Albanian food? - Tirana, Albania
visited Jan 12, 2006
The albanians appear to have been conquered by every force that passed anywhere near them in the last 3 or 4 thousand years, which makes an interesting sort of mix. Italy is one of their closest neighbours (something I hadn't considered) so Italian coffee and food is everywhere, and quite a few people speak Italian, which helped us communicate a bit. The Albanian language (called Shqip!) sounds italian and seems closely related to the romance language group. Half the language, however, is turkish - the Ottomans were the invaders who lasted longest within the last millenium, and they definitely left their mark - in the food as well as the language. Actually, finding real albanian food is a bit hard. The cafes and fast food joints all advertise the same list of things: Byrek (Turkish Burek) Pice (Italian Pizza) Sufllaqe (Greek Souvlaki) Qofte (Turkish Kofte) and of course, the ubiquitous hamburger.