Montenegro

🇷🇸Serbia

Ajvar

Ајвар

Relish made from roasted peppers and eggplants, a popular condiment throughout the Balkans, traditionally prepared in autumn, versatile and savory.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Baklava

بقلاوة

Layers of paper-thin phyllo brushed with butter and filled with chopped walnuts or pistachios, baked crisp then drenched in lemon- or rose-scented sugar syrup. One square, cut diamond-small, is the shared Ottoman dessert of the whole eastern Mediterranean.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Balšića Tava

Veal cut into strips, fried, then baked under a batter of egg, kajmak and cheese until the top sets and browns.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnian Burek

Burek

The Bosnian burek, layers of thin phyllo dough spiralled around a filling of minced beef and onions, baked until golden and crisp. In Bosnia, only the meat version is called burek.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnian Sarma

Sarma

A Bosnian dish of pickled cabbage leaves stuffed with minced beef or lamb, rice, onion and paprika, slow-simmered in a flavourful broth, often with smoked meat.

🇭🇷Croatia

Brudet

Rustic seafood stew prepared with various fish along the entire Croatian coast, with every region having its own recipe.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Buckwheat Pita

Heljdopita

Buckwheat-flour pastry filled with cheese or potato, dark, crumbly and nutty, from the buckwheat-growing highlands.

🇭🇷Dalmatia, Croatia

Buzara

Buzara is an Adriatic seafood stew built on olive oil, garlic, white wine and parsley. Mussels and scampi are the familiar named forms, cooked until the shells open in the fragrant broth.

🇲🇪Durmitor, Montenegro

Cicvara

Maize flour cooked into skorup or kajmak rather than water, beaten until the fat separates and pools golden on the surface.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Cornelian Cherry Juice

Sok od drenjina

Wild cornelian cherries cooked with sugar and bottled into a sharp red cordial, diluted with water and drunk cold.

🇷🇸Serbia

Custard Slice

Кремпита

A thick slab of vanilla custard between two sheets of puff pastry, chilled and cut into squares, dusted with icing sugar.

🇭🇷Split, Croatia

Figs with Walnuts

Smokve s orasima

Coastal figs dried in the sun, split, stuffed with a walnut half and pressed into cakes with bay leaves between the layers.

🇷🇸Serbia

Gibanica

Гибаница

Layers of thin filo crumpled with a filling of young cheese, eggs and kajmak, baked until the top layers crisp and the middle stays custardy.

🇭🇷Dalmatia, Croatia

Grilled Squid

Lignje

Whole squid grilled over open fire, often served with blitva (Swiss chard) and potatoes, a Dalmatian classic.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Izljevuša

Pita izljevuša

A poured pita: thin batter rather than stretched dough, layered with cheese and baked into something between a pie and a pancake.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Japraci

Rolls of soured collard leaf around minced meat and rice, cooked long — the mountain answer to sarma, using raštan instead of cabbage.

🇷🇸Serbia

Kajmak

Кајмак

Kajmak is a thick, lightly cultured cream skimmed from warm milk, eaten fresh with bread and grilled meats. In Montenegro the same dairy tradition is called skorup.

🇲🇪Boka and the Coast, Montenegro

Kastradina

Kaštradina is salted and air-dried mutton or goat, later simmered until tender and often served with cabbage or greens. It is a preserved-meat tradition of Montenegro’s mountain and Boka households.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kačamak

Качамак

Coarse cornmeal beaten with water and salt into a thick porridge, then loaded with kajmak, young cheese or cracklings.

🇲🇪Durmitor, Montenegro

Kolašin Leaf Cheese

Kolašinski lisnati sir

Cheese made so the curd sets in stacked sheets, which peel apart like the leaves of a book — hence the name.

🇲🇪Lake Skadar, Montenegro

Kratošija

An old Montenegrin red grape, shown by DNA work to be the same variety as Primitivo and Zinfandel, and still grown around Lake Skadar.

🇲🇪Podgorica, Montenegro

Krstač

An indigenous white grape named for the cross its bunches form, making dry wines with quince and dried-herb notes.

🇷🇸Serbia

Kruskovac

Kruškovača

Kruškovača is pear rakija, distilled from ripe or wild mountain pears and rested until its floral fruit aroma rounds out. In Montenegro it is a home-cellar spirit rather than a generic fruit liqueur.

🇲🇪Lake Skadar, Montenegro

Lake Skadar Carp

Krap sa Skadarskog jezera

Carp from Lake Skadar, either grilled fresh over vine cuttings or smoked whole and then stewed with prunes and dried plums.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Lamb Cooked in Milk

Brav u mlijeku

Lamb simmered in milk with potato and a little cheese until the milk breaks into curds and the meat falls apart.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Maune

Maune are broad beans simmered until soft and thickened with cornmeal and olive oil as a Montenegrin Lenten dish.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Musaka Od Krtola

Montenegrin musaka od krtola layers sliced potatoes and seasoned minced meat under a yogurt-and-egg topping.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Nettle Chowder

Čorba od koprive

Young nettle tops boiled and puréed with potato and a roux, finished with cream or crumbled cheese.

🇲🇪Montenegro

Nikšićko Pivo

Pale lager brewed in Nikšić since 1896 and poured almost everywhere in the country; the dark Nikšićko Tamno is the one worth seeking.

🇲🇪Njeguši and Cetinje, Montenegro

Njeguši Cheese

Njeguški sir

Hard cow's or mixed-milk cheese from the same mountain village, matured in olive oil in wooden tubs so it stays soft-edged and turns yellow.

🇲🇪Njeguši and Cetinje, Montenegro

Njeguši Prosciutto

Njeguška pršuta

Pork leg salted, pressed and cold-smoked over beech in the village of Njeguši, then dried in the draught that runs between Mount Lovćen and the Bay of Kotor.

🇭🇷Croatia

Octopus Salad

Salata od hobotnice

Boiled octopus mixed with onions, garlic, parsley, olive oil, and potatoes, served chilled, a refreshing coastal appetizer.

🇲🇪Budva, Montenegro

Paštrovići Macaroni

Paštrovski makaruli

Hand-rolled hollow macaroni from the Paštrovići coast near Budva, dressed only with olive oil, hard cheese and sometimes a little honey.

🇷🇸Serbia

Pljeskavica

Pleskavica

Large ground meat patty, sometimes stuffed with cheese, grilled and served with flatbread, a beloved Balkan street food.

🇲🇪Durmitor, Montenegro

Pljevlja Cheese

Pljevaljski sir

Salty white cow's-milk cheese from the northern town of Pljevlja, matured in brine in tins until it goes crumbly, sharp and faintly sour.

🇹🇷Turkey

Pogača

Flat round loaf baked for holidays, weddings and the breaking of the Ramadan fast, sometimes brushed with butter and stacked in layers.