(цебапи) Ćevapi by Luka Tomic

Starting my day early, getting up before the sun. A morning breeze fills the air. My family and I get in the car and take a familiar drive to church. Arriving to see the grill and tents being set up. Serb fest is one of the highlights of my year. Getting to express my culture and see old friends. 

Hearing the grill’s rattley old wheel screech is so unpleasant yet so pleasing, knowing that grill will make the best Serbian dish ever and feed hundreds of people fills me with joy. My father and I go to the freezer to pick up the heavy 30-pound trays of pre-rolled cevapi we made the night prior. Remembering the smell of the raw beef, pork, and lamb being mixed together and adding garlic, salt, and half a cup of finely chopped onions to a big bowl and mixing it with our hands. After tightly rolling them into little logs or as my dad would remind me “malo drvo”. This recipe has been passed down for multiple generations. When we bring them outside to our grill you can see the sun peaking over the horizon, the fog of our breath starting to fade away due to the sun finally warming us up. I grabbed the large bottle of cooking oil and splash it onto the grill. When cooking Cevapi you want the grill to be hot, so a good rule of thumb is to wait for the oil to sizzle. While My father and I wait for the stove we sing a Serbian traditional song “DJurdjevdan”

When the oil is hot and the stove is hot we throw on 2 dozen raw cevapi, constantly turning them making sure to cook fully and evenly. This cooking process takes about 15 minutes. During these 15 minutes, we talked about my dad's father who passed away. He was a very talented cook. He made cevapi for the church for almost 10 years before he passed. To keep him in memory we don't change one thing about how we cook our cevapi or prepare to make it.

After cooking about 4-5 batches of cevapi people start showing up, seeing their smiles as I hand them the warm cevapi is the best part of my day. It makes waking up at 5 am on a summer day worth it. Knowing that my grandpa still makes people smile even when gone makes me happy. Even though he might have been an ordinary person to society. To the Portland, Oregon Serbian orthodox community, my grandpa is a legend and his legend has not and will never fade away. No need to sound corny but my grandpa is almost a superhero. My grandpa was, is,  and forever will be my hero.