Grilled KOSOVO FOOD at Restaurant Cuco!! Veal, Chicken & Cheese + Gjilan Attractions | Kosovo

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you're all doing well. This is David Hoffman from David's Been Here coming at you from Jilan, Kosovo, a town in the eastern part of Kosovo, southeast on the border with Serbia and Macedonia. It takes only a one hour drive to get here from the capital and we're going to be staying here for two nights and we're going to explore the city today. My friend, what do you know about this place? So we know about this place. This is, as you mentioned, this is one of the biggest cities in southeastern Kosovo. Jilan is so famous because of a lot of traditional restaurants here and we are going to enjoy one of them now for lunch, but the architecture of this city is so different from the rest of Kosovo. So you can see here a lot, a lot of buildings, all the people who have been immigrating out of Kosovo, they've come back and they invest a lot to make this city more and more better in the architecture. Yeah. So it's one main road to get in. And as you can see to the left and the right, you have markets, you have a lot of automotive shops, so a lot of car shops. And once you pass all this, we're going to get to the middle, to the center, right? And in the center, from what I saw online, it's like statues, really traditional, really old school Kosovo. And I feel people here are very, very welcome. So it's very near with Serbia and Macedonia, but here they are, I feel they are more Kosovo Albanian people. Yeah, exactly. So guys, get ready. We're going to explore. We're going to see some attractions. We're going to eat some food. Let's do it. This is typical in Kosovo, traffic. Yeah, traffic, but I'm really liking the city center. Looks very colorful, maybe because of flowers. Yeah. Lots of people out. Everybody's walking around. You have beautiful buildings, really old school, right? You have a few mosques, lots of statues, see, right there, lots of statues. So what we're going to do is we're going to eat, and then we're going to come back and walk around in this whole area. And this is it, restaurant Cucco, since 1996. I think it's up here. So I'm here in the kitchen, super tight. We're making some beef, right? Yeah. So he just pounded the beef, threw it on the grill, and that's our beef. Plus, we're going to have some salad and some boneless chicken. This is the best boneless chicken in Kosovo, right? Thank you. Restaurant Cucco is amazing. It's located in an old house, over 100 years old, family-owned business. At the top, you have a small dining area, but once you pass through the kitchen area, you come outside, and they have this beautiful terrace, really rustic, beautiful. They have antiques. They have rakija here. They have wine. They have beer. They have all this. So firewood. Then they have over here, like, old wines. They also have a picture of the grandfather, and they have a few photos of celebrities who have been here. And right now, we're going to start off with a salad. We just saw how they're making the beef and also the bread, and we're going to start off with this amazing salad. So we have super fresh salad. You have lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, and cabbage, as well as potato salad with a cheese, local cheese. So I'm just going to jump on this one right here. Amazing salad. Look at this. Look how fresh this is. Wow. Mm. Oh, man. So fresh. So right here, we have cabbage. The best. Mm-hmm. Super fresh ingredients. Always the best. You know, when you go to local, smaller towns in the middle of these communities, you always get fresh, fresh ingredients. Mm-hmm. You got to slow down with salad. I don't want to fill up too much. Mm. Next, I'm going to try the potato salad with the cheese. Look at that. Wow. It looks phenomenal. Mm-hmm. Mm. Wow. The cheese? Dense cheese. Mm. A little potato salad. Oh. It feels like it's a... It must be like red pepper in that, right? It's a little spicy. The owner was telling me this is like a super local cheese from a farm nearby. It's amazing. Mm-hmm. Mm. This one's almost like a dense mozzarella. Like a super dense one. And the tomatoes? You said they're amazing? Yeah. Wow. He gave me a lot of tomatoes here. Mm-hmm. Juicy. The burst. Mm. I'm already in love with this restaurant. Can't stop with the cabbage. And right here, we have the chicken. Look at this. I love it. So they put it on a cutting board. All the meats come on a cutting board. Loving these tomatoes. Mm-hmm. Thank you, my friend. Salamanderi. Enjoy. I will try this chicken first. All right. So we also have boneless chicken. So we're going to try it with this garlic. So he said just to dip it. Sorry, guys. I'm using my hands, but... Mm. Oh, wow. So tasty. Mm. Loving the garlic sauce, right? Wow. So oily. Village chicken, the best. The freshest chicken in Kosovo. Mm. I'm going to finish this whole thing. We have to? Yeah. We don't leave anything. I worry we cannot finish the beef. The beef? The beef looks huge. Yeah. For sure, we cannot. Yeah, a piece like that. The garlic gives another taste. Different. Yeah, eating the chicken alone is okay. But adding the garlic sauce? Mm-hmm. Another level. Mm. So you come to restaurant Cucho to eat two things. The chicken, boneless chicken with garlic sauce, and the beef. Look at this beef. Oh, what is this? Oh, my gosh. That's amazing. So he brought it here. He cut it in front of us. And here we go. Look at that. A little medium rare. Mm. So I watched this steak be prepared, right? So he pounded it, put it on the grill, and here we have it. Mm. Such a delicious meat. Tastiest beef I've tried. I always do medium rare. Medium rare is the best. Get a little bit of blood. And I'm also trying the most famous, best quality, right? Best quality rakija in all of Kosovo. It's called Kargega. Gega. Oh, wow. This is an apple. Oh, I love the green. Look at this. Mm. Not so strong. Pretty good. The bottle says the best premium rakija in all of Kosovo. I have to agree. Can't leave this. Just so you guys know, here in Kosovo, they eat a lot of meat. And quantities are like in America. Huge quantities. So, my friend, what do you think of the food? Amazing, right? I told you, like, I was curious to try something traditional from restaurants of Jilan. And we did it. This is so special. Mm. We never tried this kind of serving, this big beef. It was so big a portion. Yeah. I'm not sure, like, if it's for one, for two, or for five, because... I think it's for at least four or five. For four people, I'm not sure. I mean, we got half of it. And we still have the other half there. I mean, we also ate a huge salad. Huge salad. I mean, what a mix. The chicken's fantastic. I mean, everything here is awesome. When you come to Jilan, you have to come to this restaurant. It's right here in the center. You know, old school, 100-year-old house. The family here is amazing. My friend. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. The food's too much. Too much. Enjoy. I gotta say, the family here is too much. My friends. Perfect. Tron Chucho. Tadua. What'd you think? Amazing, huh? Yeah, amazing. Welcoming from people of Jilan. So, we are super, super surprised by the hospitality. Too much. That family is amazing. They even gave me a gift, a cutting board with the restaurant name. I'm gonna put it on my wall. Really, really nice people. And now, we're walking in the center. We parked the car right here in front of the restaurant. And right in front, we have the main street, right? We're gonna walk straight in. We're gonna see some of the statues and see what else we can find in Jilan. So, as every city in Jilan, also, we have the gold market. So, poor guys, poor men, they have to buy a lot of stuff. A lot of gold to their women, their girls. So, here is like when you marry, when you engage, you have to bring your girlfriend here to buy some gold ring, bracelet, necklace, everything. So, the gold market, as you can see over here, we have, wow. So, there are various small shops. One, two, three, four, five. So, a dozen over here, another dozen. So, easy, like, you know, 20, 30 different shops. Wow, and it keeps going up all the way that way. So, it's like a one small square with all the gold shops. Pretty amazing. You wanna buy something? Like a million euros square. A lot of gold here. My friend, what's your name? Agron. Pleasure, David. Nice to meet you. What do you want to buy for your wife? I don't know, man. What are you gonna buy? My girlfriend would like some ring, this ring. When I propose her to marry. So, when you come to Yilan, you can come here to the gold market. You can shop for your wife, for your daughter, for your lover, whatever you want. And it's about 45 euro a gram. So, like this one, the little heart, how much is that? Like two gram, three gram? Three grams. Three gram? Okay, so not so bad. So, like 150 euro? Yeah. That's not bad. I mean... Even 5,000 euro, you have to do it. You have to show her you love her. I mean, gold prices are the same worldwide. Obviously, the difference is what they make out of it. And that's how they change the price, right? Well, I'm not gonna buy anything. Because I bought my kids way too many things. Thank you. Next, we'll walk through the boulevard of Yilan. We'll see many interesting stuff to see, to record. Because Yilan is... Like when you come to these cities, it looks like it has nothing to offer. But if you walk and meet locals, you can find many, many interesting things. Like we saw now, gold market. I never knew they have like a dozen of gold markets over there. So, right here, we're in the smack center of the city. It's a square, lots of coffee shops. Coffee culture here is huge. So, coffee bar friends right there. That's amazing. Many coffee bars here. Many coffee bars. And over here, we have our first statue. There's actually like five or six on this road. They love statues here. Nothing like Skopje. Skopje. Nothing like Skopje. No, no. The statues here have a meaning, a real meaning. In Skopje, they just found like... Everyone has a statue in Skopje. Yeah, I have a statue in Skopje. You can buy, you can have a statue. So, this is called... Okay, so these are for like heroes, right? There should be some heroes. Usually, it's people from the city who have become, you know, prominent. You know, poets. Yeah. Philosophers, etc. But in Kosovo, you'll find more statues about the heroes of the wars. Because they deserve it. No, they fight for their rights. He was a Idris, Mr. Idris Seferi. He was a part of leadership type prison, prison league we saw in prison. So, during 1878, so he was part of the movement, Albanian movement. So, he fought also during the First World War to protect the country. Albanian country, Kosovo country. That time, they were all together. I guess you guys don't know what the League of Prison was. That's when 300 Albanian leaders gathered in prison to talk about how they're going to fight off the Ottomans. You know, once they dissolved. So, once you pass that statue, you enter into the city's park. Basically, the boardwalk converts into a park. Lots of trees. Lots of benches. You can see a lot of old men just relaxing, hanging out. You see more bus, more statues. And this is it. Beautiful trees. Really relaxing here. Oh, nice breeze. I'm really enjoying Jilan. Amazing people. We have some people with us. So friendly. And yeah, this is a great place. I love Kosovo. So, after you cross the main square, there are a lot of statues, a lot of bars, a lot of shops. So, you immediately will enter in the city's park. And here to the right, we have, obviously, Skanderbeg. He has the crown with the goat, right? Next up, we're going to go into a place called Papuco to have a raki, have some coffee, and see what local life is like. So, this is the same raki we had earlier. So smooth. Apple, nice. This place is awesome. Huge stairs. Inside, it's packed. Obviously, I'm being very incognito here. I don't want anybody to tell me anything. But, yeah, really nice place. A lot of young people here. So, what's the average age here? It's like 25, right? Everybody's very young. Everybody. So, we are old for this place. We're like old. Being 35 is in the 25, dude. So, this bar reminds me of an Irish pub inside. Really high ceilings. They have the Mona Lisa over here. Brandy, whiskey, beer, champagne. You come here, you're going to drink coffees, rakis, beer. At night, this place is popping. It's one of the best bars in all of Ljiljan. Right? Yeah. Right? You're right. Another beautiful street of Ljiljan. So, here, more bars. This is like a secret place. If you are not from Ljiljan, you don't know this place. So, you have to meet some locals to show you this beside bar. Yeah, I mean, it's a hidden street. Hidden bar, hidden street. More cafes and bars. And as you can see, kids in their little vehicles, right? And we're going to a place nearby that has bio food to see what they got. Basically, they're from a farm, but they have a store here. We're going to probably try some cheese. Maybe some cured meat. Yeah, some sujuk probably. For sure. After a five-minute walk from the bar, we're here at AB Bio Farm. They have a farm about 50 kilometers from here, but they have this boutique where you can try some of their traditional products. They have marmalade, they have sujuk, they have honey. I mean, so many different things. Let's go inside. Let's meet the owner and try some delicious bio food. Wow, this shop is amazing. So, they have everything that can be produced in a village. Like, for example, pickles. Cucumber pickles, right? And they put only some leaves inside. Like, this one should be... Let me check. But right here, look at this. This is the sujuk. Sujuk, oh my God, it's huge. Can I grab this? Wow, bro. Look at this. It's two meters. This is like four meters right here. Besides this, they also have cheese. They have marmalade, oils, jams. I mean, what is that? Salads. So, salads. They have tomato paste. Ayvar. Over here, they have cheese. So, they have raw meat. So, like, you have to go home and cook it, right? They have misturan. More cheese. It's never-ending stuff. And here we have so much honey. This is the best. The honey. Oh my God. It's AB Bio Farm. And they have, like, a signature here, Blade Van, which means buy local. Buy local. So, what do we try? My friend, what is this? Cheese. Albanian cheese. That's for you. All right, my friends. Goat cheese, huh? I know how you make it in there. Sheep cheese? Yes. Yeah. Okay, so here's the sheep cheese. It's different. Goat cheese, sheep cheese. This one's way more buttery. That one's good. Like the other one? We're in a different world. They have four different cheeses here, but now it's time to try their sucuk. They have a lot of different cheeses, I think, because we haven't tried yellow. Oh, yeah, yeah. But there they have more. But here they have. And here we have the king of Kosovo food. Albanian sucuk. Grilled? Not grilled. It's always tasty. But a little different. My turn. Oh, my God. Nice. I love it like this. My God, this is so good. It's mushy. It's a little spicy. Phenomenal. So good. We explored Jilan. It really surprised us. Every single person was so kind and generous. Wow, what an experience. Yeah, from now on, man, Jilan is my favorite city in Kosovo. Definitely is my favorite. Yeah, we started off right here at Cuco restaurant since 1996, serving the best steaks in Kosovo. Then from here, we went and we explored the town. We saw the gold market. We saw the main pedestrian street. Then we had a nice raki at that bar. Yeah, the bar is a cozy bar, like right beside the main center. So you have to know some locals. Thanks to Ilir. He brings us around. He shows us the best places in Jilan. And then after that, we went to the AB Bio Farm. We tried some cheese, some chucho, and? And we got a very, very tasty honey. Very tasty honey. Yeah. Everybody gave us a gift. That is how friendly this place is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we, someone, someone like from Kargega... Yeah. Yeah, Kargega Raki, the raki place, they give us two bottles of raki. Really amazing. Yeah. Well, guys, I hope you love this video. If you did, please give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below. Subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content. We'll see you in the next travel food adventure in Kosovo. Let's go.