The beautiful city of Ohrid, Macedonia, is known for its natural wonders, fascinating churches and delicious traditional food. One of these staple dishes is gjomleze, a traditional Macedonian dish that is an important symbol of the Ohrid cuisine. The name comes from the Turkish word for waffle, but present day gjomleze has nothing to do with waffles.
Gjomleze has only three ingredients: flour, water and salt. You might think that creating something so good using only three basic ingredients is impossible, and you will be somewhat right. The “secret” touch is actually the way you cook gjomleze. You must bake it in an extremely hot stone oven covered with charcoal, because otherwise it’s not worth the bother.
But, when you do it right, when you find the right balance of numerous layers of flaky, crispy dough and discreet burns on the top, and accompany it with a glass of cold kefir, you will find that gjomleze is something so incredibly satisfying yet so simple – and that’s exactly where its charm lies.
A tip when ordering gjomleze: always stick to the simple stuff. Don’t go for the tourist’s trap and order gjomleze filled with this or that. Enjoy it plain, the way the old wise folks intended.
