What to Eat in North Macedonia: Typical Macedonian Food and Specialties | Page 2 of 3
Pindžur: A Macedonian Spread of Roasted Peppers, Tomatoes, and Eggplant
Pindžur is a thick Macedonian spread of roasted peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant with onion and garlic - a coarser, more tomato-forward sibling of ajvar. It's eaten as meze with bread, cheese, and grilled meat, fresh in summer and from jars of autumn zimnica the rest of the year. It originated in Macedonia, though it's kept alive in Serbia and Bosnia too.
Makalo: A Macedonian Dip of Garlic or Peppers
Makalo is a Macedonian dip you scoop bread into - and one name here covers two completely different dishes. Ohrid and Bitola make a smooth white version from crushed garlic, oil and vinegar, served with trout from the lake; Skopje's grill places serve a warm orange one made from roasted peppers with grilled meat. The name comes from the verb "to dip".
Prženi Tikvički: Balkan Fried Zucchini
The zucchini is the youngest vegetable on a Macedonian plate, and yet it gets fried as if it had always been here. Prženi tikvički are thin slices coated in flour and fried until crisp, a summer side dish or starter that all across the southern Balkans calls for something cold and garlicky. The name is a diminutive of gourd, quite literally; Bulgarians, Greeks, and Turks know the same dish by other names.
Banica: A Balkan Filled Pastry from Hand-Stretched Phyllo
Banica belongs to the Balkan family of pastries built from paper-thin sheets of dough: crumbled white cheese with egg goes between them, often leek or spinach too, at home it is layered in a tray like a savory pie, in bakeries it is coiled into a roll. In North Macedonia the home version is called zelnik, bakeries sell it by the piece as banička, and it is eaten for breakfast with sour milk or ajran.
Kroasan so Kaškaval: Croissant with Cheese from Balkan Bakeries
Kroasan so kaškaval is a croissant with yellow kaškaval cheese, the way bakeries sell it across North Macedonia and the rest of the Balkans - filled inside or piled with grated cheese on top. It arrived in Macedonian bakeries as a modern breakfast alongside traditional burek, and in it Viennese-French pastry meets Balkan cheese.
Lisnato: Puff Pastry Baked Goods
In Macedonian bakeries, lisnato is the catch-all name for anything made of puff pastry - the word simply means "leafed" and every baker picks the filling, from cheese and ham to sour cherries. Bakeries all across the Balkans and further into Europe bake the same dough.
Padobranci: Walnut Sweets With Cream Known Across the Former Yugoslavia
Padobranci are a sweet a Parisian pastry chef would fault for its cracked surface - here, that's exactly the point. Two crisp meringue-like halves made of egg whites, sugar, and ground walnuts dry slowly in a gentle oven, then get glued together with a thick layer of cream. It's not a Macedonian invention: the same treat, under the same name, is baked in Serbia and Croatia too - a homemade sweet of the whole former Yugoslavia.
Oreovki: Balkan Walnut Sweets
Oreovki, also known as orasnici, are a sweet made of nothing but walnuts, eggs, and sugar - don't go looking for flour or butter in them. Little horseshoes of ground walnut mixture are coated in crushed walnuts and slowly dried, giving them a crisp coating and a soft center. The whole former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria know them too - it's not a Macedonian invention.
Lepinja: A Balkan Yeast Bread for Kebapi
Lepinja is a round flatbread made from yeasted dough, served warm in North Macedonia alongside kebapi and other grilled meats. The name is Macedonian and Serbian, but the bread itself belongs to the whole Balkans: in Bosnia it's called somun, and in Turkey its closest relative is the festive ramazan pidesi. In kebapčilnicas it sits in stacks on the counter, and nobody orders it - it just shows up.
What to Bring Back from North Macedonia?
From North Macedonia I mainly bring back cheese: sheep's kaškaval from Trnica below Mount Korab, the hard and salty bieno sirenje, the mixed mešano sirenje, and goat cheese from around Bitola. Add to that a fiery ajvar - though that one only travels in checked luggage - and chocolate from Skopje's Evropa, whose minty Minti bars were the biggest surprise of the whole shopping trip.