Serbia: Rakija, Guslars and the Balkan Hospitality That Will Not Let You Leave Hungry
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Rakija — fruit brandy distilled from plums, quinces, apricots, or whatever fruit is available — is the social lubricant of Serbian life. Every family with a house and a garden makes their own. The quality varies from rough to extraordinary. The first question when you visit a Serbian household is coffee or rakija. Declining both is possible but mildly socially disorienting. The home production of rakija is so central to Serbian culture that the government allows small-scale distillation for personal use in a country where similar production would be illegal elsewhere in Europe.
The gusle — a one-stringed instrument played with a bow, producing a sound somewhere between a violin and a human voice — is the instrument of the South Slavic epic tradition. Guslars — the singers who accompany themselves on the gusle — preserved and transmitted the oral epic tradition of the Balkans for centuries, with poems about the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 still performed in modified forms today. The tradition is how South Slavic peoples passed their history through periods of Ottoman rule when written records were suppressed or destroyed.
Serbian food is generous in quantity and flavour: roštilj — grilled meat, particularly ćevapi (minced meat cylinders) and pljeskavica (spiced meat patties) — is eaten at any time of day. Sarma — cabbage rolls filled with meat and rice, slow-cooked in tomato sauce — is the celebratory dish. Ajvar — roasted red pepper and aubergine spread — is made in enormous quantities every autumn when peppers come into season and stored for the year. A Serbian table is not sparse. It is physically impossible for it to be sparse.
