Serbia

Ajvar is a thick, slow-cooked Balkan relish made primarily from charred and peeled red peppers, sometimes combined with roasted eggplant, traditionally prepared in autumn and preserved in jars for winter use.

A coiled hand-pulled filo pastry filled with seasoned minced beef and onion, baked in a round metal pan until the outer layers crackle and char and the inner layers absorb the filling's steam, served immediately as a breakfast or street-food staple across the Balkans.

Skinless hand-formed cylinders of finely minced beef (or beef-lamb blend) seasoned with garlic and baking soda, grilled over live charcoal, and served in somun flatbread with raw diced onion.

A light-to-medium-bodied broth soup of the Balkans built on a long-simmered bone-in chicken or lamb stock with root vegetables and rice or noodles, characteristically finished with a tempered liaison of egg yolk and sour cream or heavy cream.

A traditional Balkan dish consisting of layers of thin filo pastry filled with a mixture of white cheese, eggs, and kajmak, baked until set and golden.

A Balkan dairy product of cream skimmed from scalded milk, lightly salted and left to mature, eaten fresh and soft or aged and tangy as a spread or melting topping.

A Serbian rolled veal or pork cutlet stuffed with kajmak, breaded, and deep-fried into a large crisp roulade.

Leskovački roštilj is the Leskovac-style Serbian mixed grill of seasoned minced-meat ćevapi and patties cooked over charcoal, served as a generous assortment with bread and raw onion.

A slow-cooked Serbian white bean stew built on smoked pork, a paprika-charged onion base, and finished with a preprška — a brief flour-and-fat roux stirred in at the end — that gives the dish its characteristic thick, rust-red coating.

A large, flat grilled patty of seasoned mixed minced meat, charcoal-grilled and traditionally served in a lepinja flatbread with raw onion and condiments.

A Serbian feast-day dish of shredded sauerkraut slowly oven-braised with onions and fat beneath roasting pork, turkey or other meat until deeply caramelized and meltingly soft.

Slow-baked white beans layered with a generous amount of caramelized onion and paprika until thick, soft, and savoury.

A dense, savory baked Serbian cornmeal bread, often enriched with white brined cheese and sometimes spring onions.

Rakija is a double-distilled fruit brandy, most commonly made from plums, produced across the Balkans and served as a ceremonial digestif.

A shared platter of assorted charcoal-grilled meats — ćevapi, pljeskavica, veal or pork chops and skewers — served with raw onion, flatbread and ajvar.

Sarma is a traditional Balkan dish of fermented or fresh cabbage leaves rolled around a seasoned mixture of minced meat and rice, slow‑braised in a smoky broth until tender.

A simple Serbian salad of chopped fresh tomatoes and raw onion with chili, dressed in oil and vinegar, served as a ubiquitous side to grilled meats.

A Bosnian-Ottoman dessert of a whole apple poached in sugar syrup, hollowed and stuffed with a sweetened ground-walnut filling, served chilled in its syrup and crowned with whipped cream.

A Serbian spicy fresh-cheese condiment-spread of crumbled white cheese mashed with hot chili (and often garlic and oil), served at the grill table.

Small Serbian walnut shortbread sandwich cookies joined with fruit jam and dusted in vanilla icing sugar, a fixture of festive cookie platters.