Lunch at a nice Korçan restaurant a few streets from my lodging. The food is in the style of the town Korçë located in south-eastern Albania.
Best qofte. Don't want to have to come back to Albania so I can visit Korçë for the qofte and Korça beer!
Korça sausage
Mixed pickles. Very nice.
Chewy, warm, fluffy, big pittas.
Grilled mixed vegetables. Oh wait, mostly courgette. Grrr....
Most expensive item is lamb's ribs. Except there's no meat on them. The fat and bones tasted good, though. Lamb's ribs are most common lamb thing on menu in Albania. What happens to the rest of the lamb then? I never saw other cuts.
Yoghurt sauce for the qofte and lamb's ribs
Whilst the country is changing for the worse, mainly the capital, the beer scene is changing for the better. One small step at a time but it's better than on my first trip. Then there were only domestic weak industrial beer and one private brewery in Tirana. This small supermarket hidden between apartment buildings in a residential neighbourhood carries foreign beers! I can't even find Aventinus Eisbock at home anymore!
Italian supermarket chain Conad also stocks Danish beer, but mostly Italian. All rubbish, though.
I had this before in Alsace
Kaon and Birra Tirana (both brewed in the capital) used to be common, now it's hard to find.
From Montenegro
The dark one is quite good. Chocolatey.
Finally, probably the only Albanian IPA. Nobody could tell me if there are more Albanian craft breweries besides this one.
The only non industrial brewery in the capital, or the entire country. I went there every day to drink beer on my first trip. The young brewer showed me round the tiny brewery (only a few small fermenters right inside the restaurant in photo below) and we chatted for a long time every time. He couldn't brew other styles besides "Weissbier", "dunkel", "pils" etc. The reasons? The government wouldn't allow or approve of other recipes and styles. He learnt English from an American peace corps man who stayed with the family when he was a boy. The same American later also introduced him to beer and home brewing.
Unfortunately, the brewery is either a victim of Covid or a bad business decision had been made.
Well, like the saying, everything has an end, only the sausage has 2.
I flipped through the cookery book (in English) when I exited the arrival hall and again before going through security. Don't want any more cookery books! I had 5 kilos of Iranian red pistachios in my bag and I liked that better.
Glad I got to experience the "old" and new Albania. It's a trip like no others. I got to meet with some strangers I took photos of. Never thought I would be taken with this country but turns out to be one of the most bitter-sweet, mixed with intense (emotional) memories and the kindness and hospitality of Albanians I met along the way.
So apparently I'm a "badass", because according to Albanians I not only returned to the country where they all want to leave, but also that I came in the winter. No tourist in their right mind would want to come here in the winter, they said.
