When my grandmother was deep frying something, she was putting a sip of rakia in the oil. She claimеd that the alcohol makes greasiness go away. Years after, I realized that this works another way too! If you want to take away the alcohol, than greasiness is the right choice for you. If rakia is the drink that unites whole Balkan then Burek is that food for sure.
Basically it is a pie filled with cheese, meat or vegetables, depending on the creativity of the author. Bosnian Burek is the most famous on the Balkans, and there is a story that if you ask for Burek with cheese in Sarajevo, they can get so offended so you can stay not served, even! In Bosnia, the only Burek you can find is with meat. Everything different than this, for them, stops being Burek and in the best case, you can order cheese pie. In Serbia, on the other hand, they went beyond with their creativity so you can even find a place preparing Burek with Nutella! As the country that came up turbo-folk music, Burek with Nutella is a very logical invention. In Macedonia, except Burek with meat and Burek with cheese, we have a variation on this topic, a sandwich with empty Burek, called Simit-pogaca.
This most famous breakfast on Balkan is well combined with yogurt. In the stores where you can buy Burek, called Buregdjilnici, there are certain hours when the Burek is taken out of the of the oven, so works as a social agreement. If you are up for a fresh Burek, you should be in the store no later than 7 am. Because of this early schedule, many people started practicing to eat fresh Burek on the way home after partying hard.
This greasy peace of pie can be shaped either in a triangle, either in long, sausage-shaped pastry. In both cases you are getting a paper packed piece of heaven, trust me on this!
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The author
Zlata Golaboska
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