All In Good Taste: Savour The Flavour Of The Serbian Kitchen
Prior to my first visit to the Balkans, I was warned that I might find it difficult to spend any length of time there. Thankfully, I ignored their words – as I have a habit of doing – and jumped on a plane. That was five years ago and I have returned nearly twenty times.
Their words of caution were not related to the usual issues. They were because I do not eat meat. They believed that the Serbs’ meat-rich fare would leave me on a diet of cucumber and tomato (which wouldn’t be so bad, as Serbia has some of the best produce I have ever tasted).
While Serbian cuisine does feature meat at its heart, I have always found that Balkan menus offer plenty of non-meat options, even in the most ramshackle roadside cafes. So there was not cause for concern over any restrictions to my diet.
Serbia takes food seriously, that is for sure. I like that every housewife has their own take on traditional Serbian staples, proudly protected and handed down through the generations. Depending on the region, there are variations, too, such as adding more spice, but the essence of each dish remains intact.
The key to a tasty meal is simple: fresh food, simply cooked. Balkan shoppers can enjoy the freshest, purest, most beautifully mis-shapen veg as standard. Tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers actually have flavour, something many people have forgotten in the UK, where anyone wanting full-flavoured fruit and vegetables rather than the bland, perfectly shaped and highly polished produce that is commonplace has to seek out an all-too-rare greengrocer or costly farmers market. Of course, you could always opt for over-priced produce labelled ‘organic’ as testimony to its apparent good food credentials.
Apart from incredible vegetables, the jewel in the crown of Balkan cuisine is the wide range of fresh river fish available in restaurants right across the former Yugoslavia. Trout, carp, pike, perch… all incredibly delicious and quite a uncommon find for me. It is criminally unusual to find such river fish in restaurants or at supermarkets in Britain, where we tend to stick to their sea-bound relatives. Even the ubiquitous salmon and trout have been so over-farmed to be quite lacking in depth of flavour.
Across the Balkans, good food still tastes the way it is meant to taste. I’m happiest when I’m eating a good meal, drinking great wine. Present me with a spicy riblja čorba, a chunky šopska salad, a plate of simply grilled Adriatic squid with a garlic and parsley sauce and a glass of white and I’m sorted for the evening. Perfect.
I have even taken to preparing Serbian dishes at home. I have become a dab hand at ajvar in various styles and I make a mean stuffed pepper with pasulj prebranac. I like my riblja čorba hot but I have not quite perfected gibanica but I am working on it.
Balkan barbecues can be quite an amusing experiences. I have attended a number of these highly social gatherings and my attendance can often send even the most unflustered host into a tailspin as they stress over what to toss on the grill for a non-meat eater.
If only they realised that stuffed mushrooms, mixed vegetable kebabs or, my personal favourite, a succulent trout, work a treat on an outdoor grill. Indeed, when I have had foresight to pre-arrange for trout or squid, salivating Serbs have flocked around me for a taste.
So, while my Serb friends might sometimes look at me in pity, as I will never experience Ćevapčići, Pljeskavica, Vešalica or Mućkalica, I know that that there are plenty of tasty Serbian dishes for me to get my mouth around. Prijatno!
Marcus Agar has been commissioned by Wannabe Magazine to write a series of reports on life in Serbia. Click to read the Serbian version and an in-depth interview here.
8 / 25 / 2011 8:55 pm
Your article is spot on. I never understood why Serbian food has not caught on in the west. Everyone I know who tries it ends up loving it. Even a vegitarian such as yourself can find plenty of delicious variety. Serbian food suffers from the same problem as Serbian everything. That is poor PR. Cheers
8 / 31 / 2011 9:45 am
Thanks for your comment. It is true that Serbian food – indeed, food from across the Balkans – suffers from low awareness and understanding. One of the things I like most is when I cook Serbian food for friends and they are so surprised by the full flavour that they ask for the recipe to make themselves. Spreading the word…