The
Balkans are a treat because of the people, and next the food: homemade, fresh, with loads of vegetables, and desserts that invite a hyperglycemic bliss. Meals are generally made to order, and would not be complete with fresh soft white cheese, dried meats (what the literati call charcuterie) like basturma (or pasturma), a thinly-sliced spicy aged beef pictured to the left; and salads full of fresh tomatoes and roasted peppers.
For those who fret over manufactured food, and in turn endlessly crow about the great slow food in places like France’s Provence, California’s Marin or Wine Country, or in Vermont’s rural inns, the folks in the Balkans have a few words for you: welcome to their daily life.
Meat is definitely part of the local culture, and while the carnivore can find their chops and filets, meat is often one ingredient, not the centerpiece. Soups and stews are laden with vegetables from okra to squash; eggplant concoctions go well with fresh spongy bread; crocks of lentils or beans are enough to ease you into a food coma. Most food is organic by default--pesticides and fertilizers are too expensive for many farmers; and meat generally is spared antibiotics. Animals roam; fruit and vegetables ripen, dairy products like Bosnia’s kajmak are tangy and earthy.
Tourists will spend a mint in food havens like the aforementioned Marin, Napa, and Provence, in part because of the promise of organic food. The truth is, however, is that their wallets have been hijacked during their few days of promised sophistication. Sadly, most of these tourists are scammed; good fresh food does not have to be expensive, prettified, or dismembered into a pretentious display. True, there is plenty of junk food in Southeastern Europe store shelves and you can still buy a quick hamburger or pizza--but even those are mostly made by hand, baked or grilled to order.
For a real lesson on what organic or slow food is about, try a kavarma or sach in Bulgaria; sample river fish in
Montenegro; warm yourself up on soups in
Bosnia; indulge in sardines or calamari in
Croatia, recharge from a hand-cut salad in
Kosovo. The folks in the Balkans know how enough about sustainability and eating naturally: after all, bullying by neighboring empires and wars often left them little choice.
An idea of what waits for you is stacked below.
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