Shadows of Taste
Enis Bytyqi & Tesa Kabashi

Shadows of Taste: An ethnographic exploration of Prishtina’s eateries by Enis Bytyqi and Tesa Kabashi, explores the city's culinary history as an archive of collective memory, social relationships, and historical transformation. Drawing on ethnographic research and theoretical literature, the publication reconsiders food spaces beyond their conventional function but as sites where memory, identity, and the everyday life of the city intersect. Burek shops, traditional eateries, restaurants, and pastry shops are presented as institutions of memory. Within these spaces, taste becomes a medium through which knowledge is passed on, recipes function as living archives of experience and history, and everyday encounters reveal stories of belonging, resilience, and solidarity. Through personal narratives, the publication traces the transformation of these food spaces from the 1970s to the present day, highlighting how they have evolved alongside the city itself. In doing so, it suggests that Prishtina’s history is preserved not only in monuments and institutions, but also around dining tables where recipes, aromas, and everyday food practices become carriers of collective memory and sustain the city’s  social and cultural fabric.