Serbia is well known for its amazing cuisine. It offers many different tastes for the ones who visit them because they want to have a magnificent culinary experience. Today we give you a list of traditional Serbian food items and dishes you must try if you visit this country.
Prepare yourself because all of them look and sound really tasty (and they truly are)!
1. Karadjordje’s steak or as the locals call it, Karađorđevašnicla
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This might be the most famous dish in the whole country. It got its name after the famous Serbian prince, ĐorđePetrović a.k.a. Karađorđe. You can order it at almost every single restaurant. It’s made out of pork or veal meat and is filled with a special kind of sour cream. It’s also breaded and then they fry it. It is really tasty and I would recommend it for anyone who loves culinary masterpieces.
2. Škembići, a.k.a. Tripe soup
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This dish is well known in Eastern Europe and it might date back to the 13th century. It’s basically a soup made out of tripe (the chopped up stomach of a cow), vegetables and various herbs and it can be served with boiled potatoes. This soup is also known as a perfect hangover remedy. Not many would try this dish because of its main ingredient (tripe), but honestly, it’s not bad at all and you should definitely try it!
3. Baked beans or as the locals call it, Prebranac
Photo credit: By Highcarbonsteel – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32062767
Baked beans is a dish everyone adores. It is prepared in a clay pot which gives this food a special and extremely good taste. It is made out of (of course) beans, lots and lots of onion and garlic, tomato puree and a whole bunch of spices. There’s no seasonal limitation on this dish, you can enjoy it throughout the year! Try this delicious masterpiece and see for yourself why everyone’s such a big fan of this dish!
4. Čvarci
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Čvarci is something not many would try because it’s basically just baked fat. Without salt, it doesn’t have a specific taste, but once you put a little bit on it and you dice up some onions or garlic with it, you will have an amazing feast. They usually prepare it for the winter season and some eat it instead of potato chips. Some say that it’s not really healthy because you’re eating just a bunch of fat, but in small portions, it can have amazing health benefits.
5. Ajvar
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Ajvar is an amazing side dish you can eat with almost everything. You can spread it on a slice of bread, you can put it on your plate next to a nice slice of meat, or just like Nutella, you can eat it with a spoon while watching your favorite TV show! It’s made out of red paprika, tomato, and eggplant. They also put some spices in it, they mix it all together and at the end, they get a nice red paste. It’s truly amazing and I would recommend it to everyone!
6. Baklava
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This amazing creation is something you will fall in love with at first bite. It’s sweet, it’s tasty and it will haunt your dreams for the rest of your life (in a good way). It is made out of filo pastry which they fill with chopped or ground nuts and lots of sugar or honey. It’s a really nice dessert but you should never eat a bunch of it because all the sweetness will make you feel a bit sick. It is really tasty but you should definitely count your slices!
7. Rakija
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Here’s something you can drink! Rakija is something typical for not only Serbia but also the whole Balkan. It’s basically a schnapps made out of different kinds of fruits like plum, pear, apricot and much more. It’s usually a really strong alcoholic beverage and if you want to stay sober, you shouldn’t have more than one or two shots. Also known as a great spirit lifter, it will make any good party even better! If you visit Serbia, make sure to try this amazing drink! Just be careful and watch your step afterward! And also, don’t drink and drive!
8. Sarma or Filled cabbage
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Sarma is a tasty dish made out of ground beef and rice which is later rolled in cabbage leaves and then it’s all cooked together. This food is served whenever people celebrate something like birthdays, weddings, but it is best known as traditional New Year’s Eve and Christmas dishes. If you ask anyone in the country about their traditional cuisine or what you should try while you’re staying there, they will definitely mention sarma because everyone loves it, it’s simply irresistible.
9. Pihtije
Photo credit: By Vl – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9043259
This phenomenon is really fascinating. This is a kind of cake made out of gelatine and different organs and parts of the pig (head, tail, tongue…). It’s salty and they eat it during winter, and just like sarma, it’s also a well-known New Year’s Eve and Christmas dish! I would say it looks funny and maybe you’ll feel something weird coiling inside you while looking at it, but trust me, once you try it, there’s no going back. You will fall in love with this phenomenal thing and you will want more!
10. Noodles with poppy seeds
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This dish is really simple, but also tasty and loved by all! You can eat this for breakfast, lunch, dinner, you can even serve it as dessert. This dish consists of noodles which were cooked and then roasted for a short time on butter. The poppy seeds need to be cooked in milk for a while and when it reaches the boiling point it’s added to the noodles. It’s really tasty and it’s also mentioned in Đorđe Balašević’s song “Al se nekad dobro jelo” (translated to “Back then we ate well”) which shows the famous singer’s love towards this amazing food.
Updated: September 14, 2017
