Macedonian Food
What we could found in Macedonian? We’re talking about foods and beverages. We could see laden with sweet peppers, vine leaves and chopska, all piled high in great bowls as ad lib accompaniments to the main courses which were always in the plural. It is mostly sheep country and lamb cuts of every sort abound along with sheep’s cheese and sheep’s yogurt.
A speciality is Ohrid trout which come out of this 15-mile lake at 10 lbs and over and taste like the most delicious fresh salmon. Chatting to some locals one morning in a pub in Prilep, I was told that I must eat some sheeden for lunch. The Macedonia House Restaurant produced some within a half-hour and special it was. Made in a sheep’s stomach, whereas haggis has offal and oatmeal, sheeden has real meat – chopped lamb, pork, beef and chicken – with rice. “Puts hair on the chest” suggested Slobodan, our driver.
The Negotino wine region produces red, rose and white wines of high quality and the growers were happy to let us taste. The Fonko vineyard fortified us with copious amounts of delicious chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir. And I can confirm that rakija, the brandy made from local grapes, is, like sheeden, not for the faint-hearted.
An abiding impression of the small fledgling state is peacefulness allied with emptiness. There is little internal trouble following the break-up of Jugoslavia and tension with its neighbours Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria is reducing. Peace reigns.
This impression is reinforced by the low population density. The two million souls spread themselves over their 10,000 square miles so thinly that you can always find empty beaches, lakes with no boats, rivers without even an angler. And the mountain areas, which are all over the country, comprise miles and miles of empty, untouched, pine-scented beauty.
The country’s economic development is at an early stage, and with low wages, high unemployment, and underdeveloped tourism, the people are pleased to see visitors. It is warm in summer and snowy in winter. It is one of those places where you feel it is good to be there before the rush starts.