The land of sun is the land of the tastes. Macedonia is the land of the gourmands and true fans of a good meal. From appetizers, main dishes, salads to desserts, Macedonian cuisine can offer numerous traditional dishes for every taste. The traditional Macedonian cuisine combines Balkan and Mediterranean characteristics, inherited largely from Turkish tastes that prevailed during long centuries of Ottoman rule, then our neighboring Greece, and to some extend Italian and Austrian cuisines, which makes it a heterogeneous.
  The traditional Macedonian cuisine is reflecting Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences and it is noted for the diversity and quality of its dairy products, wines and alcoholic beverages such as rakija. The primary food on the Macedonian menu that stews, is mixture of meat and vegetables cooked by simmering. Stews are prepared spicy, combined with roux (a thickening agent), and always eaten with bread. Other main staples are feta cheese; roasted banana peppers; and zelnik, a flat pastry with cheese, leek, or spinach filling. Supper is the most important meal of the day, often eaten less than an hour before retiring for the night. Here, every good meal starts with fresh salad. We call it “meze”, and whenever you mention meze in Macedonia, it means a perfect mix of fresh vegetable , sometimes combined with white cheese.  Also, different variations of eggplant, zucchinis, brine, cream are served… Rakija and mastika are the most popular drinks that are usually consumed with this kind of appetizer. Fiery liquid that slides so easily through the throat, all the way to the stomach, where you finally feel the flame, but also the taste and the aroma of the grape, or plum, or pear…
Macedonian cuisine is full of tasty specialties which are mixture of meat, vegetable and spices, and traditionally  they are served in pottery dishes.
    The basic food products that are used in Macedonian cuisine are: beans, milk, yogurt, cheese, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, peas, onion, apples, grapes etc. Macedonians eat also pork, beef, lamb, chicken and fish. National specialties include: kajmak, smoked ham, beef and sausage, beans, jam, jelly, main dishes as combination of meat and vegetables, sarma, corn bread, proja, dumplings, filled with chicken or goose liver, various pickled food, notably pickled cabbage -kisela zelka, ajvar.