The bread in Macedonia sucks and I hate it.
For an area who has had the technology to make bread for like, 3,000 years, (citation needed), I was shocked. I can’t understand how the outside crust can be hard enough to crack a molar, but the inside of the loaf is so crumbly that when you cut into it, it falls apart instantly into a sad pile of crumbs. Emotionally, very relatable, but largely unhelpful for the majority of your basic bread needs. You’re left with a glutenous bangle, because really, what else can you do with it at that point. All I wanted is toast, but instead I got a small mountain of stale panko and what I assume it looks like when they cut the crust off an Uncrustable. And this wasn’t just one fluke of a loaf, where maybe the local baker was having a rough day. This was disappointing after disappointing hunk, across the entire country, every loaf that we tried made me weep frustrated tears of breadlessness (with the gentle exception of 2 special loaves, details later).
Other than the bread, I’ll say that Macedonian food is unremarkable. It’s okay, it’s Balkan. Just not the best Balkan.
This is coming from a devoted bean girlie: their national dish is beans, and still, I’m unimpressed. Gravce ravce is admittedly fun to say, and it’s pretty fun to eat as far as a clay dish of baked beans goes, but c’mon guys. It feels like you gave up a little. Shopska salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, the classic), kebab, byrek, it’s all pretty mid.
I will say, there’s a little shop called Kosmos in the bazaar in Skopje, that had a stellar and generous helping of kebab; it was like the cevapi I had been hoping for in Bosnia but never found. Good avjar, and a shopska salad that was so piled high with cheese, it could have been mistaken for Old Smokey. So that’s definitely worth a visit, if you’re around. They also had some of the more decent bread of the journey.
Our absolute favorite place we found, was a (wait for it), Indian-Kuwait-Macedonian fusion place, a tiny, family run hole in the wall called ‘Healthy Junk Food 888’. Please don’t dismiss them for the name, just ask them about it and they’ll be thrilled to tell you the story. Super sweet couple. Not only did they have the best bread we at in Macedonia, a 48 hour fermented focaccia, but the flavors and sauces and the HUMMUS that went with it? Saffron rice. Peri peri chicken. We went there twice in 24 hours. As anyone who lives in the Balkans who’s not FROM the Balkans knows, when you find somewhere with flavors other than lemon, parsley, and yogurt, you jump on it. It’s a unicorn. They had a sauce that was so incredibly good, and although I promised I would only use it for personal and not commercial gain, they refused to tell me the secret blend of spices. They claimed there’s over 50 different things in it, which I think is a little overkill, but I would drink the stuff, so who am I to judge.
Now, if you’re North Macedonian and engulfed in Mediterranean rage at this point, I am sorry. But please, leave me comments of where we should go next time. Prove me wrong. Macedonia as a country, I enjoyed thoroughly and I’m sure we’ll be back, but the icing on the cake would be, I don’t know… maybe icing on a cake? We didn’t try sweets while we were there, other than a gelato or two in Ohrid and a grocery store tulumba.
So that’s my foodie evaluation of Macedonia: I give it a 3/10. It’s aight, but if you want cheaper and better, go to Albania, and more expensive and way better, go to Greece.