Balkan cuisine

Easter breakfast is eaten in Serbia for Orthodox Easter. It is also popular in North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. A similar meal is eaten in Slovenia but with Slovenian potica instead of cake.

Balkan cuisine is a type of regional cuisine that combines characteristics of European cuisine with some of those from West Asia. It is found in the Balkan Peninsula of Southeast Europe, a region without clear boundaries but which is generally considered to at least include the modern countries of Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania and Greece and the former Yugoslavia, with the possible exception of Slovenia and northern inland regions of Croatia.[1]

Balkan cuisine can be found in Vienna as a result of post-WWII migration to that city.[2] Germany has restaurants serving Balkan cuisine, which were often called Yugoslavian restaurants until the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars.[3] There were Balkan Grills in West Germany from the 1960s, leading to the popularisation of ćevapčići in Germany, but these establishments have become rarer since the late 1980s and those that survive are often now called "Croatian" instead.[4] A restaurant selling Romani cuisine opened in Slovenia in 2014. Romani cuisine, the traditional food of the Romani people, includes dishes from traditional Balkan cuisine.[5]

  1. ^ Bradatan, Cristina E (January 2003). "Cuisine and Cultural Identity in Balkans". Anthropology of East Europe Review. 21 (1): 43–47.
  2. ^ Brook, Stephen (2012). DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Vienna. Dorling Kindersley Ltd. p. 200. ISBN 9781409384397.
  3. ^ Heinzelmann, Ursula (2008). Food Culture in Germany. ABC-CLIO. p. 124. ISBN 9780313344947.
  4. ^ Stefanov, Nenad; Radović, Srdjan (2021). Boundaries and Borders in the Post-Yugoslav Space: A European Experience. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 265–7. ISBN 9783110712766.
  5. ^ Sullivan, Meghan Collins (16 May 2014). "Introducing Roma Cuisine, The Little-Known 'Soul Food' Of Europe". NPR.