Kuzhina Shqiptare

Albania is a fascinating mix of east and west, where stunning mountain ranges meet the freshness of the Adriatic and Ionian seas. This is also reflected in Albanian cuisine. A small but in many ways rich country, it harbours flavours and stories waiting to be discovered. Occasionally, an open restaurant may reveal its innermost secrets and invite the tourist on a tour of its cuisine, as happened once in Lepenice when we couldn’t decide which dish to order. Sometimes, even the restaurant’s customers might push us to try something. At Zvërnec, a customer in a suit took an olive oil bottle from his leather bag and walked up to our table with it, gesturing at something. We nodded and the man similarly poured a fair amount of oil from his bottle onto our plates. After doing this, the man said: “Good, good” and walked back to his own table with a smile.

There are frequent discussions about Albanian cuisine on websites and social media. Many of my acquaintances have asked me what dishes to eat in Albania or what lamb cooked the Albanian way tastes like. Others, on the other hand, wonder whether it is safe to eat in Albania at all.

In October 2024, our trip to Albania was full of excitement. The train was delayed when a storm had felled a tree on the tracks and we had to take replacement buses for part of the journey. As a result, we missed the airport train in Tikkurila and had to take a taxi, which almost flew us to the airport. We barely made it to the plane. I got food poisoning, probably as a result of the mozzarella sandwich I had on the train. I scared my neighbour by fainting on the plane half an hour before Tirana. I woke up in the back of the plane a couple of minutes later surrounded by staff: one dangling my legs upwards and one asking my name and other questions to ascertain my level of consciousness. I threw up a full bag and was given a cup of sugary strong coffee to drink. It just so happened that one of my helpers was the Albanian Minister of Education and Sports. At Nënë Teresa airport in Tirana, I made up for it with a beer and then it felt like a holiday! I was safe from food poisoning and pickpockets in Albania!

For me, there are many other things that have always been more important in tourism than food culture, but there is no denying that a good meal in a pleasant and interesting setting is the best way to top off a day. Not once in Albania have I been made to feel uncomfortable, let alone ill, by food. Of course, it is worth having your vaccinations up to date, no matter where you travel outside Finland.

Travellers may encounter a language barrier in Albania, with small restaurants in particular not having their menus translated into English and shops with food labels in Albanian only. Translators translate Albanian poorly or not at all into Finnish or English, even though Albanian is one of the oldest languages in the world. In this case, you can test your luck and take a risk. Often the risk pays off and you end up with a meal that tastes very good.

In Albania, the presentation of dishes is generally not very culinary. There is edible food on the plate and that’s it. The dishes are often simple, so that the ingredients are presented in the best possible way.

You can then look elsewhere for eye-catching food, such as in restaurant settings, often with aesthetics and fascinating history. Waiters may sometimes get excited about your Finnishness and end up telling you about Albanian history, peppered with stories from their own lives. Finnishness has a very good resonance in Albania. The Albanians are very interested in Finland because you don’t meet Finns very often in Albania. They are well aware of Finland’s membership of NATO.

Contrary to today’s dietary recommendations, Albania is a paradise for carnivores, while vegetarians often have to make do with salads. Vegan products in particular are hard to find. Of course, the situation is improving month by month as demand increases. Grilled vegetables are delicious, the most common being mildly spiced courgettes, aubergines and peppers.

I’ve seen pictures of restaurants where the waiters actually shovel the meat onto the plate. The meat sticks are tasty and the sausages are meaty. I myself have sometimes, out of habit, ordered a dish with two noticeably large pork chops and nothing else. I later learned that in Albania, side dishes are usually ordered separately. For dessert, fresh fruit of the season is almost always served, often free of charge, so don’t leave the table immediately.

Hotel breakfasts are usually not what you might be used to in Finland. At the breakfast buffet, you don’t get to choose your meal from the crowded tables, but the service is much simpler. After your meal, however, you’ll find that you couldn’t have done any better.

You’ll have to make do with the light bread and the different flavoured fat you’re used to using to butter your bread. When you take an open-minded attitude and try, for example, eggs fried the country way with orange yolks, you might be surprised. You pour olive oil over the light bread and top it with good cheese and great-tasting tomato slices.

At some breakfast tables, you’ll be asked what you’d like to eat and you can even order a piece of cake for dessert. When the waiter disappears into the kitchen, you wonder where that piece of cake you ordered is. The reason for the delay is revealed when the chef brings a freshly baked, delicious cake to the table. The breakfast is topped off with delicious fruit, which certainly doesn’t taste the same as the fruit you buy in Finnish supermarkets. The juice squeezed from real oranges is also something you’ll miss. Even the smallest hotels and cafés offer a wide range of speciality coffees such as espresso, americano and cappuccino. If you want coffee, don’t order a coffee, order an americano. If you order a coffee, you will get an espresso.

The main meal of the day in Albania is dinner, which is enjoyed during a city walk, or xhiro. This is when the streets and car parks fill up with cars. People of all ages, from children to grandmas and grandpas, walk a certain route through the city and stop to sample the delicacies on the terraces and in the restaurants.

Seafood is available in almost every restaurant, as well as meat in various forms. Pork is also available, despite Albania’s dominant religion, Islam. Nor does religion affect the availability of alcoholic beverages. They can be bought anywhere and at almost any time of day. Despite this, drunks are not to be found in restaurants or on the streets. Even tourists seem to take their cue from the local drinking habits. Those used to “fast food” may be disappointed, as Albania is probably the only country in Europe that did not have a fast food market in 2024. Of course, other burgers are available and KFC restaurants offer a choice of chicken.

At the retail level, food prices have risen to almost the same level as in Finland, except for vegetables, root vegetables and fruit. In a restaurant in autumn 2024, a party of four ate for 40-60 euros, which I don’t think is a high price considering that the meal included salads, main course, drinks and dessert. The difference in prices between shops and restaurants is probably due to the low wages, which means that there are no costs for preparing the food as in Finland. I have heard that recently there has been a sharp rise in prices, especially during the high season (July and August) in popular tourist towns such as Saranda. Even then, avoiding the restaurants on the main streets can be a good way to eat cheaply.

Here are some typical dishes from Albanian cuisine to start your tasting journey. Trip by trip, it is then possible to explore Albania’s rich culinary tradition, which is partly indigenous and partly borrowed from the rest of the Balkans. Good websites on this subject include the Etichotellie site, some of which I quote here.