fave five #17: HANJA
featuring edible flowers and tinned fish
this week, i’m excited to bring you a collaborative fave five from twin sisters and the culinary duo behind HANJA, anja and hana grgić. HANJA has been catering private events and doing dinners and pop-ups between zagreb (anja’s home base) and berlin (where hana lives) since the fall of 2023.
i’d been interested in their approach and style of cooking since before i first met hana last year, when we gabbed about berlin’s food scene over coffee in our shared (and much beloved) neighborhood. we talked burek/börek and pop-ups and kitchen space and substack, of which HANJA is also a part. i hope you enjoy their fave five, see you next week with a new recipe!
HANJA’s fave five
The Pitt: Growing up in the 90’s meant watching American ER medical dramas in the evenings with our mom, and developing an extremely soft spot for Dr. Carter. Now, a few decades later, without even knowing how much we needed it, Max TV gave us The Pitt and Dr. Robby. We’ve watched the whole season patiently, with streaming services serving us one episode per week. Honestly, it would be way too intense for bingeing. Despite emergency room chaos and super heavy topics, this show also provided us with a sense of comfort, trusting those doctors on a screen much more than ones in real life.
Interiors: There comes time in life when an apartment renovation takes most of your head space. Endless mood boards and Pinterest scrolling are an easier part, but once you get to the stores things get painfully overwhelming. For the dreaming part we’ve been looking at the Muller Van Severen duo for their color and material combinations, along with some mid century inspo from Yugoslavia.
Edible flowers: We’ve been thoroughly enjoying the spring produce, particularly edible flowers. This year we finally worked on a few magnolia projects—pickled magnolia flowers, magnolia flowers infused pink salt, and added magnolia flowers to at least two-three salads. Moreover, for the recent spring table in Zagreb, we’ve used plenty of edible flowers from our mom’s garden. Did you know that wild garlic flowers look so beautiful?
Cookbooks: Every year there is a huge number of cookbooks being released and we always feel very overwhelmed, and also FOMO-y, with the choice we have to make—which one to buy? So for the upcoming months we are very excited for Ixta Belfrage’s new book Fusão, and one from Jesse Jenkins aka ADIP food, Cooking with Vegetables. However, we still like to browse through some already lying on our shelves, like Diana Henry’s How To Eat a Peach (always when seasons change) and The River Cafe cookbook from 1996 by Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray.
Tinned fish: Speaking about cookbooks, another one sparked our interest, Fishwife cookbook relying solely on recipes with tinned fish. Although it’s often labelled as a recession meal, it’s actually much more than that, and we’ve lately found great comfort in tinned fish. There are many companies out there bringing amazing flavours packed in tins. Whether it is Portuguese conservas, or special French édition limitée tins, with the summer heat on the horizon, there is nothing better than a tin of sardines/tuna/mackerel, bread, chips & dips.
I want clothing inspired by Fishwife's branding! I think I'm going to do a whole Hey Eleanor post about tinned fish. It *seems* gross, but I've had nothing but good experiences with it.