We had a cab driver in Skopje, Macedonia that drove us up to St. Panteleimon Church on the mountain outside of town and out to Lake Matka. During the drive I asked him about Macedonian food and what he liked. He told us some of his favorites dishes and I spent the next several days trying to find some of them.
For lunch that afternoon we stopped at a restaurant in old town that I could not figure out the name of because it was written in the Macedonian language. But it had several dishes I wanted to try. The first was a dish called tavce gravce (meaning "beans in a skillet") which is considered the national dish. The basic ingredients are beans, onion, oil, red dry pepper, salt and parsley and it is served in an earthenware dish, kind of a bean casserole. It was good and basic and I enjoyed it, but nothing to get too excited about.
Macedonians don't eat much pork (even the Christians), but do eat lots of beef, mutton and chicken. This restaurant had some nice raw lamb in a case in front and I wanted to try some. They cooked it up medium rare, as I requested, and it was very nice.
Another dish we had, similar to other dishes we had elsewhere in the Balkans, were slices of grilled eggplant and squash, very good, with some grilled green peppers and lined up around a mild white cheese with paprika in it. The vegetables were great and the cheese had a nice texture and very mild taste. Okay.
We also got some very heavy, thick rolls, which were fantastic. I ended up spreading some of the cheese on pieces of it which was good.
Finally, we got a pineapplish tasting soda which was strong and sweet. It reminded me of Inca Kola, the bubble gum tasting soda in Peru. Not my favorite
Very "earthy" food. It was all food that could and probably is cooked in the country. I love lamb and wish it were more of a staple in the U.S.
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