The three fish
| What it is | How it is cooked | |
|---|---|---|
| Krap | Carp | Grilled, or in a stew with prunes |
| Ukljeva | Bleak — a small silver fish | Dried, smoked, or fried whole |
| Jegulja | Eel | Grilled, or stewed |
Ukljeva is the signature. It runs in autumn, is caught in large numbers, and is then dried and smoked — which is how it was preserved for winter for centuries. It is served as a starter, salty and intense, with bread and onion.
Carp with prunes sounds unlikely and is the dish to order if you see it. Sweet dried fruit against oily freshwater fish, slow cooked. It is a genuinely old recipe and it is not on many menus.
The season
- Spring — carp spawning, fishing restricted in parts of the lake
- Summer — grilled fresh fish, eel, everything available
- Autumn — the bleak run. This is when the drying and smoking happens.
- Winter — smoked and dried fish, and the best time to buy it to take away
Where to eat it
Virpazar is the main village and has the most restaurants, on the main road between Podgorica and Bar. It is convenient and it is where the coaches stop.
The better eating is in the villages off the road:
- Rijeka Crnojevića — at the end of a river arm under the famous horseshoe bend, with restaurants on the water and a stone bridge
- Godinje — a village of interconnected stone houses and wine cellars in the Crmnica hills
- Karuč and Poseljani — small, on the shore, almost no visitors
- Murići — on the southern shore, harder to reach, with a beach and a monastery on an island offshore
What it costs
| Grilled carp, per kilogram | €15 – €25 |
| Eel, per kilogram | €30 – €50 |
| Dried ukljeva, starter portion | €6 – €10 |
| Fish soup | €5 – €8 |
| Meal for two with a carafe of wine | €35 – €55 |
Considerably cheaper than the same meal on the coast, and the fish came from the water you can see from the table.
The wine that goes with it
Crmnica is the wine region on the lake's western hills — Vranac and Krstač, grown here for centuries, in family cellars that take visitors without ceremony. A tasting with a plate of ham and cheese is €8 to €15.
The obvious day: an early boat for the pelicans, lunch at Rijeka Crnojevića, and a cellar in the hills on the way back. It costs less than a pair of sunbeds in Budva.
