There is a small place in Brussels where lights, colours, aromas, food and conversation leads to Albania. A place where time seems to stop at the folk costumes on display, the double cyla, the bouquets (këmborët) or çiftelitë (“doubled” or “double stringed).
Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Chameria embrace endlessly in detail in this shelter, where the soul wanders to the memories and warmth that the aroma of home brings.
Restaurant Alba is a “cultural office”. Very close to the centre of Brussels, next to the “Parc Royal” and in front of the “Flemish” parliament, it is there waiting and accompanying every day according to the national and foreign tradition.
There you can find yourself by chance, driven by curiosity while visiting the capital of Europe, Brussels. As soon as the colours of Albania enter, the warmth and aroma sit together on the wooden tables.
Exhibited in the shop window is the famous “Skënderbeu” cognac, brandy, wine, poncho and liqueurs. On the wall there is a red and black carpet hanging on a wooden frame and a little further the costume of Vlora exhibited together with that of Rugova. Everywhere you look there is a detail or shape that brings you back to Albania, bucjela, tamuzans, old lanterns or Tirana vest. Old pieces. As in the houses of Albanian villages. Or just like Alba.
It is called Alba, as Albania, but also as the sun, light, ray of Albania in and abroad. The idea has been that from the beginning.
“Alba Restaurant” was opened less than two years ago by two Albanian journalists in Brussels, Fatos Mahmutaj and Aurora Allushaj. Where does cooking relate to journalism? Aurora tells us that they have conceived such an environment where people feel at home and socialize with each other. This is where this project embraces journalism, our profession. We listen to customers, talk to them and make connections. Alba restaurant is the home of all Albanians, not only those living in Belgium, but anyone who crosses the road through these parts.
Asked why they decided to take this initiative, they answer that “there was no such place in Brussels, where the brain, body and stomach can be easily moved to the homeland. But also to leave a little aroma of Albania in a capital like Brussels where the variety of cuisines and restaurants is so great, that it would be a sin to miss the best of our country; a Mediterranean cuisine, in which the east and the west are united, especially the autochthonous Albanian traditions.
For a moment we lose the thread, we are transported spiritually to Albania. Candle (round wood used by the grandmothers for the pie) with traditional appetizers in clay cups is served before us. We enjoy a lot of tomato pickles prepared by the restaurant, green cheese with sage or spicy, frying pan, olives and yogurt sauce. Half a cake with corn flour reminds us of our childhood and the time when grandmothers prepared it for us. While the specialty that has given fame and credit “Alba Restaurant” is the Arab of Vlora. Grandma dukatase recipe with gravy, white cheese, nuts and accompanied by roasted kid or lamb is really one of the dishes that everyone should try.
The final sensation is that of returning to tradition: discovering the original flavours of our grandmothers ’dishes sometimes served even with new elements. Not only the tradition of lamb on the spit or oven, the famous yoghurt casserole, goat meat in the oven, accompanied by spicy potatoes, pilaf or rosnica, yshmeri, trileçja, revania but also other Mediterranean cuisine remain the favorites of customers of “Albas”.
We enjoyed the Albanian cuisine, I feel the aroma, the warmth, the special hospitality at Alba restaurant. We hope and wish that such places, cults of Albanianness will increase all over the world, where Albanians work and live.
