country Essentials · 12 foods
Serbia Essentials
A considered first route through Serbia: the foods that carry its everyday habits, celebrations, ingredients, and memory.
Explore all Serbia foods →THE
ESSENTIALS
The complete shortlist
12 foods to know.
Each selection includes the reason it belongs here—so this is a guide, not just a pile of names.
Sarajevo, Kosovo
Ćevapi
Sarajevski ćevapi
Serbian cevapi are grilled minced-meat fingers served in lepinja with chopped onion and kajmak.
Leskovac, Serbia
Leskovac Grill
Лесковачки роштиљ
The southern mixed grill — ćevapi, pljeskavica, vešalica and offal on one platter
Belgrade, Serbia
Karađorđe's Schnitzel
Карађорђева шницла
Veal rolled round kajmak and fried, invented in a Belgrade hotel kitchen in the 1950s.
Serbia
Ajvar
Ајвар
Roasted red peppers cooked down each September in yards and on balconies
Serbia
Kajmak
Кајмак
Milk skin salted in layers in a wooden tub, mild and white when young
Serbia
Gibanica
Гибаница
Filo crumpled rather than laid flat, so the cheese and egg bake into air pockets
Serbia
Serbian Bean Stew
Пасуљ
White beans cooked slowly with smoked ribs and paprika
Serbia
Komplet Lepinja
Комплет лепиња
Bread hollowed out, soaked in dripping and kajmak, then baked again under a cracked egg.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnian Sarma
Sarma
Mince and rice rolled in whole leaves of cabbage soured in a barrel
Serbia
Custard Slice
Кремпита
A tall slab of vanilla custard between two puff sheets, cut into squares and eaten cold.
Serbia
Šljivovica
Distilled from the plum orchards that make this one of the world's biggest plum growers
Lebanon
Turkish Coffee
Türk Kahvesi
Boiled with sugar in a džezva and poured grounds and all