Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables
Unlike America, the Serbian diet looks completely different from summer to winter. In the summer, there are fresh tomatoes and cucumbers with every meal (including breakfast!) and fresh fruits on the table every day. In the winter, they have canned fruits and vegetables from their gardens, and eat more beans and soups. When staying with my host family, we stopped for groceries of some kind every day on the way home.
Lots of Yogurt And I mean a LOT of yogurt. Traditional Greek yogurt with a spoon is often served with breakfast or as a snack, but there is also a liquid yogurt served with every meal. This can be high or low fat, but we bought a new bottle almost every day to serve only three people. It was unflavored but delicious! Soft cheese, homemade in the villages, is sliced and served with every meal. Serbians have strong bones.
Meat with Everything
A pork and beef combo is particularly popular in this part of the world, primarily because beef is so expensive. Chicken and fish are also served, particularly on hot days when you are looking to eat something lighter. There is no microwave in the home, so leftovers are served “lukecold.” An assortment of sausages are also sold in meat specific stores or the grocery store to be sliced and left on the table for meals or a snack. It was delicious, I couldn’t believe how much I like it.
Plazma
This cookie, similar to a graham cracker, is advertised around every corner in Belgrade and sold in every store. Fed to babies and adults alike and available in various flavors, this mediocre cookie is a cultural staple I was not expecting.
Typical Serbian Meals
Standard Breakfast
Burek with drinkable yogurt. Burek is a traditional savory pastry served at all bakeries. The dough is spread out thin, covered in cheese, meat, or both, then spun together so the flavors are wrapped in a pie with a flaky crust. This must be eaten with yogurt!
Standard Lunch
Omelette with bacon and onion, served with tomato & cucumber salad, sliced salami, sliced cheese, yogurt drink, and instant cappuccino.
Standard Dinner
Beef and pork stew, leftover chicken (lukewarm because there are no microwaves), bread, cucumber/tomato/pepper salad with salt, two types of drinking yogurt
Traditional Dinner
Homemade cornbread; fresh bread; tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden; chicken/pork/sausage and Chevapi (beef and pork mixture), spiced and grilled on charcoal; homemade cheese
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