Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnian cooking is Ottoman-rooted and hearty, ćevapi grilled sausages, slow-cooked meat-and-vegetable pot dishes, and flaky burek pastries. Grilled meat, bread, and strong coffee define a warm, unhurried table.

Bosnian cevapi are beef and lamb, without pork and without a casing, grilled in fingers and counted out ten to a portion into a warm somun flatbread with raw onion and kajmak. The bread is expected to soak up the fat, and the whole thing is eaten with the hands standing at a counter as often as sitting down.

In Bosnia, burek means the meat one and nothing else. The cheese version is sirnica, the potato one krompirusa, the spinach one zeljanica, and calling any of them burek marks you out immediately. Coffee arrives in a copper dzezva with an empty cup and a cube of sugar, for the drinker to pour and to take their time over.

Little fried dough balls served warm with kajmak clotted cream and soft cheese.