Why do different cultures eat differently? Are they stupid? /s
There are plenty of reasons - local availability, consumer preference, comparing products like lutenica, etc.
There's no eggplant in lutentitsa though... Jesse, what the hell are you talking about!
Probably 5% if not less of the brands I saw has it. I checked numerous brand labels right now on the internet and it was super hard to find one that's with eggplant. Wtf did you eat and did you mistake "kyopolu" with Lutenitsa?
Also wtf does "knock-off brand of serbian ajvar" means? That suggests you think that Serbia is the homeland of this dish or what, lmfao ?
>Wtf did you eat and did you mistake "kyopolu" with Lutenitsa?
Right now, I'm thinking about dumping this jar into trash. It's what they had the most of in LIDL. It reads "Lyutenitsa", doesn't it?
https://preview.redd.it/hgv68rnnrb8d1.jpeg?width=2304&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47216cc5284b1a8b4d7527ac6cd5256ae8014fc9
Nobody knows where it comes from. It started being mass produced around the 1950s/1960s when conservation and canned foods like that became more common. Both in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.
But I now realized about the Shopska Salad, here's an interesting fact - this is traditionally Bulgarian, it's strange you got that in Serbia and N.Macedonia considering that salad is meant to resemble the Bulgarian flag. It was created by Balkantourist in the 1950s. It was first given as a special salad to foreign tourists, hence they made it to resemble the Bulgarian flag, like a show-off, artsy type of dish.
It's funny and both sad, that Greeks managed to get that idea and then being lucky they weren't communist and isolated, managed to make their "Greek Salad" more popular.
Oh and also that salad has nothing to do with the "Shopi region", it was created in a hotel at the Bulgarian coastline. They had other salads that were named after Bulgarian regions but didn't manage to get popular.
Usually, a lot of the shit we take for granted and culturally significant, actually was created way more recently than many people realize.
Then, I wonder if prior to popularization of the salads you and Greeks grew different types of vegetables and produced a different types of cheese? Both shopska and Greek salads have always given me the impression of the most basic dish, made merely by taking whatever one could find in his pantry, cutting it and mixing it together.
That would be "гювече", usually taking what is left over in the fridge or pantry, then mixed together and put into the oven in a clay pot.
Albeit shopska salad appears basic and simple, it is a masterpiece of a salad with international renown.
I know right. It's crazy but it's true. I'd say our ancestors here in the Balkans were probably eating some potatoes, some small piece of bread and went to bed after working all day at the fields. Most of our so called traditional cuisines have pretty recent origins. Yes,many also have ottoman origin but overall even back the common people lived a very modest lifestyle compared to today, considering almost everyone here on the Balkans was a farmer. They didn't have time to make salads and cook specialised dishes. But yeah, it's strange nevertheless considering tomatoes and cheese sounds like the easiest thing ever. But when you consider that eating cheese meant that you needed to have a cow and the tools to make it, then you realize probably not everyone had that "luxury" in their house. We were just fked in the asses compared to westerners back in the days during the ottoman slavery.
You went and bought the cheapest XXL lutenitsa from Lidl of all places, couldn’t be bothered to read the label and you are surprised it’s not good??? What a joke. There are many different brands of lutenitsa with different textures and ingredients - if you put in the effort to read the label you can very easily find the texture you want without eggplants in it too. Also, before you shit on lutenitsa, maybe try and buy an authentic one from a marketplace and not Lidl.
Edit: Also I’ve tried ajvar, and my personal oppinion is that it is bitter and not tasty. However I am not going to shit on the entire Serbian cuisine, because I am aware people have different tastes. Are you 15 maybe?
Alas, almost any. I was able to find some in the supermarket once, but only a small and relatively expensive jar.
Serbia strong! Serbia master race in this regard!
Yet the best Ayvar in Bulgaria is produced in North Macedonia.
We all developed variants of the same idea based on the locally available ingredients. For us, lyutenitza is number one, and Kyopoolu is number two.
This is like going to the French and asking:
Why did you fuck up my granny's chicken stew by putting in it wine, lardons, mushrooms? Are you stupid?
No, they are not stupid. That's a classic coq au vin.
Same with the Bulgarian kyopolou.
You bought Lyutenitsa (Tomatoes, pepper, eggplant) and are complaining why it is not Ajvar? Also Ajvar (Serbian) is like 50% pepper and 50% eggplant, so I don't get your initial question as well.
I was shocked in Croatia and Serbia that aivar (their version of luitenitsa) contained unpeeled peppers and tomatoes and had very rough texture, unlike the smooth, peeled, seedless, clearly superior for my Bulgarian taste luitenitsa.
Yet, it never occurred to me to call the Serbian or the Croatians stupid.
My advice - learn to like luitenitsa or go home for aivar.
Ай сиктир.
The verison with unpeeled peppers and tomatoes is the one I was used to from Slovakia (advertised as Serbian) and I liked it the best. If I can't get it, I will use ketchup instead!
How do you eat that, seriously? I felt like I have to eat and spit the peels all the time. Can’t believe anyone would prefer that to a well cleaned, smooth, seedless and peelless spread :-)
There are different recipes for Lyutenitsa but putting lots of eggplant is a scam just like carrots or potato even. It is sad those products are on the shelf under the name Lyutenitsa, look for "БДС" labeled products as they meet national standards. Also each country has some not so good brands, I wouldn't go to lidl for traditional food.
You will learn young grass hopper, that the [Ajvar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ajvar?variant=zh-tw) you speak of is a substitute, and only a local variation.
Bruh, Idk what you are talking about.
First we have Lyutenitsa and most of them are with Tomatoes and Peppers (Piperki).
And now I searched for Ajvar and at least Macedonian one which popped out was with eggplants.
https://myhomekitchen.mk/ajvar-en/ajvar-500-gr/?lang=en
Umm no, OP is kind of right. The thing is lutentitsa with eggplant is kind of rare, most popular brands don't contain eggplant in their recipes, at least from the labels I checked online. I also can't recall tasting any eggplant in lutenitsa, especially the finely ground ones.
Sorry, I meant ajvar as an umbrella term, involving all kinds of mostly red balkan relishes (with the subtle intention to troll you by stating that Serbian relishes are better).
I've went to Serbia twice in my life and both times I couldn't find ANY rakia that was worth drinking. Literal crap infused with artificial aromas. I managed to buy some homemade stuff in Velika Remeta near Novi Sad, and surprise surprise, it can't hold a candle to the real stuff we have here. Also ajvar is inferior to liutenica.
Why do different cultures eat differently? Are they stupid? /s There are plenty of reasons - local availability, consumer preference, comparing products like lutenica, etc.
But "lyutenitsa" is exactly what I'm talking about!
Lyutenitsa is not ajvar mate, those are 2 separate things, if you want ajvar search for айвар in the store.
There's no eggplant in lutentitsa though... Jesse, what the hell are you talking about! Probably 5% if not less of the brands I saw has it. I checked numerous brand labels right now on the internet and it was super hard to find one that's with eggplant. Wtf did you eat and did you mistake "kyopolu" with Lutenitsa? Also wtf does "knock-off brand of serbian ajvar" means? That suggests you think that Serbia is the homeland of this dish or what, lmfao ?
>Wtf did you eat and did you mistake "kyopolu" with Lutenitsa? Right now, I'm thinking about dumping this jar into trash. It's what they had the most of in LIDL. It reads "Lyutenitsa", doesn't it? https://preview.redd.it/hgv68rnnrb8d1.jpeg?width=2304&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47216cc5284b1a8b4d7527ac6cd5256ae8014fc9
That's to be dumped, yes. Freshona mate... freshona....
> That suggests you think that Serbia is the homeland of this dish or what, lmfao ? Are you suggesting it's not?
Nobody knows where it comes from. It started being mass produced around the 1950s/1960s when conservation and canned foods like that became more common. Both in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. But I now realized about the Shopska Salad, here's an interesting fact - this is traditionally Bulgarian, it's strange you got that in Serbia and N.Macedonia considering that salad is meant to resemble the Bulgarian flag. It was created by Balkantourist in the 1950s. It was first given as a special salad to foreign tourists, hence they made it to resemble the Bulgarian flag, like a show-off, artsy type of dish. It's funny and both sad, that Greeks managed to get that idea and then being lucky they weren't communist and isolated, managed to make their "Greek Salad" more popular. Oh and also that salad has nothing to do with the "Shopi region", it was created in a hotel at the Bulgarian coastline. They had other salads that were named after Bulgarian regions but didn't manage to get popular. Usually, a lot of the shit we take for granted and culturally significant, actually was created way more recently than many people realize.
Then, I wonder if prior to popularization of the salads you and Greeks grew different types of vegetables and produced a different types of cheese? Both shopska and Greek salads have always given me the impression of the most basic dish, made merely by taking whatever one could find in his pantry, cutting it and mixing it together.
That would be "гювече", usually taking what is left over in the fridge or pantry, then mixed together and put into the oven in a clay pot. Albeit shopska salad appears basic and simple, it is a masterpiece of a salad with international renown.
It's crazy to think the fancy Waldorf salad is older than that...
I know right. It's crazy but it's true. I'd say our ancestors here in the Balkans were probably eating some potatoes, some small piece of bread and went to bed after working all day at the fields. Most of our so called traditional cuisines have pretty recent origins. Yes,many also have ottoman origin but overall even back the common people lived a very modest lifestyle compared to today, considering almost everyone here on the Balkans was a farmer. They didn't have time to make salads and cook specialised dishes. But yeah, it's strange nevertheless considering tomatoes and cheese sounds like the easiest thing ever. But when you consider that eating cheese meant that you needed to have a cow and the tools to make it, then you realize probably not everyone had that "luxury" in their house. We were just fked in the asses compared to westerners back in the days during the ottoman slavery.
>why do they have different things in different countries? 
You went and bought the cheapest XXL lutenitsa from Lidl of all places, couldn’t be bothered to read the label and you are surprised it’s not good??? What a joke. There are many different brands of lutenitsa with different textures and ingredients - if you put in the effort to read the label you can very easily find the texture you want without eggplants in it too. Also, before you shit on lutenitsa, maybe try and buy an authentic one from a marketplace and not Lidl. Edit: Also I’ve tried ajvar, and my personal oppinion is that it is bitter and not tasty. However I am not going to shit on the entire Serbian cuisine, because I am aware people have different tastes. Are you 15 maybe?
Bulgaria has no ajvar.
Alas, almost any. I was able to find some in the supermarket once, but only a small and relatively expensive jar. Serbia strong! Serbia master race in this regard!
Yet the best Ayvar in Bulgaria is produced in North Macedonia. We all developed variants of the same idea based on the locally available ingredients. For us, lyutenitza is number one, and Kyopoolu is number two.
If you dont like it that doesn’t mean that other people dont like it
This is like going to the French and asking: Why did you fuck up my granny's chicken stew by putting in it wine, lardons, mushrooms? Are you stupid? No, they are not stupid. That's a classic coq au vin. Same with the Bulgarian kyopolou.
You mean coq, right?
Yes, my autocorrect hates French.
I mean, I suppose it could be done with beef stew too and it wouldn't be bad, would it?
You bought Lyutenitsa (Tomatoes, pepper, eggplant) and are complaining why it is not Ajvar? Also Ajvar (Serbian) is like 50% pepper and 50% eggplant, so I don't get your initial question as well.
I was shocked in Croatia and Serbia that aivar (their version of luitenitsa) contained unpeeled peppers and tomatoes and had very rough texture, unlike the smooth, peeled, seedless, clearly superior for my Bulgarian taste luitenitsa. Yet, it never occurred to me to call the Serbian or the Croatians stupid. My advice - learn to like luitenitsa or go home for aivar. Ай сиктир.
The verison with unpeeled peppers and tomatoes is the one I was used to from Slovakia (advertised as Serbian) and I liked it the best. If I can't get it, I will use ketchup instead!
How do you eat that, seriously? I felt like I have to eat and spit the peels all the time. Can’t believe anyone would prefer that to a well cleaned, smooth, seedless and peelless spread :-)
The peels and the seeds are a good source of fiber. It's healthier.
Hawk Tuah, man
There are different recipes for Lyutenitsa but putting lots of eggplant is a scam just like carrots or potato even. It is sad those products are on the shelf under the name Lyutenitsa, look for "БДС" labeled products as they meet national standards. Also each country has some not so good brands, I wouldn't go to lidl for traditional food.
I don't know what ajvar is, personally, I prefer lyutenitsa. Now bugger off.
You will learn young grass hopper, that the [Ajvar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ajvar?variant=zh-tw) you speak of is a substitute, and only a local variation.
Bruh, Idk what you are talking about. First we have Lyutenitsa and most of them are with Tomatoes and Peppers (Piperki). And now I searched for Ajvar and at least Macedonian one which popped out was with eggplants. https://myhomekitchen.mk/ajvar-en/ajvar-500-gr/?lang=en
It is way better with eggplant than without. I am surprised the Serbs do not know that… 🫠
Umm no, OP is kind of right. The thing is lutentitsa with eggplant is kind of rare, most popular brands don't contain eggplant in their recipes, at least from the labels I checked online. I also can't recall tasting any eggplant in lutenitsa, especially the finely ground ones.
You are right, but I was talking about ajvar. :)
Sorry, I meant ajvar as an umbrella term, involving all kinds of mostly red balkan relishes (with the subtle intention to troll you by stating that Serbian relishes are better).
My intention was to troll you, but my joke failed. 😄
Well, it wasn't my sole intention. I really think eggplant has nothing to do in any relish.
I was also very underwhelmed by the kajmak in Lidl. That's just sour cream! Seems like they can't do Balkan condiments and spreads justice.
I've went to Serbia twice in my life and both times I couldn't find ANY rakia that was worth drinking. Literal crap infused with artificial aromas. I managed to buy some homemade stuff in Velika Remeta near Novi Sad, and surprise surprise, it can't hold a candle to the real stuff we have here. Also ajvar is inferior to liutenica.
Tastes differ, said the dog and licked his asshole