Aleksandar Švaba Petrović

“We lived in poverty and didn’t have much.”

Bački Monoštor, Serbia, 2025

The speaker is a professional chef, expert in fish meals, and has a restaurant on the banks of the Danube arms. He reminisces about his childhood and poverty, as well as traditional recipes. He explains migrations of his and other families from Croatia and Hungary, as well as later to Western Europe. Among the dishes, he mentions beans (pasulj) and fish paprikash, even sharing his recipe for the latter. He also speaks about the festivities that accompanied this food. Proudly he mentions his father, who was one of the actors in the cult movie I Even Met Happy Gypsies (Skupljači perja) by Aleksandar Petrović, by whom he got his name.

Listen to audio transcription in English

Read text transcription in English

Original language: Slovene/Romani