Gibanica is the Serbian filo-and-cheese pie. Layers of phyllo are folded around a custard of sirene cheese, eggs and yoghurt, baked until the top sheets blister.
Gibanica is the canonical Serbian breakfast and Slava feast pie. The Pirot region of southern Serbia claims the original recipe, with documentation in 19th-century Serbian cookbooks. Belgrade kafane have served the cheese version (sa sirom) since the 19th century; the Skadarlija bohemian quarter rooms (Tri Šešira, Dva Jelena) standardised the modern breakfast format. Variations include gibanica sa spanaćem (spinach), sa mesom (meat) and sa pečurkama (mushroom). The Slava feast (the family saint's day, every Serbian Orthodox family's largest annual celebration) is incomplete without a freshly baked gibanica at the centre.
