SARAJEVO - In Your Pocket

Bosnian Cuisine
If you like meat, you’ll love Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Meat is a standard for any meal. However, there is still
lots of interesting meals you can make do if you are a
vegetarian.
A typical breakfast is very different from a traditional
English, American or Australian breakfast, but they can
be found in the occasional restaurant. Omlettes, hams,
eggs and cheeses are very popular and can be found even
in most places.
For budget travelers the large supermarkets carry fruit
yogurt, muesli, and juices and the open markets are
always filled with fresh fruit. Bakeries open early and
sell hot rolls, croissants, brown bread, apple and cherry
strudles which you can take to a cafe and enjoy with a
morning cappucino.
All travellers should at some point enter a buregdzenica and
try the famous traditional pita dishes of burek, zeljanica,
sirnica, and krompirusa. They are all made from scratch
and have been a traditional meal since Ottoman times.
Burek is a meat pie wrapped in filo-dough. The zeljanica
is made from spinach and cheese. Sirnica is made from a
fresh, homemade cheese and krompirusa is diced potatoes
with spices. Usually one portion (porcija) is enough to stuff
you. A porcija costs between 2-3KM. They may ask if you
like pavlaka spread on top. Pavlaka is a fresh cream that
tastes wonderful with the pita. Thin yogurt is also a popular
drink alongside your pita.
Meat eating travellers should try out the wide range of
available meats and should not miss the typical rostiljnica
that serves up a range of grilled meats specialities.
Whether chicken, beef, lamb, or pork, they come fresh from
the mountainside. It is common practice here to raise all
animals free range, and with no hormones or chemicals.
Most people say they can taste the difference.
Here is a list of the most popular traditional dishes:
Cevapi small meat sausages of lamb and beef mix. They
are usually served with fresh onions and pita bread on the
side. Cevapi usually come in pointer finger size sausages
and are offered by five or ten pieces.
Teletina is veal, usually served in cutlets. Veal in BiH
is not produced by locking calves in a cage to ensure
softer meat.
Jagnjetina lamb grilled over an open fire.
Musaka a meat pie made of minced beef, very similar to
shepherds pie.
Filovane paprike fried peppers stuffed with minced meat
and spices.
Pršut air dried ham, similar to italian proscuitto.
Sudžuk beef sausages with a similar form to pepperoni.
Suho Meso dried meat, either beef or pork.
Sarme meat and rice rolled in cabbage or grape leaves.
‘Ispod Saca’ similar to a dutch oven. A metal dish is
placed on hot coals, the food is placed in the dish and
covered by a lid which is then completely covered in hot
coals and left to bake.
sarajevo.inyourpocket.com
Cevapi sa kajmakom
BasiCs
Cheeses are also prepared and strained in a variety of
ways and are absolutely delicious. The vegetarian traveller
will have a hell of a time getting through these which can
ordered as a large starter or side dish in restaurants,
bought in supermarkets or at the market where is has
been freshly and naturally prepared.
Travnicki a white, feta-like cheese from the Travnik district
in central Bosnia. It is a bit salty and very popular with
‘meze’, which is the tradition of slow drinking and eating
throughout the course of a whole day.
Vlašicki similar to travnicki cheese. It is a highland
cheese from the mountain villages on Vlašic Mountain in
central Bosnia.
Livanjski is more similar to the dry yellow cheeses of
Dalmatia. It is very tasty and usually more expensive than
others. It originates from the west Bosnian town of Livno.
Mladi Sir literally means young cheese. There isn’t an
equivalent to it in English. It has a soft texture and is
unsalted. Often times it is served with a cream sauce on
top. It is very healthy.
Kajmak is the most difficult of all cheeses to translate.
It is the top layer skimmed from milk, it is creamy and
extremely tasty. Kajmak and ustipak (doughnut type roll)
is a wonderful appetizer.
Iz mjeha sheep milk poured into a specially sewn sheep
skin ‘bag.’ After a time the dry cheese is taken out of the
skin container and the result is a strong, dry cheese that
resembles real parmesan.
Inat Kuća is a great place to sample traditional Bosnian fare
Autumn 2009
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