Top 8 Traditional Meals You Should Try When Visiting Montenegro!

Montenegro is a country full of natural and cultural diversity and this is shown in the traditional way of preparing food. Moving from region to region you will have a splendid gastronomical journey! From the Mediterranean cuisine of the coastal region to the cuisine of the flatlands around Skadar Lake to the nutritious mountain food. You will have diversity and good food all the time. We are proud to say that the ingredients are always fresh and home grown on small farms and fields of our beautiful country.
Having in mind the feedback of guests that visited Montenegro so far we made a list of most loved dishes!

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Black Risotto is made with the help of cuttlefish ink, this is where it gets its famous look!
The taste is fantastic with subtle flavors of white wine, bay, garlic and nutmeg. And it is best eaten in good company because while eating it your teeth turn a little bit black because of the ink, and then the humor starts, a meal for friends!

The famous Buzara. The key ingredient of this dish is the sauce that is made in two “colors”. Red made with red wine, onions, tomatoes, herbs and spices. While the white is more hard to do and needs a somewhat more artistic take on making food and is made mainly out of white wine, garlic and spices! The Buzara is eaten only with a mix of seafood, the best combination for the red is with shrimp, and white Buzara goes great with mussels.

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The region around Skadar Lake has the best ground for agriculture, because of this the vegetables but also the fish that lives in the region are quite nutritious!
A specialty of the Skadar lake region is carp. It can be made in several ways the most popular are:

deep fried in vegetable oil
grilled, roasted with dried fruits
preserved by smoking on the fire, then marinated in oil with garlic and herbs

The carp of this region is special because it lives in its natural habitat in clear freshwater, where it feeds on natural food sources and it is fished on the spot in the lake!

Raštan is not a very widespread and famous vegetable, though in Montenegro it is quite popular. Rastan is a slightly bitter, sturdy dark-green vegetable from the family of cabbages. And it is used to cook a traditional strong winter dish. Usually prepared with white potatoes, carrots and a spices, it is delicious stew whose extraordinary flavor comes from cooking it with smoked pork ribs or ham hocks.

The gastronomy of the mountain region of Montenegro consists mostly out of nutritious food that is prepared with lots of fat so it can give the hardworking people a good balance! Because in the past people in the northern parts didn’t have much time to eat and they could master one meal per day.

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Meat prepared “ispod sača”. A method of roasting the meat under the bell – usually clay bell. You put the meat in a large pan and cover with the bell, then you roast on embers (small wood or coal pieces that remain after the fire stops burning).

For example, in the northern part most of the food is strong, rich in nutrition and good old fat! Most famous foods from this region is “kačamak” a hearty, traditional staple from Montenegro’s mountain regions. It’s made by cooking cornmeal with potatoes and adding kajmak, a type of cream cheese, and serving it with soured milk.

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But squeezed between the sea and the mountains a special village found its place – village Njeguši! Here the famous prosciutto and cheese are waiting for you!

Same with the prosciutto the climate of Njeguši offers unique opportunities for making cheese.
The process takes up to 3 months, in this time the cheese that is rich milk fats is left in a shaded airy places to dry and this gives it an exquisite taste. The special taste and aroma comes from the wooden pot where cheese is kept, called “kaca” /katza/.In Njeguši there is a rich tradition of cheese production. Quality and experience, passed on through one generation to another made this dairy product an inevitable part of every meal in Montenegrin family!

The climate of the region where the village Njeguši is situated is splendid for making prosciutto. The process of doing is using whole pig hind legs that are placed in salt for three weeks, then they’re hung to dry for three more weeks. The final touch is four months of smoking, during which the fire has to be constantly burning and tended to, this is done in traditional smokehouses! And finally when it is ready the prosciutto can be eaten with the best cheese, homemade bread or you can get an even richer meal if you cook it with cabbage!

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