Flia

Coming back from our Sunday picnic we came across this cute little road-side caravan, selling a Kosovo favourite – Flia.

The Flia Van

I don’t know how they make flia or even exactly what the ingredients are, but what it looks and tastes like is a stack of very thin crepes, all packed tightly together, and fused together with oil and a little bit of salt.

Flia - not the prettiest bakery item on the block

Most bakeries in Kosovo sell flia.  They take a big round wheel of flia and cut it into wedges like a pie then wrap it in greaseproof paper so you can take it away for your lunch.

You are supposed to pick it up with your hands and munch it down, ideally washed down with a drink of yoghurt.

I’ve had a few flias in my time so far, and my preferred way of eating flia - which I think is genius, actually – is to treat it like it IS a stack of crepes, thereby drizzling it with lemon, sprinkling it with sugar and turning it into a sweet treat, rather than a lunchtime savoury snack.  My preference, however, is probably driven by the fact that I am crazy for sugar these days, which they say means I will have a girl (we’ve decided not to find out).

We stopped at the Flia caravan in the hills and got a take-away flia, the last one of the day.  We got chatting to the owners in very broken Albanian/English.  

Flia lady in her kitchen

Turns out they had spent 5 months in Melbourne as refugees during the Kosovo war, which makes four people I’ve met here now who did the same thing.  I’m going to try and do some research on what our refugee program was for Kosovars during that time.  Australia seems like a very long way to go, considering most people just went across the border to neighbouring countries like Macedonia, where there was an enormous refugee camp.  I guess those camps must have been completely overwhelmed, however.  They say the total number of refugees during the war was 850,000, which is huge considering the population of Kosovo was only around 2 million at the time.

Romain discusses the meaning of life with the Flia people

Anyway, we’ve been invited back for coffee and flia another time.  And from what I could gather, assistance with filling out their Australian visa applications.  We’d probably work our way through 7 wheels of flia in the time it would take to get through those hideous forms.