One of the best reasons why you should include Albania in the list of places to see at least once in your life – we also talked about it in passing on the page dedicated to the many good reasons to go to Albania on holiday – is the food. Albanian cuisine is excellent, fresh and tasty, and famous for two things: gigantic portions and byrek .
In fact, you can eat delicious typical Albanian dishes in trendy restaurants or family-run trattorias, or fantastic street foods, including byrek, to be grabbed quickly in a byrektore.
Albanian cuisine: Turkish, Greek and Italian influences
The Albanian cuisine is the result of the mixture of gastronomic genres from Turkey, Greece and Italy, which it has been able to integrate and accommodate in the best possible way, giving life to traditional recipes where there is no lack of richness and variety of flavours.
Side dishes of organic and seasonal vegetables, cold or cooked on steaming grills, tasty dairy products from the Alpine peaks, fresh fish from the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, the renowned mussels from the salt lake of Butrint and many other delicious seafood, are just some of the elements of the formidable Albanian gastronomic offer. All, of course, accompanied by wine, beer or rakì (the national drink), a special grappa made from grape distillate or plum, mulberry or blackberry.
If you add to all this that in recent years many Albanian chefs, specializing in the kitchens of the best European restaurants, have returned to their homeland with new culinary proposals, thus enriching the already varied traditional Albanian cuisine, you will understand for yourself how it is practically impossible to eat bad in Albania!
Albanian cuisine: typical dishes
The Typical Albanian dishes are distinguished by their peculiar character, strong flavors and pleasant and resistant aromas.
A prominent place is reserved for cereal-based food: bread prepared with wheat, corn or chickpeas, jufka , similar to tagliatelle, trahana , made with wheat and yogurt, spicy kulaç , the many varieties of byrek and lakror , savory pies made of puff pastry and various fillings.
But local vegetables also find an important place in Albanian cuisine and daily nutrition, transformed into many different vegetarian dishes or accompanied by fish or meat.
Along the coast there is a riot of cuisine based on fresh fish and seafood cooked in many different ways, while in the hinterland stand out recipes of lamb and kid meat, cooked on a spit or stewed, succulent veal steaks cooked on the grill and baked pork ribs.
There is also no shortage of international cuisine dishes, which can be enjoyed accompanied by selected wines, and honey and walnut desserts, which will soon become a real threat to your ability to resist in defense of your figure.
Traditional fish-based dishes of Albanian cuisine
surrounded by the waters of two seas and numerous lakes and rivers full of fish, Albania is also a country rich in fish products, transformed into excellent dishes.
Among these are the carp terrines characteristic of the Lake Skadar area , or the koran trays , the famous salmon trout from Lake Ohrid, unique in the world. Sun-dried fish seasoned generously with salt and blended with red vinegar, hot water and extra virgin olive oil is also very tasty .
But it is the entire Albanian coast (from Velipoja to Saranda ) that is full of fish restaurants, for all tastes and budgets, which serve grilled, fried foods and excellent seafood first courses; they range from the classic seafood risotto to linguine with sea dates , rare molluscs that many of you probably haven’t had the chance to taste yet, through to spaghetti with prawns and courgettes .
Typical meat-based dishes of Albanian cuisine
You should know that meat is a prominent product of Albanian cuisine: whether preserved in the form of tasty pasterma , salted and smoked meats, or tasty llukanik , typical cured meats of the peasant tradition, or cooked on the spot, on a spit, in the oven or in saç, the special covered trays placed on a slow fire fueled by embers.
Albanian recipes with lamb, pork and veal are accompanied by grilled vegetables, seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, and cheeses, which usually undergo only light processing, transforming into ricotta and tasty lightly matured white cheeses.
Traditional desserts of Albanian cuisine
Also noteworthy are the delicious typical regional desserts, the various bakllava , kadaif , tollumba , pastashuta , flija , zupa and trilece .
Bakllava and tullumba are desserts of Turkish origin, rich in syrups, sugar (or honey) and dried fruit, while flija is a traditional Albanian dessert from the northern mountains, a cake made up of many layers of very thin crepes, which is accompanied with yogurt and nuts.
Finally, our favourite: trilece , a soft sponge cake dipped in milk and sweet cream, to be served with a tasty layer of caramel (or chocolate) on top, which according to some is a dessert from Mexico, and which in recent years it managed to conquer the hearts and bellies of Albanians and many Italian tourists, to the point of becoming the most requested dessert after bakllava .
Byrek: slices of savory pies typical of Albanian cuisine
and you want to eat something on the fly, spending practically nothing, stop in any bakery, or in a byrektore, and try the fantastic byrek , slices of savory pies cooked in the oven, and stuffed with meat, vegetables or cheese.
It is the most famous food in Albania (and also in the rest of the Balkans), which is often accompanied with a fresh non-alcoholic drink, made from plain yogurt, called dhallë .
Qofte: meatballs in traditional Albanian cuisine
Also very loved by Albanians are the numerous qofteri, small bars and neighborhood pubs, which offer simple but excellent grilled meat and vegetable dishes, accompanied by tzatziki yogurt sauce and local Korça beers and Tirana beers .
Qofte are minced meat balls with spices and mint, served with onions and salad . The peculiarity of this Albanian dish lies in the fact that the meat is cooked in such a way as to remain very tender on the inside but crunchy on the outside.