I grew up eating my Serbian grandmother's cooking, so I was pretty used to the cuisine when I first arrived in Serbia. She would spend hours in the kitchen, mixing and chopping and then serving us the delicious foods from her home country. The meals included everything from grilled meat sticks to cucumber-tomato salad to wheat pudding on holidays (it's sweet, I promise!). Serbian food is influenced by many cultures since the country sits at the crossroads of the Mediterranean. It shares similarities with Greek, Turkish and Mediterranean foods. Serbian food is traditional, and many dishes haven't changed much in the past thousand years. It is uniquely delicious, and I hope to inspire you to try these dishes someday!
I love trying local restaurants, and Novi Sad is full of many traditional and diverse cuisines! You can find Serbian food here, along with Thai, Italian, Chinese, French and more.
Meat, bread and dairy are essential to the traditional Serbian plate, paired with onions, tomatoes or potatoes. Cevapi are meat sticks served on top of pita bread and topped with paprika, garlic, onions and butter. My mom keeps asking me to mail her paprika, a burnt red pepper spice used on many local dishes.
