All about Montenegro cuisine

The farther we go on vacation from home, the more we want to learn and try everything new - these are beaches and ski slopes, local attractions and traditions, fashion and, of course, cuisine. Remember yourself: almost always tourists choose excursions to original villages and restaurants of national cuisine in order to inhale local flavors, taste food and drinks, try to understand the country and people who allowed to touch their culture. And Montenegro, fortunately, is no exception. Let's quickly get acquainted with the cuisine of this country!

Montenegro's cuisine will certainly please those for whom food is a pleasure. It will be doubly happy for those who like to eat a lot, because they are not sparing food on plates here, and the food is hearty. Many tourists take one serving for 2-3 people in restaurants and cafes. Montenegrins are meat lovers, and the farther into the mountains, the more meat and cheese. On the coast, guests will be served fish dishes, but this, unfortunately, is an expensive pleasure not only for tourists, but also for the Montenegrins themselves, because there is no commercial fishing here.

Those who prefer proper nutrition will also not remain hungry - after all it is a southern country where a large number of vegetables and fruits are grown. Of course, how can it be in a mountainous country without natural cheese and dairy products with hot tortilla or bread just from the oven.

The beauty of this kitchen lies in its variety: many dishes of the former Yugoslavia are similar to the cuisine of neighboring countries (Turkey and Albania, Italy and Austria, Hungary).And since it is a mixture of west and east, the menu in hotel restaurants and street stalls will be very diverse.

There are few industrial enterprises in the country (and they are far from tourist routes), plants try to grow without the use of chemicals. But meat is bought in Serbia, where animals grow in natural conditions. Result: it makes no sense for farmers to use genetically modified food for animals and plants, so the food is natural and very tasty.

Each community (region) has its own culinary secrets, so often in the name of dishes there are names of places: tsrmnitsko varivo, podgoritsky trout, negush steak. To taste homemade national food, go to the local tavern - konoba.

Another feature of the Montenegrin cuisine, rather associated with work in the tourism business, is the preference for simple dishes with a little fat, spices. Here they fry a little in oil (as in eastern cuisine), they stew much more, bake on coals or fry on an open fire.

Montenegrins have a dish - an aperitif meze - sliced ​​from different meats, cheeses and olives. A dish with slices of boiled eggs and pickles is placed next to it. And if the guests satisfied the first hunger, then it is time to serve the first.

Liquid hot dishes in Montenegro are loved, as in all Slavic countries. There are two varieties of the first: soup and chorba. Soup is called a transparent broth with the addition of meat, which is seasoned with noodles, vegetables, rice. Seafood soup is even lighter than meat soup. Prepare it on the coast.

Chorba is a thick, rich meat or fish soup. It is similar to the Hungarian goulash in its density. If the menu contains the following names, then know what they mean:

• Chorba od povrcha - broth with vegetables;
• chorba od kopriva - nettle soup on chicken broth or vegetarian;
• chorba - the first on chicken;
• beowja chorba - rich broth with beef and vegetables, but without potatoes;
• Chorba - fish first course, it is prepared from several types of fish, seasoned with flour for density and do not spare spicy spices.

The second is traditionally understood as a hot dish. But Montenegro is also famous for appetizers and salads. But porridge is not very popular. Nevertheless, breakfast is often offered tsitsvara - mashed potatoes, which are obtained from cornmeal and young cheese. Tsitsvara is washed down with milk or yogurt, or eaten with bite of potatoes.

The second option of a traditional breakfast is a pair: stale bread is soaked in milk with the addition of butter and young cheese. A rustic, hearty meal is eaten with yogurt.

The main dish of appetizers is prosciutto - a visiting card of Montenegro. This is an analogue of jamon, which can be bought at any store. It is the guests of the country who are brought in vacuum packaging as a gift. In the Montenegrin village of Negushi, original recipes for smoking and curing ham (pork or much less often beef) have been preserved. From the start of production to full readiness, 4-24 months pass. The longer they are kept, the more expensive it is. Cured meat must be used for meze, a separate snack or as an ingredient in other dishes.

But other meat dishes are no less popular:

• taking from mliyeku - lamb stewed in milk;

• hanger - this is a chop in which cheese is wrapped and prshut;

• mixed meso - This is an assortment of grilled meat dishes, which is usually offered in hotel restaurants;

• mukhalitsa - pork, which was first fried over an open fire, and then stewed with vegetables;

• negush steak - beef steak in which Kaimak cheese and prosciutto are wrapped;

• pashtitsada - stew in sauce mixed with dumplings or pasta;

• biscuits - skewered meat;

• splashing - a flat cutlet with a diameter of 20 cm, which is made only from meat and onions, and it is fried without breading;

• razhnichi - small or medium sized beef or pork skewers;

• sarma - very small cabbage rolls;

• chevapchichi (chevapi) - grilled sausages from a finely chopped mixture of lamb and veal;

• Montenegrin pork schnitzel - These are meat tubes with Kaimak, which are breaded with flour, egg, and then breadcrumbs, and fried;

• Sacha Lamb - one of the specialties of Montenegro, which is cooked in sachet (cast-iron pot) for 3-6 hours.

Fish and seafood are also very popular with tourists, although these are expensive dishes. But the closer to the south of the country, the greater the chance to try oysters and shrimp, squid and mussels - here the prices are much lower. You can cook your own meals from a freshly bought catch, or you can go to a fish restaurant or a street tent. In any case, it will be incredibly tasty, especially with the local Krstach white wine. The following delicacies are the most popular and famous:

• dalmatian goulash - stewed fish with tomato sauce and spices, several varieties of fish;

• Skadar carp - fish caught in Skadar Lake and baked in a pan using prune sauce with apples or quince, the sauce turns into jelly as it cooks;

• mussels with fresh crispy bread - served with white or red Buzar sauce;

• octopus, grilled baked;

• pilaf with a variety of seafood;

• przheni ligni - squid, often fried in batter;

• Ohrid fish - a dish of fish fillet, onions, grated potatoes and cream, which is prepared in pots, served with pickles;

• black risotto with cuttlefish ink;

• Yaprake - baked carp, sprinkled with a lot of cream.

Garnish served vegetables prepared in slices or in a porridge-like form: Dalmatian varivos, kachamak, liver paprika, gyros.

Sour-milk products and local cheeses are another yummy, for which it is worth coming to Montenegro.

• Kaymak - fermented baked milk resembling cottage cheese, sour cream and butter at the same time. They eat with a spoon or spread cheese on bread. In the restaurant menu you need to look for this salted product called Cream. It is added to many dishes.
• Negush cheese - Another visiting card of this place. It is prepared in the original recipe from sheep’s milk, but is often mixed with goat or cow. Cheese can be young (reminiscent of less salted feta cheese) and hard, smoked or in olive oil, with pepper or prosciutto, with herbs or berries. It can be an appetizer or an ingredient for salads, burek pies, desserts.
• Lysnaty - sweet leafy cheese, popular in the mountain Kolasin, made from cow's milk for morning and evening milking.

In Montenegro, a huge variety of dishes that taste at the end of the feast. Of course, now these goodies can be tasted not only in restaurants, but also bought to try them on the go. Sweets include:

• "Girl's evening" - roll filled with raisins, figs and walnuts;
• crofne - donuts, inside of which can be marmalade, chocolate, custard;
• the executioner - huge pancakes, in which jam is wrapped, sweet cream, hot chocolate, but the dish can be unsweetened if the filling is cottage cheese, prosciutto, cheese, ham;
• baklava - the famous oriental sweet with raisins and walnuts;
• tulumba - very sweet slices of dough by soaking them in syrup or honey.

Unsweetened, but no less tasty liver treats include:

• burek - puff pie stuffed with cheese or meat;
• gibberish - cottage cheese pie;
• strukly - cheese (cottage cheese), nuts and plums are wrapped in dough, baked in the oven or boiled in salted water.

For Montenegrins, tea is a medicine made from chamomile or peppermint, and coffee is a drink that can be drunk around the clock. Another popular drink is lemonade, but it is not mixed with sugar (it will be served separately). If you are lucky, ask the hostess for a drink from a wild pomegranate, which is not sold in stores.

Beer lovers can appreciate the dark, light or supplemented local drink Niksiczko, which has recently been exported under the NIK brand.

And, of course, it would be strange if in the country of berries and fruits wine and liquor were not made:

• quince, apples, spruce young twigs, blueberries make amazing liquors;
• "Homemade rum" - this is (for some reason) sweet homemade rum;
• “Vranats” and “Krstach” - the best varieties of wines presented in stores;
• rakia - vodka on fruits (fortress - 50 degrees).

Montenegro will delight you with an abundance of local fruits. Lovers of pineapples, bananas and coconuts are not lucky - they do not grow here. And here is an incomplete list of what is growing and selling here:

• in spring - kiwi and oranges;
• in June - strawberries, cherries and cherries;
• in July - apricots and peaches, mangoes and apples, pears and plums, melons and green figs, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, medlar;
• in August - figs and pomegranates, watermelons begin to sing;
• in the fall grapes, tangerines, kumquat, persimmon and zinzula are actively ripening.

All about the cuisine of Montenegro, see the next video.