LESKOVAC, Seriba, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- For many people barbecue represents a simple, fast food cuisine, but here in Leskovac they perfected the craft into traditional Serbian specialty, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to the annual Rostiljijada barbecue festival.
Since Monday streets of the Serbia southern city of Leskovac, the unofficial barbecue capital of this part of the world, are crowded for the 28th consecutive year with visitors from the whole of Serbia, region and Europe.
Along the stands shrouded in thick smoke of meat and coal, they taste the specialties made by proven masters of barbecue, for which the city has become well known in the whole world.
The pljeskavica burgers and cevapi skinless sausages made here have celebrated this city of around 60,000 people across the world, and reserved the place for Leskovac dishes in the international cuisine.
Tina Stojanovic, the PR of the local tourist organization, told Xinhua that it all started some two centuries ago, when travelers and visitors to the city reported that local people in Leskovac produce tasty small bites of ground meet, later called cevapi.
Although its name originated from the Turkish kebab, these skinless sausages have nothing in common with their oriental counterpart, and Leskovac grilling masters claim that the pljeskavica burger is nothing like the hamburger made in the West.
Slavisa Milosevic, a teacher at a local high school where new generations of Leskovac students receive their culinary education, reveals that pljeskavica burger and cevapi sausages are made out of ground beef especially parts that contain sufficient amount of fat such as the chuck and the rib, with onions and ground pepper added to the mixture prior to grilling.
However, he says that the actual recipe for preparing the ground barbecue meet is much more complicated and that it is only known by the barbecue masters who live in the city of Leskovac, while the grilling on coal contributes to its aroma.
The reputation of the city as the unofficial barbecue capital of Serbia, region, and later the whole of Balkans started when a local chef invented a kind of local meatloaves of ground beef, onions and cheese and ground hot pepper called "Leskovac Ustipak".
The dish became popular across former Yugoslavia, while its inventor Miodrag Gligorijevic nicknamed "Dragi Bure" became one of the most celebrated chefs, and grilled barbecue for the late president of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito, and the Queen Elisabeth of England back in the 1970s.
Soon after that, restaurants were opened all over the country offering delicacies of the Leskovac cuisine, while local chefs started innovating their craft and perfecting the decorations added to their plates, usually consisting solely of sweet peppers, onion and maybe leek.
The popularity of the local barbecue increased with the Rostiljijada barbecue festival that was first launched here in Leskovac 28 years ago, and which in time developed into one of the most visited manifestations in Serbia, attracting visitors from regional countries such as Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania, as well as Austria, Russia and others, Stojanovic said.
Besides the stands where restaurants from Leskovac and several other Serbian cities sell their barbecue, roasted pigs and lamb on a stick and other specialties, the atmosphere is spiced with brass music of the Serbian south, as well as well-known rock and folk performers.
The festival is also a chance for masters of Leskovac-style barbecue across Serbia to partake in the annual festival in preparing pljeskavica and cevapi.
Chef Milijan Stojanic, president of the expert jury told Xinhua that the uniqueness of Leskovac barbecue resulted in opening of numerous Leskovac-style grill restaurants across the world, in Europe, the U.S. and Australia and everywhere chefs from the city went to, and spread their culinary tradition.
This year nine teams competed in making a traditional 200-gram pljeskavica, ten cevapi weighing 20 grams each, as well as one innovative dish made according to their original recipe, whose look, taste, smell and texture were assessed by the jury of chefs which are considered experts of the craft, he pointed out.
The most awaited event that attracts masses of visitors to the main stage in the center of Leskovac is the preparing of the "biggest pljeskavica in the world," which this year weighed 65 kilograms and was around 1.9 meters in diameter prior to grilling.
Although the weight of it overpasses the official Guinness record holder for the biggest hamburger (around 61 kilogram after grilling), Leskovac never succeeded in being listed in the record book, as it failed to bring representatives of Guinness to witness the grilling.
The tense moment when the three grilling professionals turn the massive meat structure over on the grill was carefully monitored by thousands of eyes as well as the culinary judges.
It is the moment of turning that each year decides if the attempt to make yet another "world's biggest pljeskavica" will be a success, and as almost every year - it was a success.
With the sound of brass orchestra, aroma of barbecue mixed with evaporations of the local plum "rakija" brandy, colorful rows of souvenirs and toys for children, the visitors celebrated yet another biggest pljeskavica achievement, proving that the local chefs are still among the best in the region and the world.
The importance of the festival was stressed this year by the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who opened it on Aug. 28, saying that with its 500,000 visitores, the Rostiljijada outgrown some of the biggest manifestations in Serbia such as Exit and Guca music festivals, and promised that the country will increase the financial support to the festival's organizers so that it can continue to grow and develop.
Meanwhile, the center of the city will continue with its open air party until Sept. 3, awaking the warm, traditional atmosphere of the Serbian south for many people who come to taste, feel and live Leskovac.
