Blue's restaurant Southsea: I tried Albanian food for the first time and any preconceptions were blown away

The News, Portsmouth

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00:00I can't claim to have much knowledge of Albanian or Kosovan food, so when I saw

00:04that Blue's had opened in Osborne Road, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

00:07Ona, Katrina and Zemi picked out some traditional dishes for us to try.

00:12This is creamy pepper, it's like roast peppers, green peppers, and then I mix three types of

00:19creams, two I do myself, one I don't, it's very hard to make it, and then I mix them

00:25together, and then it becomes this, and it's very, very tasty, and then it goes with this

00:30bread, seeded bread with seasoning seeds.

00:35This was a traditional Albanian dish that Katrina and her sister would ask their mother

00:38to make when they got home, and I can see why.

00:40It was deliciously creamy and cheesy, and it was great to dip the crusty pretzel-like

00:44bread into.

00:47So this is mincemeat burek, which we do ourselves, the pastry, me and my sister do it together,

00:54we go in the oven and stuff like that, and then it turns out like that, and then we do

00:59it with mincemeat, we do it with spinach and cheese, and we do it with cheese.

01:05And then I do my own yogurt, which is homemade.

01:08And then this is Albanian breakfast, and then we've got tomatoes, we've got cucumber, we've

01:15got scrambled egg, but Albanian way, which we put a bit of cream cheese, a bit of curd

01:20cheese as well, and then it turns out like that.

01:22These are Albanian sausages, they're a bit spicy, but not too too spicy, a tiny bit,

01:28just a kick on there, we've got halloumi, and then we've got this dip, which is made

01:33from aubergines and red peppers, like sweet red peppers, and then we've got this white

01:40cheese cream, which I do myself as well, it's got like pickled peppers, and then three types

01:46of cheese, and you mix it together, and then you leave it for a week, and it turns out

01:50like that.

01:51Amazing.

01:53The Albanian sausage had a great kick to it, but it was not too spicy, and it accompanied

01:58well with the different types of cheeses and salad, which kept it fresh.

02:01The eggs were fluffy and cheesy, but the standout feature was the red pepper dip.

02:10In my opinion, you can't go wrong with pastry and meat, and this proved the point, with

02:14the yogurt dip also pairing nicely with it.

02:16So these are vine leaves, they're stuffed with mint, rye, and other herbs and vegetables,

02:22and then they're served with yogurt, a slice of orange, and a bit of parsley on top, and

02:27they're quite popular in here.

02:30For me though, the standout dish was the stuffed vine leaves, they were packed full of moist

02:34lambs mince, and the sharpness from the orange citrus provided a nice balance along with

02:38the yogurt.

02:39I definitely recommend going to Blue's to check it out.

02:41I definitely recommend going to Blue's to check it out.

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