Overview of Serbian Cuisine

Another Balkan cuisine which has been influenced by the neighbouring countries is Serbian cuisine. This cuisine is made of mixed traditions, and you could see the influence of Mediterranean, Turkish, Austrian and Hungarian cuisines. Moreover, Serbian cuisine is very strong and rich, and its meals are based mostly on meat and dairy products. Daily Serbians have three meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The largest and most important is the lunch.

Now, we will describe some of the most famous dishes in Serbia only to give you a clue how the Serbian cuisine looks like. First, we would start with cheese, which Serbians use in almost every meal. The cheese varies in taste and shape depending in which area of Serbia it is produced. It could be from soft and creamy like sremski cheese to hard like sjenica cheese, but the best cheese could be found east of the Morava River. One of the rare authentic specialties is kajmak, and the most recommended kajmak is the one from the Cacak area.

Another product without which a Serbian meal could not be imagined is bread. Also, the bread is used for religious rituals, for example a traditional Serbian welcome is to offer the guest only bread and salt. It is believed that to throw bread is sinful no matter how old the bread is. What is on a special place in Serbian cuisine is gibanica and burek. Gibanica is layered cake filled with various fillings. It could be salty or sweet, and the fillings could be made of cabbage, spinach, cherries, poppy seeds and etc, but the real Serbian gibanica is the one made of cheese and kajmak served with a glass of yoghurt. Burek is a stuffed dough layers with meat or cheese.

Furthermore barbecue is placed on the highest ladder of Serbian food. Everyone enjoys in chevapchichi (grilled minced-meat fingers) served with kajmak and a lots of chopped onion. Pljeskavica, vešalica, muckalica are other Serbian grilled meat specialties. If you could not make up your mind what kind of Serbian barbecue to choose, you can order a mixed plate of grilled meat which is a portion that has a bit of everything. Leskovacka grill is the most famous barbecue not only in Serbia, but in the whole Balkan region.

What is more in the Serbian cuisine are soups. These are frequently used before the main meal and the most common soups are the simple pottage made of beef or poultry with vegetables and noodles. Riblja corba is the soup that stands out in taste and quality. Also, sarma and prebranec are traditional meals in Serbia. Sarma is found in every Balkan country, and the way of preparation is same: minced meat rolled in pickled cabbage leafs, while prebranec is cooked white beans with onion, salt, dry paprika and oil, also it is common to put sausages, bacon or dried ribs in it.

Serbian cakes are very sweet with lots of fruit, nuts or cream. Slatko is eminent Serbian sweet specialty that represents a conserving fruit similar to jam. One of the most used beverages is rakija, a kind of a brandy. Also there are different kinds of rakija named after the name of the fruit that they are made of like: jabukovica (apple brandy), lozovaca (grape brandy), šljivovica (plum brandy) and many more. In addition to the beverages, wine and beer are also very popular drinks in Serbian cuisine.

To sum up, Serbian cuisine is another cuisine on the Balkan region and the different influences during the years of its existence makes it a very heterogeneous. It has very mouth-watering meals that certainly will make you try everything. Serbian barbecue is a must!

Overview of Serbian Cuisine