Please the Palate with Belgrade's Healthy Fast Food
Health & Family :
Tasty doesn't necessarily have to be unhealthy. Belgrade Insight has sneaked into to the pantries, ovens and conveyor belts - the homeland of homemade healthy & tasty Serbian cuisine.
When iconic Serbian tennis player Novak Đoković started a gluten-free diet towards the end of last year, his performances on the court immediately improved.
Inspired by this idol, Serbia started to slightly change its face as a Mecca for greasy junk food. There is some healthy stuff out there, in this small Balkan country, though it might not appear so at first glance.
In truth, the gluten-free diet is far too strict and we don't really need the energy Đoković needs to make Serbian hearts beat for him. So for us, pleasing the palate with healthy products would suffice. This is exactly what Belgrade's new face is - turning to the concept of healthy junk food. This includes traditional recipes with environmentally friendly ingredients, but absolutely no artificial preservatives.
Like mushrooms after the rain, "bio shops" are popping up everywhere, with almost 500 now on the territory of the city. The first health food shops in Belgrade, Bio Spajz (Bio Pantry), opened in 1986. This pantry played a revolutionary role in shifting Belgraders from white sugar and flour to whole grain, thus paving the way for its successors. The first, however, remains our first choice forever.
The new Sarlo Bakery applies a traditional French bread making method which takes up to 24 hours per loaf. With special flour, salt and water as the only ingredients, Sarlo bread ovens produce four sorts of the finest bread in the city. All are yeast- and additive-free, using instead the natural process of dough fermentation. Some of the best restaurants, like Dijagonala, have already figured this out and serve it with le fois gras.
Who says that take-away food must be junk? "Zdravo Zdravo" has taken the concept of healthy food in Serbia to a whole new level by combining the ‘uncombinable’: healthy and fast food. As the name "Zdravo zdravo" (Hello healthy) suggests, they really do greet you with healthy bites and low calories, chosen by a nutritionist. The old bad habit of ordering pizza or ćevapi is thus slowly slipping into oblivion. Sandwiches with salmon, homemade pumpkin butter and lettuce are arriving.
A few more vitamins never went amiss, especially when they are highly concentrated and freshly squeezed. Elixir Bar, located in the very heart of the city, extracts healthy juices from hundreds of kilos of fruit and vegetables every day, under tantalising names like Yoga, Wake up... This one will tide you over between meals.
The sweetest is always saved for last. Serbian President Boris Tadić has proved to have excellent taste when it comes to chocolate. Serbian handmade Adore pralines are his choice for gifts to guests from abroad. Okay, it's not really Brussels Marcolini, but it’s not that far off either. Fine Belgian chocolate is the basic ingredient at Adore workshops and what makes it Serbian is the addition of golden particles, chilli peppers, ginger, or maraschino liquor. However, not a single sweet contains preservatives, additives, artificial aromas or vegetable fat.
The old-fashioned and mostly forgotten Serbian greeting "Zdravo živo" (Good Health) has taken on a new lease of life.
