Over the past years one of my favorite "surprise destinations has been Macedonia.  I traveled this country, "Land of Alexander the Great," embracing it's rugged landscape, tasty wines, and vibrant highly intelligent people. And, saw virtually no tourists. I ached for a piece of Macedonia in NYC, and last week I found it in the restaurant Balkanika. Located in Hell's Kitchen Balkanika as the name says features "Balkan cuisine," a cuisine which is similar between the seven Balkan countries, though each Balkan country takes pride in certain dishes which they relish as their own. The clincher that got me excited to seek out the restaurant was learning that the owner is from Macedonia.  

Macedonian cuisine is not especially sophisticated, but it does taste good. Take a look at the photo, the dark looking object on the right part of the plate is Macedonian Pleskavica, (ground beef stuffed with herbs and Kashkaval cheese.) The taste is flavorful with a slightly spicy and burnt grilled taste.  To the left is the infamous Shopska Salad, a salad that Macedonian's proudly claim as their invention, however, Bulgarians will dispute this.  The salad contains tomato, cucumber, feta cheese, and olives.  

Seeing the painting of Lake Ohrid at the restaurant brought back vivid memories of my visit to Macedonia. The lake with its quiet and majestic beauty separates  Albania and Macedonia, and is one of the deepest and oldest lakes in the world. There is a magical feeling here and it remains one of my favorite places.

The Macedonian owner of Balkanika was unfortunately not in the evening I went. However, I did have a good lively with the waitress Balay (on the right), a native of the Skopje the country's capital. She has been in the city for six months and told me that she enjoyed New York, but missed "the beauty of the land" in Macedonia. The young lady on the left is from Istanbul.

This dish was very good, personally recommended by Balay. A mixture of toasted walnuts, roasted red peppers, onions and lemon, with an olive on top. A unique taste sensation and interesting texture.

One of the highlights of dining at Balkanika was drinking Macedonian wine which is difficult to find in New York. The wine area in Macedonia is in the central-eastern region of the country. They are best known for their reds.  This wines name is Tgaza Jug, it is a red, medium bodied with just a touch of sweetness at the finish.

Macedonian language lesson - "Hello"  (Zdra-vo)  "Thank you"  (Bla-go-da-ram)  "Delicious" (TOH-ah BEH-sheh)

Interesting fact about Macedonia - Macedonia was the only foreign Yugoslavian territory that gained independence peacefully in 1991.

Address - 691 Ninth Avenue (47-48th Street)   (212) 974 - 0300