Jeta Është Kajmak
Have you ever eaten something that didn’t look all that impressive, but was one of the tastiest things you’ve ever had? That was the Banjalluqki I had from Bosna in Pristina. The restaurant has been operating since the 1950s serving typical Balkan fare; burek, qofte, hamburgers, and of course Banjalluqki. It’s like a diner, but with a Balkan flair and orders are shouted at the counters where the cooks work diligently. Every waiter’s face showed a certain anxiety during lunch hour. I felt like I was on the floor of Wall Street before the age of computers when we placed our order to go.
The actual dish is rather unassuming, I order a half-portion (gjysmë porcion) which is enough for one person, and it consisted of chopped raw onion, a grilled pepper, fafarona (a tiny pickled spicy pepper), two minced meat patties consisting of a blend of veal and a bit of lamb, and a soft bread lightly smeared with sheep’s butter. Writing it out seems basic, but eating it? Wow. I ate the peppers separately, but I’d take one piece of bread and wrapped the patty with it with a sprinkle of chopped onion on the patty. The only downside to this dish is that it hits you so heavily that a siesta is almost mandatory after eating it. Big mistake eating that for lunch on a workday. I needed a second coffee to offset the drowsy effects of Banjalluqki. I guess the moral of this story is if you’re having trouble sleeping – then have a Banjalluqki.
Despite only lasting a year, the war has touched everyone that lived through it. I struck up a conversation with my cab driver as we discussed some of the differences in dialect between Kosovar Albanian, Gheg Albanian, and Tosk Albanian. The conversation steered into how he used to run guns across the border from Albania into Kosovo for the KLA. He’d meet up with his Albanian counterparts in Albania and both sides sometimes needed clarification of what words meant from their respective dialects. He would load up his vehicle with guns and ammunition and make the trip back through the porous Albania-Kosovo border and he made that trip many times. Those guns came from the former Albanian communist armories that were looted in 1997 after a Ponzi scheme that thrusted Albania into anarchy. They ended up in the hands of criminal gangs and everyday people looking for protection and those same guns found a new life in a liberation war in Kosovo. I had many family members that went through that terrible time. Despite being from different countries our histories were intertwined.
I attended a conference that addressed discrimination against Ashkali, Egyptian, and Roma people. The conference was a way for groups to brainstorm different ways to lessen discrimination against those groups. It was interesting to see the diversity of the attendees, of course you had some members of the Ashkali, Egyptian, and Romani communities, but you also had freelance journalists, attorneys, psychologists, and social workers. It was interesting seeing the diversity in professions that attended, I think it’s a testament to how discrimination affects many facets of society. The Egyptian community has largely integrated into Kosovar society, but Romani and Ashkali continue to have high rates of unemployment and operate on the fringes of Kosovar society.
One thing I cannot get over is how fresh the produce tastes, I’m no scientist (just a measly law student), but many people here are proud of how the food doesn’t contain GMOs and they call it “bio” or “organic” in the United States and it’s all local. I sat in Etno Shpia, a hotel and restaurant in Graçanicë which is about twenty minutes from Pristina by car. They grow all their vegetables on-site in a greenhouse and it was one of the few places I’ve been to that served pork since it serves both Albanian and Serbian clientele. The food was quintessentially Balkan; baked beans, smoked piglet, kajmak, fresh salad, feta cheese, puffed bread with sesame seeds, and all washed down with a Coke in one of those classic glass bottles. The clientele smoking and mixture of Serbian and Albanian being spoken added to the ambiance.
Next week, I’m expected to do some traveling within Kosovo, so we’ll see what that brings me.