Albanian meze - what is it? We're currently staying at a campsite in Shkodra on Lake Shkodra in Albania, where we tried Albanian meze at the campsite's restaurant. In other words, Albanian small dishes. Good and interesting!
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At a campsite restaurant in Shkodra
We have both come down with a cold, so it's nice to just hang out at the campsite. Lake Shkodra Resortwithout doing anything special. Last night we went over to the campsite's small restaurant, which is nicely located by the water and which proved to be very popular - only when someone got up did we get a free table. The restaurant had an impressively long menu, and we decided to try the Albanian meze - eight small dishes to share.
What is Albanian meze?
Small dishes are always nice! We were served freshly baked bread, Albanian pilaf rice, grilled vegetables, pickled vegetables, Greek salad, olives, garlic yoghurt and meat. It was good and nice, but we were still not really impressed.
I missed some additional hot dish, such as burek (the classic Albanian pie) or perhaps a bean stew (also traditionally Albanian). It's still exciting that Albania is on the rise and they haven't structured their country yet, but it's coming.
We enjoy
We were most surprised that what the menu called "beef" both tasted and looked like pork. It seems like an odd choice to serve pork in a mainly Muslim country under the heading "Traditional dishes"? Anyway, we enjoyed the warm evening while looking out over Lake Shkoder and an ongoing wedding photo shoot.
Food in Albania
We have generally had good food in Albania, although the variation between different restaurants is not always great. What we think is a bit sad is that many people play it safe and serve Italian food, instead of daring to showcase their own cuisine. But maybe it's coming! If you want to read more about this, you can read a previous post we wrote about food in Albania.
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Mr Steve says:
I think it looks delicious in the picture even though I don't eat meat. The part about the pork being part of a "traditional dish" was undeniably strange.
Hope the cold goes away quickly. I myself have a stubborn variant that is now in the 4th week.
07 September 2015 - 11:12
BP says:
Looked good, but beef and pork should be kept separate, I think. But they may want to fool their Muslim compatriots that it's beef and save a bit of money as pork is probably cheaper to buy.
Unfortunate with a cold. Hope it goes away soon!
07 September 2015 - 11:26
Hanne Hellvik says:
That food looks absolutely amazing.... 🙂
07 September 2015 - 12:51
Åsa says:
Get well soon!
07 September 2015 - 13:42
Ditte says:
The food looked very good, but I agree about pork in a Muslim country. They probably knew you weren't Muslim because I can't even imagine the restaurant serving pork to Muslims...
Or maybe they were out of beef. But lamb might have been fine....
Hope you're feeling better and a little extra ginger might do the trick.
07 September 2015 - 16:29
Mr Leif Berglund says:
We tried the same dish at the same restaurant and was not so impressive either. You get pork in many places in Albania and the simple explanation is probably that religion, including Islam, was banned during the communist era and in the new Albania a little more than half consider themselves Muslims but there are large groups of atheists and Christians as well. After 1992, synagogues and churches were built again, but several generations probably lost their religion during the communist era.
07 September 2015 - 17:45
admin says:
Steve, yes it was a bit strange. Maybe it is, as Leif writes below, that many are not Muslims after all... We have been told before that pork is not so common, but it may not be true everywhere. Get well soon!
BP, haha who knows? Apart from the Muslim thing, there was beef on the menu... But maybe they don't think it's so fussy, who knows? 😉
Hanne Hellvik, it's always nice with small dishes! But we thought they could have made a little more effort 😉.
Åsa, thank you! We are working on doing nothing and recovering! 😉
Ditte, one wonders? Not a big problem, but a bit funny...
Leif, interesting that you tried the same dish right here 😉 Yes, it's probably as you say. We have been told that pork should not be so common, but it is probably different.
07 September 2015 - 18:05
Ama de casa says:
Looked very tasty! I like when small dishes are served, so you get to try a little bit of everything 🙂 .
Get well soon!
08 September 2015 - 10:14
Helga says:
Yum!
08 September 2015 - 10:59
admin says:
Ama de casa, we like that too! Although I thought they could have done this a little better, it is always good with small dishes! 🙂 And thank you, we are working on doing nothing 😉.
09 September 2015 - 7:22