Macedonian Cuisine An Interesting Mix

  Macedonian cuisine is an interesting blend of flavors and ingredients, celebrating the country's long and varied history.It has tongue searing peppers, tasty kabobs and citrus spiked pastries. It's a mix of of Slavic and Turkish,  celebrating the country's resources.

I visited the St Nikola's Macedonian Orthodox Church in Totowa, New Jersey for their annual feast. I was very curious about the food, wondering if it was similar to Greek (both countries are part of the Balkans) or was it similar to Slavic. It's sort of like both and not - being unique in its' own way. There's a lot of Mediterranean influences and, thanks to five hundred years under the Ottoman empire Turkish. Middle Eastern influences are obvious  as well. Red peppers figure hugely in it and the festival  featured them.. They were roasted and pleasantly slick with oil. The taste was mild at first them the heat hit -a fire that highlighted the pepper's natural sweetness.They also had stuffed peppers, both filled with beef and rice. There was also tavche gravche or baked beans.This is not the sweet Boston version, rife with brown sugar. Garlic and hot peppers - the mouth searing  vezeni - spike up the legume's bland flavor. The Turkish influence is strongly seen in their kabobs, There were pork and chicken .I tried the chicken.The meat was flavored with vegeta, a Macedonian spice mix of turmeric, garlic powder and dehydrated carrots. I suspect they also put this on their Macedonian burgers too.

The pastries strongly showed their Ottoman heritage. There was baklava, which was not as gooey as the Greek and Palestinian versions. The phyllo dough was crisp, even though it had been drenched in a honey syrup. It was filled with a light tasting ground walnut paste.I also sampled their walnut cake which has the delicate taste of orange. They looked dense, with a packed crumb but were not as heavy as they looked. The church bakers also had a kind of jelly doughnut, popular at street fairs and in homes along with ravanija. This is a dense, eggy cake ,sometimes made with semolina and coconut , but theirs had a thick vein of chocolate going through it. Homemade tolumba  -a kind of churro, was also on sale. These are ridged tubes, made with flour, eggs, butter, and sugar and deep fried, like the Southern Italian zeppoli and soaked in sherbet, a honey  syrup. The feast also sold mastica, the kicky liqueur made from the mastic tree and rakia - Macedonian moonshine, made with all sorts of fruits, from grapes to plums to peaches.


If you're in Totowa, stop in and visit St.Nikolo's annual feast.. The food is different, both fiery and delicate, savory with spices and sweet with honey. It's definitely worth trying.


St Nikola's Macedonian Orthodox Church,
55 Wentick Street,
Totowa, NJ ( right off Rte 80  - exit is the Union Boulevard exit)