Slavko's Harbor Poultry1224 S Pacific Ave
San Pedro
310-832-8171
I watched; Once Brothers, a documentary on ESPN this week and was very moved by the show. Once Brothers is former, LA Lakers, Vlade Divac's journey to find closure to his friendship with Drazen Petrovic. I'll give readers of The New Diner, a condensed version. Divac and Petrovic grew up playing for Yugoslavia. At that time Yugoslavia, was made up for six republics, including Croatia and Serbia. But in the 90's, Yugoslavia split up, with Croatia and Solvenia being the first two republics to declare independence, but only after civil war destroyed all the republics. Divac is Serbian. Petrovic was Croatian. After the 1990 World Championships, a fan came running onto the court with a Croatian flag. Divac took a Croatian flag, saying this team represents all of Yugoslavia, not just one republic. But in Croatia, that act was seen as an act against Croatia.
Divac and Petrovic, both came to the NBA in 1989. Divac with the Lakers and Petrovic with Portland. They were each other's support group, talking many times on the phone. But after the flag incident and after the war in Yugoslavia, Petrovic, along with other Croatians; Toni Kukoc and Dino Rajda, stopped talking to Divac. Divac wanted to rebuild those friendships. While his friendships with Kukoc and Rajda were later rebuilt, Petrovic died in a car accident in 1993, his friendship with Divac, never to be rebuilt.
In Once Brothers, Divac talks to Petrovic's mother and brother, his former teammates; Toni Kukoc and Dino Rajda; talk about why they stopped talking to Divac and, at the end, Divac visits Petrovic's grave site.
This is a must see documentary. I'm sure it's already on You Tube.
So what does this have to do with food? Well, after seeing the documentary, I wanted to try some Croatian and Serbian food. I also wanted to find out what a Croatian man said in the documentary. When Divac went to Croatia to visit Petrovic's family, a man on the street said; Vlade Divac? Cetnik! I know about the Cetnik movement. But I'm wondering in what context cetnik was used. I'm sure, it wasn't used as a compliment.
I was a bit surprised to learn, that San Pedro has a big Croatian population, but it made it easy to find a Croatian restaurant.
Slavko's Harbor Poultry, was started and currently owned by Croatians. I read they have great fried chicken, so I figured I give them a try.
Fried chicken breast; $3.25 and wing; 99 cents. Since I heard Slavko's had great fried chicken, I decided to try it. I liked the fact that both pieces were cooked to order, though they normally keep a few pieces of chicken, in the warmer.
Both the breast and wing, had a nice, crispy skin, that was well seasoned. But, both were pretty dry and lacked real flavor. The breast was very dry. The wing wasn't as dry but still not as juicy as other fried chicken, I've had.
Slavko's is also known for their chicken nuggets. So I got a seven piece chicken nuggets; $4. The nuggets are breast pieces and coated with the same batter as the fried chicken. This was ok, slightly dry and they were in the warmer, not cooked to order. I would not order this again, either.
I haven't had ribs in a long time, so I decided to get the rib dinner which comes with potato nuggets and beans; $7.50. The ribs are steamed or cooked in an oven. They gave a few pieces of rib tips and not the actual rib. There was no bark or seasoning on the outside. The ribs were dry and lacked flavor. They must have been sitting in a warmer for awhile. Not a good example of ribs.
The potato nuggets were well seasoned, had the skin on, and was pretty good.
The baked beans were too sweet for my tastes. The beans were well cooked but it was just too sweet for me.
Service is pretty good.
I would not go back to Slavko's again. Everything I had was dry and really didn't taste that good.
