Serbia

The Republic of Serbia

In Serbian: Република Србија, (Republika Srbija)

A country in Central and Southeastern Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans. 

Learn more about Serbia 

Culture

Cuisine

Serbian cuisine over the centuries has adopted the tastes and flavors of the Middle Eastern, Turkish, Hungarian, and Austrian foods. Roast suckling pig and lamb are still very much appreciated and served on festive occasions. Serbs are also fond of casserole dishes with or without meat; pies (consisting of meat, cheese, or fruit); all kinds of fried foods, and an assortment of cakes, cookies, and condiments that rival the displays in Vienna and Budapest.

A few representative dishes would be šarma, stuffed cabbage, made from leaves of sour cabbage, or from wine leaves, and chopped beef or veal, often in combination with chopped pork, onions, smoked meat for added flavor; Serbs especially appreciate gibanjica, or pita gibanjica, a cheese pie made with feta or cottage cheese (an American substitute for the cheese used in the homeland), or the combination of both, butter, filo pastry leaves, eggs, and milk. Čevapčići, the summer time favorite for cook-outs, are small barbecued sausage-like pieces, prepared from a combination of freshly chopped pork, lamb, veal, and beef, and served with raw onions.

Serbs like to drink wine, beer, and especially the plum brandy called šljivovica, which is the national drink, made from šljiva, or plums, the Serbian national fruit. Another word for šljivovica is rakija, which is once-distilled plum brandy; twice-distilled šljivovica is called prepečenica. Serbs drink at all kinds of celebrations: weddings, baptisms, and krsna slavas; and every raised glass is accompanied with the exclamation: Živeli, or “Live long.” It is not surprising that many Serbs found California to be the perfect place for continuing the family tradition of growing grapes to produce wine, or plums for šljivovica.

Implications for the SLPS

It is important to remember that people, regardless of their ethnicity or culture, are unique individuals who experience a varied set of experiences. These experiences may be similar to others within their culture, but they could be very different.

If you encounter a person from Serbia in your practice, remember that although they belong to the overarching “Serbian” or “Yugoslavian” culture, they are also unique individuals. Given that, the following may be helpful when working with individuals from this region of the world.

• Serbs are usually Orthodox Christians. Thus, they celebrate Christmas and Easter approximately 2-3 weeks later than the mainstream culture.

• A bilingual Bosnian/Serb/Croat may have speech and language differences in English as a result of the transfer of phonological/grammatical rules from their native language to English. These rule transfers may not indicate disorder if they are consistent with the rules outlined in the language section.

• Bosnian/Serb/Croat may consider mental illness and disability as shameful and, as a result, deny services or deny existing problems.

Original Contributor: Gosha Spiess, Winter term 2009