What you will miss from Macedonia: Tavche Gravche

With the long list of stories that I already told you for my country, I suppose you already bought a ticket to here. It is not my skillful storytelling, but sincere faith that Macedonia is a special and beautiful place to visit. Now, when you are on your way here, the "but" part of the story comes. You will have amazing times here, but...you will be haunted by memories and tastes and probably you will need to come back again and again. The list of things that I miss the most probably is a legit list to be named Highly addictive things from Macedonia.

Tavche Gravche

This is one of the top three most authentic Macedonian dishes. It is long boiled beans baked with red pepper and flour. The basis is a vegan dish. If you are vegetarian it’s well combined with white cheese, and if you are Balkan, go for a sausage or a bacon one. I assume that the author of the national emblem of Macedonia, haven't tried my mothers tavche gravche, otherwise it would be incorporated into the design, I assure you.

Since I left my parent house, even just when I went to Skopje, I was craving this dish. My attempts weren't even close to my mothers dish, so I had to find a spot that would make my cravings disappear. Fortunately, I can share some of them now with you. There is one Kafana in Skopje, called Dare Esnaf. The food you can find there is limited choices, but the Tavce Gravce is amazing! I can say that that one is closest to my mother's recipe and good enough to comfort myself while not being home.

Now being away from Macedonia, away from my mother and Dare Esnaf, made me become an excellent Gravce maker. After long and dedicated practice, I succeeded to make it good enough to make other people become addicted to it.

My mother was using the same ceramic pot for Tavce Gravce exclusively, for 20 years. She was claiming that this is the secret for the perfect Tavche Gravche, until one day she found the pot broken by her nephew. The dish is the same, delicious and irresistible, even when the pot is gone. Still, highly recommended for this recipe is to bake it on a small fire in a ceramic pot. Na zdravje!

Kafana Dare Esnaf Skopje

Petar Pop Arsov 22, Skopje 1000, North Macedonia