in to enjoy all the comfort of a warm homemade ćušpajz.

Author: Taste of Croatia