What to eat Northern Macedonia? culinary specialties and gastronomy

Still relatively traditional, local agriculture offers excellent quality, seasonal fruit and vegetables, which can still be bought at the market, as supermarkets have not yet changed eating habits too much. Peppers, zucchinis, eggplants, tomatoes, squash and spring onions will all be found on the market stalls, with a flavour that is incomparable to what is too often found in French grocery stores these days. Peppers are the king of vegetables here, especially as the line between chilli and bell pepper is sometimes thin. There are vezeni piperki, a term that refers both to a rather fierce variety of chilli with finely striated skin, and to a drying method that involves making long garlands of chillies, which are hung beautifully from balconies at the end of summer. Peppers can be used fresh, dried, whole or powdered. Garlic, parsley, oregano, bay leaves, mint, paprika and pepper are the main herbs. Starchy foods are popular, with French fries often taking pride of place on most restaurant tables. Bread(leb) is also very important. Mainly wheat-based, it is also made with cornmeal. Kačamak is a cornmeal-based porridge, similar to Italian polenta. In the rice fields of Kočani, in the north-east of the country, round rice is produced and is often used to stuff vegetables or simmer with herbs.

Dairy products are widely consumed, including several varieties of thicker or thinner yoghurt, which is often drunk with a snack. Cheeses are not eaten before dessert as they are in France, but are rather used in cooking or as a garnish, and are rarely eaten on their own. There are two main types: kaškaval or yellow cheese, a mature cheese similar to cheddar, and sirenje, a white cheese similar to feta, but more or less supple or crumbly.Urda is the Macedonian version of cottage cheese. Kajmak is produced by fermenting the cream of milk, giving a very rich cheese (around 60% fat) similar to mascarpone, used to top desserts or grilled meats. Šarski sir is a semi-ripened sheep's milk cheese from the Šar mountains in the north-west of the country.

Meat is usually pork and chicken, and more rarely beef and lamb. The large Muslim Albanian minority (around a third of the population) does not traditionally eat pork, although in practice it remains a popular meat even among Muslims. There are numerous sausage specialties, with herbs, cheese, cabbage, leeks, etc. Grilled meats are an important part of any good Macedonian establishment, and you'll enjoy pork chops and other sausages grilled over a wood fire, often at the entrance to the restaurant. The lakes and rivers provide excellent fish, such as the famous Ohrid trout. In some areas with wetlands, such as the rice fields around Kočani, frog legs are often on the menu.

The day starts early in North Macedonia, and for breakfast you'll eat a pastry - usually salted - often accompanied by a liquid yoghurt. Locals may have a light snack in the late morning or at midday, but don't forget that the real lunch is often around 3pm. The same applies to dinner, which is rarely eaten before 9pm. With such flexible mealtimes, it's hardly surprising that restaurants serve practically non-stop throughout the day. You'll find everything from simple snacks selling salty snacks, kebabs, pizzas, etc., to more upscale restaurants, although THE Macedonian restaurant par excellence remains the kafana, or tavern: large dark wooden tables, rustic decor and generous portions, this is the place to go for an ideal immersion in local cuisine. While the country is gradually opening up to outside influences, you'll find exotic restaurants (Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Italian, Mexican), mainly in Skopje.

As in the rest of the Balkans, you'll find the tradition of mezzés, brought over by the Ottomans, who themselves inherited this custom from the Arabs. The local equivalent of tapas or antipasti, mezzés are simply appetizers enjoyed with a beer or a small glass of brandy. The must-try ajvar is a delicately garlicky bell pepper cream that mobilizes all the energy of families in early autumn, when these vegetables are sorted, grilled, peeled and preserved for a long time before being put into jars for the winter. Quite similar, pinjur also contains eggplant and has a thicker, chunkier texture. Luténica also contains tomatoes, eggplants, carrots, onions and a good dose of chilli. Finally, malidzano is made with eggplant and green peppers. All these vegetable creams are served with bread, cheese, olives and cold meats, such as kulen, a salami with smoked paprika.

Salads are obviously very popular, and raw vegetables (tomatoes, onions, grated carrots and cabbage, etc.) are served on the side as a matter of course. The French term "macédoine", meaning food cut into small cubes and mixed together, is said to refer to the region's ethnic diversity in the ^18th century, between Slavs, Greeks, Turks, Christians, Jews and Muslims. If you're feeling nostalgic at the thought of this appetizer, which is systematically served in any school canteen worthy of the name, order a "Russian salad"(ruska salata). In fact, this vegetable macedoine drowned in mayonnaise was invented by the Belgian-Russian chef Lucien Olivier, hence the name "salade Olivier" in some countries (USA, Russia, Germany, Romania, etc.). The ubiquitous chopska salad is said to have originated in Bulgaria, although its authorship is disputed, and is prepared with tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, sometimes peppers, sprinkled with crumbled sirenje cheese.

Many savoury pastries can be found in bakeries, including the essential burek. This filo pastry-based puff pastry is filled with fresh cheese, minced meat, spinach, leeks or a mixture of these ingredients. A little oily but delicious, burek is the perfect snack for a "little" snack. The term vrtena pita or maznik refers to a type of burek rolled in the shape of a snail. Pastrmalija is a kind of long brioche flatbread, filled with lightly brined spiced meat and beaten egg, which is browned in the oven. The best are said to come from the town of Štip. Gjomleze is an Ohrid specialty, consisting of a stack of pancakes that are baked one after the other to form a kind of salted cake that is cut into lozenges. Gevrek, a crown of bread sprinkled with sesame seeds, is a Turkish delicacy often eaten for breakfast.

Of all the tasty grilled meats to be found in the country, kebapi is a particular highlight. Here, the term kebap refers to long croquettes of spicy minced meat, rather different from the döner kebab found in France, which is better known as gyro, as in Greece. There's also pljeskavica, a kind of hearty minced steak sometimes stuffed with cheese. In winter, there are many dishes in sauce, such as selsko meso, a mixed meat stew (pork, lamb, beef) with mushrooms, herbs and wine. It is traditionally prepared in an earthenware pot. Ohrid's famous trout is simply grilled, but can also be stuffed with a mixture of spinach, cheese and egg.

The national dish, tavče gravče, is a white bean stew with onion, garlic, paprika and sometimes tomato, which is browned at the end of cooking in an oven-baked earthenware dish. In Northern Macedonia, musaka does not automatically contain eggplants, and in winter is simply prepared with potatoes, but always topped with spicy meat, of course. Another popular dish is polneti piperki, peppers stuffed with rice and meat. Another popular stuffed dish, sarma, is a roll of cabbage leaves filled with rice and meat, cooked with a little tomato coulis and served with yoghurt. Turli tava usually includes potatoes, eggplants, okra, tomatoes, peppers and sometimes meat, which are simmered for a long time in the oven in a terracotta casserole called tava. Topeno sirenje is a cassolette of melted sirenje cheese, served with toasted bread. Another comforting dish, čorba is a soup richly garnished with meat, vegetables, vermicelli and sometimes tripe. Teleshka čorba, with beef, is very popular. Tarator, a kind of yogurt-based soup with cucumber and dill, more liquid than Greek tzatziki, is very popular in summer.

As for desserts, there are both sweet treats with Ottoman accents and others more akin to what you'd eat in Vienna or Budapest. These include tulumba, a kind of churro soaked in syrup, or baklava, made with a multitude of layers of filo pastry and walnuts, topped with honey and cinnamon, not to mention loukoums, gelatinous confections made from starch and sugar, flavored with rose, lemon or pistachio. Sutlijaš is a rice pudding with cinnamon. Also worth mentioning are palačinki, popular richly filled pancakes, and tikvarnik, a moist squash cake. Mekitsi are yoghurt-based fritters topped with honey. Vanilice are icing-sugar shortbread filled with rose-hip jam. Slatko and kompot are two types of fruit preserved in syrup of varying thickness. More generally, there are a number of Western-inspired cakes and sweet pastries (choux, éclairs, mille-feuilles, croissants, etc.).

With an Ottoman presence stretching back almost five centuries, North Macedonia has a sure taste for coffee. While Turkish coffee - unfiltered - is traditionally consumed in the country, the younger generations also appreciate the lattés, espressos and cappuccinos that are increasingly found in the cafés of the big cities. Also worth mentioning is salep, a hot, frothy drink made from wild orchid tuber powder, flavoured with a hint of cinnamon. Mountain tea, made from sideritis leaves, is also popular.

When it comes to alcohol, beer(pivo) is particularly popular, especially lager, such as the emblematic Shopsko brand, produced since 1924 and accounting for almost two-thirds of the national market. Wine(vino) has also been produced in the region for several millennia. Often red, most wines come from the Tikveš region in the south of the country. Tastings and tours are available in the cellars of the Tikveš winery, founded in 1885. There are several grape varieties, including stanušina crna, vranec, traminec, alexandria and smederevka. The most emblematic Macedonian spirit, however, is rakija. This term refers to all local fruit brandies, although grapes are the most commonly used fruit, giving a "yellow" rakija(žolta) which owes its amber color to maturation in mulberry barrels. Other varieties include slivova (plum),od kajsii (apricot) and others. While the alcohol content is between 40 and 45 degrees, artisanal rajika sometimes reaches 60 degrees. Finally, mastika is a brandy flavored with mastic resin, sometimes with a hint of aniseed.