Bosnia and Herzegovina

🇷🇸Serbia

Ajvar

Ајвар

Relish made from roasted peppers and eggplants, a popular condiment throughout the Balkans, traditionally prepared in autumn, versatile and savory.

🇹🇷Turkey

Ayran

Ajran

Ayran is a cold drink of yogurt, water and salt, whisked until lightly foamy. In Bulgaria it is a summer fountain and meal drink, never a sweet yogurt.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Baklava

بقلاوة

Layers of paper-thin phyllo brushed with butter and filled with chopped walnuts or pistachios, baked crisp then drenched in lemon- or rose-scented sugar syrup. One square, cut diamond-small, is the shared Ottoman dessert of the whole eastern Mediterranean.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bamija

Okra stewed with lamb or beef and tomato, soured at the end with lemon or vinegar to stop the pods going slimy.

🇧🇦Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Banja Luka Ćevapi

Banjalučki ćevap

Four ćevapi joined side by side into a single slab, grilled over charcoal and served in lepinja with onion.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Begova Čorba

Chicken and okra soup thickened with flour and finished with cream and egg yolk — the 'bey's soup', the formal opening of a Bosnian meal.

🇧🇦Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Blatina

Deep red Herzegovinian grape that cannot pollinate itself, so it is always planted with another variety — dark, soft and dry.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosanski Lonac

Layers of meat and whole vegetables — cabbage, potato, carrot, tomato, garlic — packed upright in a tall earthenware pot and cooked for hours without stirring.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnian Burek

Burek

The Bosnian burek, layers of thin phyllo dough spiralled around a filling of minced beef and onions, baked until golden and crisp. In Bosnia, only the meat version is called burek.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnian Coffee

Bosanska kafa

Finely ground coffee brewed in a džezva, served with the pot, a fildžan cup, a sugar cube and a piece of rahat lokum on a copper tray.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnian Sarma

Sarma

A Bosnian dish of pickled cabbage leaves stuffed with minced beef or lamb, rice, onion and paprika, slow-simmered in a flavourful broth, often with smoked meat.

🇧🇦Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnian Smoked Beef

Suho meso

Beef salted and cold-smoked over beech for weeks until nearly black, then sliced thin or cut into the bean pot.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnian Tarhana

Tarhana

A Bosnian dried pasta-like dough of fermented flour, yogurt and sometimes vegetables, broken into small pieces and dried for storage, used in soups and stews.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Braised Veal with Vegetables

Dinstana teletina

Veal braised slowly with root vegetables and a light roux into a pale, mild stew — the aščinica dish for anyone who wants no spice at all.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Buranija

Buranija is a young broad-bean stew cooked with veal and herbs in the Herzegovinian-Dalmatian tradition.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Buredžici

Short lengths of meat burek cut and stood upright in a dish, drowned in garlic yogurt and sometimes baked again.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dolma

دلمه

Vegetables such as peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, or zucchini hollowed out and stuffed with a mixture of rice, pine nuts, currants, and sometimes ground meat. The olive-oil vegetarian version (zeytinyağlı dolma) is served cold and is a staple of the Turkish meze table.

🇦🇪United Arab Emirates

Dolmades

Ντολμάδες

Greek stuffed grape leaves with rice, herbs, and olive oil, rolled into small parcels. A meze and Clean Monday staple, tangy and herby, served cold with lemon, a national dish.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Fig Brandy

Smokvovača

Brandy distilled from dried Herzegovinian figs, sweeter and rounder than grape rakija and traditionally drunk warm in winter.

🇷🇸Vojvodina, Serbia

Goulash Soup

Gulyásleves

Goulash soup is a Hungarian beef soup with paprika, potatoes, caraway, and csipetke noodles traditionally cooked in a bogrács.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Grah

Grah is a slow-cooked bean stew with onion, paprika and often smoked meat; Proha is a regional name used for a hearty bean preparation. It is a household winter pot rather than a plain side.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Gurabija

Гурабије

Gurabija is a crumbly butter biscuit shared across Bosnia and Serbia, often made with flour, fat and a little sugar. The best versions are sandy and sturdy enough to dunk in coffee.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hadžijski Ćevap

Cubed veal or beef braised with whole onions, tomato and okra in a covered pot — a slow-cooked dish that shares only the name with grilled ćevapi.

🇧🇦Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Herzegovinian Figs

Smokve

Figs grown on the stony Neretva valley terraces, eaten fresh in August and dried in strings for the rest of the year.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Herzegovinian Pršut

Hercegovački pršut

Pork leg salted and dried in the bura wind of the Herzegovinian karst, then lightly smoked — unlike the unsmoked Dalmatian style.

🇧🇦Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Herzegovinian Sage Honey

Kadulja med

Honey from wild sage flowering on the Herzegovinian karst in May, pale, thick and strongly aromatic.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hošaf

Dried fruit — plums, apricots, figs — stewed in water with sugar and drunk cold as the standard sweet drink at iftar.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hurmašice

Oval semolina biscuits pressed with a fork, baked, then soaked in cold syrup while still hot so they swell and stay wet.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Jabukovaca

Jabukovača

Bosnian apple-filled filo pastry.

🇧🇦Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Japrak

Rice and minced meat rolled in raštika — collard or kale leaves rather than vine leaves — and simmered in a shallow pot.

🇦🇱Albania

Kadaif

Кадаиф

Shredded filo dough wrapped around walnut filling, baked until golden, then soaked in sweet syrup, crispy shredded texture with generous nut filling and good syrup absorption, a beloved dessert.

🇷🇸Serbia

Kajmak

Кајмак

Kajmak is a thick, lightly cultured cream skimmed from warm milk, eaten fresh with bread and grilled meats. In Montenegro the same dairy tradition is called skorup.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kalja

Sauerkraut and lamb or beef cooked down together with onion until the meat falls apart and the kraut turns golden.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kačamak

Качамак

Coarse cornmeal beaten with water and salt into a thick porridge, then loaded with kajmak, young cheese or cracklings.

🇧🇾Belarus

Kholodets

Холодец

Kholodets is a meat aspic made from pork or beef bones slow-cooked until collagen releases, then chilled until set, clear firm jelly with tender meat pieces, served with horseradish or mustard.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kiseljak Mineral Water

Sarajevski kiseljak

Naturally carbonated mineral water from the springs at Kiseljak, bottled since 1884 and the default fizzy water on any table.