Serbian Cuisine

Its hard to say which dish can be called typical Serbian. Serbian national cuisine is a basicaly a mixture of various meals from surrounding countries, only Serbs add more meat to it, and call it their own. Here are some typical Serbian specialties that can come before you in a plate when you go to a national restaurant in Belgrade.



photo by Rain Rannu

Dish Pronunciation What to expect
Pecenje /pechenye/ meat of a pig (svinjece) lamb (jagnjece) or veal (telece)
Cevapcici /Chevapchichi/ grilled pig or calf meat, cyllinder shaped and usually with kajmak or onions
Pljeskavica /plyeskavitza/ Serbian burger, usually without the bun when ordered in a restaurant
Leskovacka muckalica   mixed meat sliced in tiny cubicles and served with hot chilli peppers
Karadjordjeva snicla or Devojacki san (roughly translated as Every girl’s dream)   large cyllinder shaped chunk of meat stuffed with kajmak, cheese and ham, usually comes with mayo and french fries
Prebranac   beans Serbian way
Papazjanija /papazyanya/ mixed pig, calf and lamb meat, all sorts of vegetables, roasted for 8 hours on mild fire
Teleca glava u skembetu   veal head with entrails (sorry, but you just had to know this)
Podvarak   roasted cabbage
Jagnjeca kapama   lamb ribs with spinach
Bosanski lonac   similar to Papazjanija
Gibanica   Serbian pie (not sweet, but with cheese)
Dimljena zlatiborska vešalica   smoked steak (made in a way they do it in Zlatibor, a mountain in Serbia)
Kolenica u kiselom kupusu   Red and salty beef in sauercraut (sour cabbage leaves)
Jagnjeca crevca u saftu   it’s best that this one remains without the explanation. Be brave and order it.
Pecenje sa raznja   Roasted meat of all kinds – most often pig or lamb
Culbastija /chulbasteeya/ grilled pork or calf steak with onions
Urnebes salad   like many specialities, this one comes from south Serbia too. it has chees, kajmak, garlic, chilli pepper, salt, oil and pepper in it. Usually very hot
Ajvar   type of salad made out of paprika, not neceserilly hot
Proja   type of tasty and heavy Serbian bread
Pihtije   pig or calf meat in jelly made of pig or calf meat
Cicvara, kachamak and popara   types of porridge
Corbast pasulj   bean soup, usually with big chunks of meat
Papci na kuma   this one is a surprise.
Šumadijska tepsija   this one too.
Pohovane telece nogice   Breaded calf legs
Duvan cvarci, or simply cvarci /chvartzi/ chips made out of pig. Sounds silly, doesnt it?
Suva kolenica   dry red beef
Dimljena rebarca   smoked ribs
Krilca na zaru   chicken wings roasted directly on fire
Kajmak   salty milk cream, very tasty and very strong (ca 7000 calories in a kilo)
Urmasice   sweeeet cakes.
Vanilice   this is what you might call “grandmothers cakes”
In most bakeries they make Burek   not a typical Serbian dish (more Bosnian, Albanian, Macedonian or Turkish) but you can find great burek in Belgrade too.
Finally, take a look at this short video introduction to Serbian food and customs by Novak Djokovic, one of Serbian tennis stars.


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