Eating out in Durrës

I am not going to send you to one restaurant. The place I would name this year may have changed hands by the time you read this. What is worth knowing is how eating out works here, because a few of the conventions are not obvious, and getting them wrong is what makes people think Albania is expensive.

Fish is sold by the kilo

This is the one that catches people out. At a fish restaurant you are usually shown the catch and you choose it. The price on the menu is per kilogram, not per plate, so what a sea bass big enough for two costs is not the number on the board.

Nobody minds being asked. Point at the fish, ask what it weighs and what that comes to, and agree the price before it goes on the grill.

Breakfast

Byrek is what people eat in the morning: thin pastry layered with cheese, spinach or meat, bought from a bakery and eaten standing up, for very little. It is better than anything on a hotel buffet.

Coffee is taken seriously and drunk slowly. A macchiato is the usual order, and it is small. If you ask for a large coffee you will get something nobody around you is drinking.

Dinner

Dinner is late. Kitchens are still busy at ten, and if you arrive at seven you will eat alone in an empty room. Shift your evening on the first night and the rest of the week follows.

Worth ordering at least once:

• Fërgesë: peppers, tomato and cottage cheese baked together and eaten with bread. If you only try one thing, try this.
• Qofte: grilled meatballs, flat rather than round here.
• Speca të mbushur: stuffed peppers.
• Whatever is grilled whole. The simplest thing on the menu is usually what the kitchen does best.

Raki arrives at the end whether you asked for it or not. It is more often homemade than not, and it is stronger than it tastes.

Cooking in

The apartment has a full kitchen, and there is a market within walking distance. In summer the tomatoes and peaches there are very good. Buy fish in the morning.