Introduction

Serbian cuisine is heterogeneous, because it has been influenced by Mediterranean, Turkish, Greek and Hungarian cuisines. However, the main quality of Serbian cuisine is that meat is considered the ultimate specialty of all dishes. In this country, even with fashionable vegetarian cuisine, a piece of meat is never refused, especially if it is barbecued.

Traditional Serbian lunch begins with a čorba (soup), whose task is to introduce the main dish (a tasty piece of meat). Among the most famous čorbas are beef or baby beef, even chicken and lamb, and there are čorbas made of vegetables, like tomato, potato and mushroom soup. Typical Serbian gastronomic tradition includes pasulj (beans), which is prepared in two ways: pasulj, thick čorba made of white beans with spices and meat pieces, and prebranac, a thicker version, with onion, prepared in the oven and served even cold.

Apart from excellent dishes ’in a spoon’, an appetizer can be gibanica, phyllo dough stuffed with fresh cheese, kajmak and eggs. Burek is also a dish from the Balkans, made of thin phyllo dough filled with ground meat and spices or cheese. Among hot appetizers, there are grilled mushrooms and kačkavalj cheese, which is often wrapped in eggs and flour and fried, served with tartar sauce.

As a more modest dish, proja, which comes from rural Serbia, stands out. It is a modest traditional dish, made of cornmeal and usually enriched with cheese and eggs, and only at times with meat.

Among favorite meats are the barbecued ones, such are the famous ćevapčići, which consist of ground beef or pork in the shape of a short hot dog. Next on the list are the popular ražnjići, meat on a skewer. Apart from the barbecue, Serbian culinary tradition cannot give up meat on a spit and meat cooked traditionally ispod sača, which includes cooking under a cover on which hot coals are placed. Dishes are often served with sweet onion typical for this area and a kajmak spread, tasty fresh cheese. Thanks to the influence from Austria-Hungary, we can taste Vienna steaks (cutlet) and Parisian steaks (cutlet) that are wrapped in egg and then fried without bread crumbs. The most typical in Serbian cuisine and the queen of all dishes is Karađorđeva šnicla, a feast for people who like rich and full dishes. That is a steak with cheese, bacon and kajmak, rolled in egg and fried.

Turkish rule left behind a traditional dish called sarma, which is prepared by rolling stuffing (usually ground meat or vegetables with rice and spices) in a vegetable leaf (usually cabbage, cooked in vinegar). Very similar to sarma is stuffed pepper that consists of meat, rice, spices and sometimes tomato and eggs as well.

There are different kinds of smoked hams, sausages and salami.
The best way to taste fish is to visit one of many restaurants in floating houses docked on the Danube. There, the specialty is fish soup, with lots of spicy paprika. All kinds of fish, apart from trout, are offered, such are carp, perch, catfish, pike, caviar and praised Danube sturgeon.
Smoked carp of strong taste is also a specialty.

Even with the tradition of meat, vegetables are not neglected, because that is actually an inevitable side dish. As side dishes, restaurants usually offer mixed salad of seasonal vegetables, but šopska salata is also typical, where grated feta cheese is added to tomato, cucumber and raw onion. A very tasty side dish is ajvar, made of sweet peppers and spicy ones that are chopped and cooked, and sometimes onion, eggplant and tomato are added as well. In that case it is called pinđur.

Serbia is a region of the Balkans with widest variety of dairy products. Apart from tasty kajmak made of cream, there is fresh cheese of delicate and light sourish taste. In Vojvodina, the famous cheese is from Irig, made of compact content of delicate taste that leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste. Trapist is a type of cheese that does not take too long to be made, slightly smoked, but of strong taste.

Among the sweets with strong Middle Eastern mark, the most typical are extremely sweet baklava, made of thin phyllo dough sheets connected with melted butter, honey, ground nuts or fruit and poppy seeds. Very famous are fruit strudels and sweet crepes (filled with chocolate, nuts, fruit) or savory crepes, mostly with cheese, but meat and vegetables as well. In Vojvodina, there are very rich cakes, which are a delight for the palate, but also a calorie bomb for the body. On the whole territory there is an abundance of fruit, so we can enjoy exceptionally good marmalades and candied friut, but also strong spirits, like rakija, which is the primary product of Serbia. Rakija is a fermented fruit distillate. The most famous is šljivovica, made of plums (šljiva), and is present throughout the Balkans, as well as rakija made of apples, pears, apricots and peaches. The one made from honey is becoming more popular, as well as pelinkovac made according to the old recipe, a digestive of mostly bitter taste, produced by adding numerous aromatic herbs.

Of course, all the dishes listed here are only a small part, and it is even better if they are tasted in the folkloristic surroundings of ‘čarda’ or ‘salaš’, where the culture of the people is preserved. Due to all this, ‘Novo Levante’ agency has prepared a series of programs that enable you to discover the best places and best tastes...

Let’s discover them together.

Cheers and enjoy!