Wisconsin Foodie

Three Brothers | Serbian Fest

Three Brothers | Serbian Fest – Transcript

– Announcer: This week on Wisconsin Foodie:

[gentle groovy music]

– Milunka: This restaurant is our family’s Ellis Island. Anybody that was ever connected to a Radicevic, whenever they came to America, this literally was the first place they came and stopped. Hello, welcome!

[laughing]

– Luke: So what are we gonna do today?

– Milunka: So we are getting ready to prep for dinner service.

– Luke: Did I get a job?

– No, it’s a very different, pretty presentation.

– It’s gorgeous.

– Ziveli.

– Milunka: Ziveli.

– I’m here to help.

– Sure.

– Is that okay?

– That’s perfect!

– The St. George on State Street is the oldest Serbian Orthodox Church in Racine. This is a great array of what we have every single year here.

[gentle groovy music]

– Mm, they’re good!

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

– Introducing Organic Valley Ultra, milk with more protein, half the sugar, and no toxic pesticides. Let’s be honest! None of that healthy stuff really matters unless our kids will drink it.

[dramatic music, mom whispers “C’mon”]

[gulping milk]

[cow moos]

– Yeah, I would drink that.

[mom gasps]

– Do you hear that?

[mom shouts joyfully]

She would drink that!

[cheering, triumphant music]

– Parents are weird.

– Announcer: More protein, half the sugar. Organic Valley Ultra.

– The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering]

Just look for our badge. It’s on everything we make.

Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends only in Wisconsin since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin, and see where your beer’s made.

– Wisconsin’s great outdoors has something for everyone. Come for the adventure, stay for the memories. Go wild in Wisconsin. To build your adventure visit dnr.wi.gov.

– From production to processing, right down to our plates, there are over 15,000 employers in Wisconsin with career opportunities to fulfill your dreams and feed the world. Hungry for more? Shape your career with these companies and others at fabwisconsin.com.

– Specialty crop craft beverages use fruit grown on Wisconsin orchards and vineyards to create award-winning ciders and wines. Wisconsin’s cold climate creates characteristics and complexities that make this craft beverage unique to our state.

– Society Insurance.

Freshwater Family Farms.

Also, with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[energetic music]

– Luke: We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet. We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[sizzling]

We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clink]

[knife scrapes]

We are storytellers. We are Wisconsin Foodie.

[tearing paper]

[gentle accordion music]

– Milunka: So the restaurant is our family’s home, and we are now in our 63rd year here. It started with my grandfather who came first to America after World War II. And when he arrived, he was a liquor salesman. And after actually quite a short period of time, he bought this building, and then he was running it mostly as a bar and had some light snacks and foods, and then my grandmother finally received the papers that she needed to come, and then once she came here, little by little, little by little, the restaurant changed from the bar into the restaurant that it is today. And so this restaurant is our family’s Ellis Island. Anybody that was ever connected to a Radicevic, whenever they came to America, this literally was the first place that they came and stopped, whether they went to New York or to California, wherever, this was home.

And the name Three Brothers, my grandfather named the restaurant in anticipation of his three sons, the three brothers, working with him again, because the idea was that with the businesses and the hospitality gene that we were brought up with that they would continue, and after being separated for so long, I think it was the dream of my grandfather to be able to work together with his sons again. So everybody ended up in America. We were very fortunate that during the World War II, my grandfather was in a concentration camp, my father in a Gestapo jail, that no one in our family perished. So the three sons did work together. We grew up living upstairs. My mom still lives upstairs. There was no kitchen upstairs, so this is our dining room, and when we go inside there, this is our kitchen.

[gentle violin music]

[people chattering]

– Luke: As we spend an increasing amount of time on the road and in restaurants, one of the places we find ourself longing for most is home.

Three Brothers is not only a Milwaukee icon, but a cultural icon for Serbian cuisine in the Midwest. Today, I cook with Patricia and Milunka at Three Brothers Restaurant in Bay View, Milwaukee.

Luke: Milunka.

– Hello, welcome!

– Luke: So what are we gonna do today?

– Milunka: So we are getting ready to prep for dinner service. We are making a roasted pepper salad.

– Shall we work while we talk?

– Yeah, let’s.

– Okay, great!

– So I’m gonna throw these peppers on.

– Okay.

– Milunka: This actual piece of metal is a metal that somebody cut for my grandparents 60 years ago, and this is the metal that we roast the peppers and the veggies on, and it just gets more beautiful every time we roast on it.

We roasted these peppers earlier today, so we can peel them.

– Yup.

– So dig in!

– Sure! Why don’t you want the seeds?

– Well, for presentation. To be honest with you, my grandmother never had the seeds.

[Luke laughing]

So since my grandma didn’t have the seeds, I don’t have the seeds!

– You don’t have the seeds. Patricia, how am I doing?

– Patricia: Oh, you’re doing okay.

– Luke: I’m doing okay. That’s the best ringing endorsement I get!

[laughing]

– Even though I’ve been working with her for many years, sometimes, even to this day, she’ll say to me, “Oh, you missed a seed.” I think my mother is highly regarded in the house for all of her sacrifices and all of her achievements. I tell her often, and she always thinks I want something when I tell her,

[laughing]

she is my hero.

– Oh my gosh, now you should hit her up for money.

– Yeah!

[laughing]

– Yeah, that was so great! It was so beautiful! What’s it like growing up with your siblings in a restaurant?

– Well, I have customers who are still coming here and remember my son around midnight or so or maybe earlier,

down sitting in the restaurant in his footed pajamas. This was his house, he didn’t even think about it.

– What’s next?

– So now, you can arrange the peppers however you like.

– That’s kind of a loaded thing, isn’t it?

– Ah, you’re training!

– Here we go.

– Let’s see what you got.

– All right,

[laughing]

you’re so skeptical at this point. You’re like, “Oh, God.”- No.

– My mom is admiring it.

– Oh, that’s nice, thank you!

– I’m watching her. That’s beautiful.

– Is it, it’s all right?

– Yes.

– Okay, great.

– Quite lovely.

– Okay, and now, we’re going to go with garlic?

– Yep.

– Gonna go garlic first?

– Yes.

– Okay.

– Perfect.

– Now?

– Next, a little salt.

– Salt, okay.

– Next.

– Now, vinaigrette.

– Vinaigrette.

– Luke: A little on the side.

– Perfect.

– Oh my gosh!

– And then, extra virgin olive oil.

– Oh, gosh, yes.

– And then, oh, one more thing, before I forget.

– The secret.

– Not the secret, even though everything on our menu is secret. And we would have to kill you if we told you.

[Luke laughing]

This is the Serbian cheese.

– Can I taste it?

– Oh yeah, help yourself. It’s very creamy, very, very creamy. Aha, it’s so creamy it broke!

– It broke on me!

– It’s okay, have another piece.

– It has the flavor profile of feta, a little bit of sharpness, but the texture and consistency of cream cheese almost.

– Very creamy.

– It’s beautiful, would you ever crumble any of it— Oh, you can crumble it, you can break it however you like. And then just because it looks pretty, just some green. So parsley, a little basil, a little tarragon.

– I don’t know how I ended up coming here and I’m the one plating the beautiful food.

– It’s an interview!

– This is an interview, great, did I get a job? This is— That’s a new perspective.

– Is it, how would you do it? What would be different?

– No just, mounding it up where we traditionally kind of just lay things flat, but it’s a very different, pretty presentation.

– It’s gorgeous! Now, before I forget, I got to put some food in.

– Yeah, what are we looking at?

– So this is suckling pig, this is one of the things that is amazing, the skin gets very, very crispy, the meat’s super milky.

– You had me at milky meat!

– So this now is, I’m putting in roast duck, so it’s a half of a duck. We serve it with our homemade pickled cabbage, veg of the day, which is carrots, and then Serbian style bread-based stuffing.

– Oh, wow. So this needs to go in as well, and then the dish we’re most known for, Luke, it’s called burek, so it’s layers of paper-thin dough very, very similar to phyllo, very thin, and this is filled with the spinach and cheese, but we have either an all-beef filling or an all-cheese filling.

– What does this food represent for you?

– For me, it all represents home. It’s tied to memories, it’s tied to our grandparents, it’s tied to my parents, and so it’s tied to love, it’s tied to home, it’s tied to, sort of, like, the essence of who I am, the sense of who I am, and a confidence that I can always come here and be me and then sort of go out into the world, and sort of, conquer it.

– I’m overwhelmed; I can promise you that there aren’t a lot of restaurants out there that approach food in this manner. They literally are expressing their love to every single diner who walks in this door, and their passion for their people and their heritage and their family, it’s really, really a unique experience, and I feel really blessed to have been part of it.

[gentle accordion music]

This is enough to feed an army.

[laughing]

– Milunka: Enough to feed one Serbian family.

– Luke: Yeah,

[laughing]

now I totally feel like I’m family.

– I’ll get our Slivovitz.

– What is Slivovitz?

– Slivovitz is a plum brandy, it is the traditional drink served in the country, so the traditional toast is “Ziveli,” which is long life, so, ziveli.

– Ziveli.

– To you.

– To you.

– And another thing, Serbs, when you make a toast, you must look them in the eye. I don’t know if it’s because that’s the last time you’ll be able to focus clearly after you drink this, [laughing] but I don’t know.

– What am I in for here?

– It’s a rule and I follow it!

– All right all right, ziveli!

– Ziveli, but isn’t it lovely?

– It is, it’s gorgeous, I get a lot of that plum, it’s very clean.

– Milunka: I’ll let you do the honors, cut this, it’s just like a pie.

– I’m gonna go from the middle.

– And you hear the crispy.

– Oh, it’s gorgeous, listen to this thing!

[gentle accordion music]

– So, I would take the peppers next.

– So I have a couple of seeds on my pepper here, that must have been one of yours.

[all laughing]

– Really, after all this time we spent together?

– We’re family!

– Yeah, I see!

– Oh my gosh, that is so good!

Oh my gosh!

– It’s really good.

– Oh, it’s out of this world!

[upbeat guitar music]

– So, talk to me, what’s in the burek?

– So it’s layers of paper-thin dough, very similar to phyllo, and it’s filled with a blend of Serbian cheeses and spinach.

– When you hit the crispiness of the outside, it balances perfectly with the creaminess of the inside and it, and it tastes like a memory. And it tastes comfortable and beautiful

and it tastes like home.

– We’re grateful that our grandmother gave us the recipes, we’re thrilled that people love our food, but our greatest goal, wish, hope is that when people come here that they feel like they’re home.

In 2002, my parents were awarded a James Beard award for America’s Classic and when my dad went to get the award, we got a phone call, and it was Saturday night dinner service, and we thought somebody was pranking us. We kept hanging up the phone on him.

[laughing]

I’m being honest with you, but that award meant to my father and when he made the speech, when he accepted it, it was a very short speech, he just said that if my grandparents were alive, that they’d be really honored that— They’d be proud.

– Mm-hmm.

– Oh, my gosh.

– To be considered American.

– This is as American as it gets. This is the story of generations, coming here, finding a way to endure.

– Thank you for coming.

– This food is delicious. Oh, my gosh! And I still have bites to take.

– Many, many, many!

– And maybe one more round of Slivovitz.

[laughing]

– Oh my gosh!

– Ziveli!

– Ziveli!

– Long life.

– Ah, I’ll get you here, ziveli.

– To your good health.

– To your good health, thank you.

[upbeat acoustic music]

– Little known fact, sometimes the best food in our state can be found in church basements. St. George in Racine, Wisconsin is no exception. Today we’re gonna go downstairs and we’re going to prepare for the Serbian festival. I can literally smell it out here. Let’s go inside and check it out.

[gentle acoustic music]

– It smells great outside!

– Really?

– Yeah, it legitimately does! You must be Biljana.

– Yes, sir.

– I’m Luke, it’s nice to meet you.

– Same here.

– Thanks for having me in today.

– Oh, you’re welcome.

– I know that this is a really busy time for you, you’ve got a lot of stuff going on, so I’m here to help. Is that okay?

– That’s perfect.

– Great, you’re gonna put me to work?

– Oh, I’ll put anybody to work.

– You’ll put anybody to work?

– Anybody.

– Are you gonna be nice about it?

– I start nice.

– You start nice! I like it, what can we do first?

– First, we’re gonna do sarma.

– Okay, what is sarma, just give me a little background?

– Sarma is cabbage rolls, it’s a big job to do.

– It’s a big job?

– Biljana Mitrovic: Yes.

– Okay, great, here we go.

– Okay, let’s go.

– Luke: Can I try one?

– Biljana: Of course, take a spoon put in the middle, you can put a little bit more.

– And what’s the mixture? I see rice.

– You see rice, you see carrots, celery, garlic, onions. And you have ground pork, ground beef, ground bacon, and then you put small bacon outside for the flavor. We use lots of peppers, lots of paprikas. I use small paprikas. Some of us like more spicy stuff around here.

– Who likes the spicy stuff?

– These two girls.

[all laughing]

– These are the spice ladies?

– She can, she can taste the pepper when I put a little bit.

– Oh, really?

– So, she goes, “Oh, that’s too spicy!”

[Luke laughing]

– How many sarma will you make for the festival?

– We make 1,400.

– 1,400?

– Yes.

– How big is your congregation, how many people are in your community here?

– I think it’s 60,

[speaking Serbian]

about 60.

– Okay, how does food relate to the sense of community in the church?

– We try to keep our tradition, and it’s very hard. And we should really keep tradition for our kids, grandkids.

– Yeah.

– But it’s hard.

– Who taught you how to cook?

– My mom.

– Your mom?

– And me.

– And you?

– Actually, my mom was a chef, I hate it.

– You hated it?

– I hate it. Every time she come in the kitchen I say, “I’m too busy,” and then now, I’m a chef, so she goes “That one?” She cannot believe it!

[Luke laughing]

– It’s just a natural.

– Yeah.

– And I love cooking, I do love cooking.

– Yeah, me too. I can’t wait to try some of this sarma.

– Yeah.

– It smells amazing!

[gentle music]

– So it seems like there’s a lot to do still.

– Potatoes peeling, now we gonna do the cherry strudel, apple strudel, and the cheese strudel. Serbia we call them gibanica, it’s a cheese strudel.

– A cheese strudel.

– Yeah.

– What’s in the filling?

– In the filling is feta cheese, cottage cheese, cream cheese, eggs, club soda, oil, and a little bit of salt. You can layer, you can roll, but for our Fest, it’s best to layer.

– Sure, who just walked into the kitchen?

– That’s Neno, that’s my donuts or krofne boy. So he’s my right hand for the krofne.

– And when we were talking earlier today about having younger people be a part of these activities, does he represent part of that for you?

– Yes, yes he does, so he’s helper, second year. Second year, Neno?

– Yeah.

– Do you feel like when you’re making this food now, I imagine that you are thinking about your mother, you’re thinking about your grandmother.

– Right now, you read my mind. I have four kids and when their friends come over, they say “Your mom’s house smell like a grandma’s house.”

[laughing]

– No higher compliment can be paid than smelling…

– In unison: …like a grandma’s house. Is it a concern if there are too many cherries?

– If you put too many cherries, your pita’s gonna fall down.

– Sure.

[slow cello music]

– We spent so much time in the pastry world that we almost missed what was going on up here. These animals are being prepared for a rotisserie preparation, so we have a suckling pig, and then behind me we have a lamb.

That also has been skewered, and now they’re trussing it back together, so that the moisture stays in. I saw the cuts that you were making like under the shoulder, on the animal to get the salt in there?

– Salt inside there, salt is inside the meat.

– That’s a great idea.

– Yeah, otherwise you can’t salt it.

– Right!

[slow cello music]

These will be on the spit for 4 to 5 hours?

– Yeah.

– Yeah.

– When this is done, will you shred it all, will you like— We’ll cut all the pieces.

– Okay, yeah.

– Cut everything.

– Nice! What does this mean for the church? You are the priest, correct?

– Yeah, doesn’t look like now.

[Luke laughing]

– It means to us a lot, keep us as a community together and fundraise for our church, and we wish a lot of people to come. Everyone is welcome to see how we prepare our traditional food. We could call it “Taste of Serbia” too.

– That’s a beautiful thing, and there’s no better way, I think than through food and celebration and festivity.

– I agree.

[upbeat accordion music]

– So, navigating a festival by one’s self can oftentimes be confusing and a little cumbersome. I am fortunate enough today to have Nada Stojadinovic, right?

– Stojadinovic, you got it!

– Stojadinovic, awesome, here we go!

– Come on, let’s go.

– I mean this feels like there’s a lot of storied tradition here.

– There is, so St. George on State Street is a historical building here in Racine, and actually it’s the oldest Serbian Orthodox church in Racine, and one of several that are located in Wisconsin.

My husband’s grandfather was one of the founding members of this church, and a lot of the founding members have kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids that still are part of this parish, but this is a great array of what we have every single year here. All different kinds of Serbian cookies and hot krofne. My son Neven actually helped make these today. Everybody loves krofne.

– So today we’ll probably make about 500-600 Serbian donuts called krofne. I’m gonna get, we’re gonna get milk and water and butter going, and then add it to our dough to keep it warm.

– Biljana: How much sugar did you put?

– Like, two cups, one cup, is that good? Like we usually do.

– Okay.

– So now what we do is we sit here and wait. As you can see, the dough is mixing, and now we wait for it to come to one big ball of dough so it’s not too sticky. You got to have it a little sticky, but not too sticky. Otherwise, if it’s too sticky, they won’t like, make their shape.

[gentle jazzy music]

Hanging out in the kitchen is pretty fun actually, ’cause you get to experience the traditional way the foods are prepped. So now we’re looking for if it has a nice donut ring, and they’re puffing up very nice.

So now we’re gonna coat ’em in granulated sugar with vanilla sugar. It’s a classic combo that we do, you can also coat ’em in cinnamon sugar. I’ll probably have at least three or four. Mmm, they’re good!

– Delicious!

– They’re very light and fluffy, as you can see. A little lighter than a typical donut, like you would get at Krispy Kreme, but these are better than Krispy Kreme.

[gentle accordion music]

– Man: It’s delicious!

– I’m really excited to try some of the sarma.

– Okay, the one we made yesterday?

– Yeah, the one we made yesterday, right, or, basically, the one that you made and I came in and pretended like I was making to make me feel good about myself.

– You helped a little bit.

– Yes, exactly.

[laughing]

Did you see the eyebrow raise there? “You helped a little bit.”- You want a couple piece of?

– Does this body look like it doesn’t like a little bit of bacon every now and again?

– Yeah, once in a while.

[Luke laughing]

– Then we have cevapi, how much did you like, one or two?

– I will try two, thank you.

– Wanna try the pita?

– Yeah, the only thing that this meal is missing is a beer. Are you gonna have a beer with me?

– No, I’m gonna have a club soda.

– Oh, you’re gonna have a club soda, look at you!

– I have to finish this festival.

– I have to finish this taping, that there’s equal responsibility there.

– That’s okay, your body can handle, not mine.

[Luke laughing]

– So, you tried one of these?

– Yeah.

Yeah, that’s beef and pork?

– That’s beef, pork, and lamb.

– All three?

– Yeah.

– The magic combo.

– Yeah.

– That’s really good.

– Mm-hmm.

– One bite of a sarma, there is no presence of feeling like I’m eating a vegetable around rice and pork. It’s delicious.

I know as a chef or someone who works with food,

it’s hard to let people into your kitchen. Specifically when it’s crunch time and you have things that you know you wanna get done,

but I really appreciate being able to come in and see what you do, to see your community.

– Thank you, thank you for coming.

– Yeah, I can’t wait to come back.

– Well, come next year.

– I will!

– Okay.

– Just a little bit, don’t use too much, just go like that.

– That’s it.

– That’s it.

– I think a lot of people, if it’s spanakopita, oh, man, look at that, I’m just tearing sheets in half here, oh, look at this.

– It’s okay.

– A disaster.

– Tomorrow, you’re gonna eat this one.

– [laughing]

This one’s mine tomorrow, okay, great.

– So, I don’t see, I don’t see any other men in here.

– Oh, here we don’t let the men inside.

– You don’t let the men in?

[laughing]

– They have to be, we call them for the garbage, the lifting.

– I saw some outside doing the lawn work.

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters:- Introducing Organic Valley Ultra, milk with more protein, half the sugar, and no toxic pesticides. Let’s be honest! None of that healthy stuff really matters unless our kids will drink it.

[dramatic music]

[mom whispers, “C’mon”]

[gulping milk]

[cow moos]

– Yeah, I would drink that.

[mom gasps]

– Do you hear that?

[mom shouts joyfully]

She would drink that!

[cheering, triumphant music]

– Parents are weird.

– Announcer: More protein, half the sugar. Organic Valley Ultra.

– The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that, in Wisconsin we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering]

Just look for our badge. It’s on everything we make.

Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends only in Wisconsin since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin, and see where your beer’s made.

– Wisconsin’s great outdoors has something for everyone. Come for the adventure, stay for the memories. Go wild in Wisconsin. To build your adventure visit dnr.wi.gov.

– From production to processing, right down to our plates, there are over 15,000 employers in Wisconsin with career opportunities to fulfill your dreams and feed the world. Hungry for more? Shape your career with these companies and others at fabwisconsin.com.

– Specialty crop craft beverages use fruit grown on Wisconsin orchards and vineyards to create award-winning ciders and wines. Wisconsin’s cold climate creates characteristics and complexities that make this craft beverage unique to our state.

– Society Insurance.

Freshwater Family Farms.

1. Henry and Sons Bourbon.

Something Special from Wisconsin.

Marcus Hotels and Resorts.

Central Wisconsin Craft Collective.

91.7 W-M-S-E.

Edible Milwaukee magazine.

Also, with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

For more information about upcoming Wisconsin Foodie special events and dinners, please go to WisconsinFoodie.com.

Still hungry for more? Get connected on Facebook and Instagram, and also make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you’ll find past episodes and special segments.

[soft guitar music]