Real city street food – No 1: Pljeskavica from Belgrade
What’s the dish?
In essence, a burger – but in Belgrade, we do burgers a bit differently. Here it’s called pljeskavica and a bun is not a typical bun, but a tiny round loaf of bread called lepinja. When you order your pljeskavica, you are asked for the spreads and seasonings of your choice (and most of the time there are a lot of choices). The most popular – and my favourite – is urnebes. Everybody craves it, but most of the time it’s avoided because of the garlic.
Where does it come from?
It’s rural, country-style cooking. Puritans will say that good and proper pljeskavica can be only with cabbage salad or cheese from the kajmak – a dairy product from the Balkan region made by collecting milk skin and adding salt, it’s divine. Young, old, rich, poor, hipsters … We are all the same while in the queue for pljeskavica.
What does it taste like?
It’s not sophisticated. This is a simple dish, but full of flavour and juiciness. The regular pljeskavica is made with ground beef or a mixture of beef and pork, so the ratio of the meats is very important, as well as the fat content – not every pljeskavica tastes as good as it should. Spreads and salads play an important role in the taste. My personal favourite combo is shredded cabbage, tomatoes, sour cream, urnebes and some extra pepper flakes, but the possibilities are endless. There are places where you can add Olivier salad, which is a mix of potatoes, vegetables, cooked meat and mayonnaise.
How is it served?
In many different ways. Gourmet pljeskaivica has chopped onion, garlic and hot pepper flakes mixed with meat, and sometimes cheese cubes too. And it gets even better – there’s stuffed pljeskavica with slices of cheese, ham and/or bacon in the middle.
Anything extra?
Hot pepper flakes are made with hot peppers grown mostly in Southern Serbia. Leskovac is the best known place for growing these peppers – it hosts an annual barbecue festival where you can have the best pljeskavicas in the country.
Why should someone try it?
Waiting in the queue for pljaskavica from a fast food stand is truly meeting and sharing an experience with people from Belgrade and Serbia.
What’s the bill?
Not much, normally between €2-3.
Where can you get it?
Pljeskavica is fast food and the best place to eat it is from fast food stands; there’s only room for sellers and grill masters inside. You come to the front, order the kind of pljeskavica you like, wait for a couple of minutes and then choose salads, sauces and spreads.
Can you make it at home?
Yes, definitely – but somehow, the best ones are from kiosks. There are national food restaurants called kafana, a must visit for sure, but their pljeskavica don’t quite match up.
What does this dish say about Belgrade?
No matter how difficult the times are, or how little money people have, they will eat well. My family has a saying that we don’t have any riches because we ate all our money. That is pretty common here.
Marija Petrović blogs at palachinkablog.com