Bosnia and Herzegovina

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Klepe

Small square dumplings of thin dough around minced beef, boiled and served under garlic yogurt and melted butter with paprika.

🇧🇦Bosanska Krajina, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kljukuša

Grated potato mixed with flour, egg and water, baked in a shallow pan and served drenched in soured milk or cream and garlic.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Krompiruša

Pita filled with thinly sliced or grated potato and onion, peppered heavily and baked until the pastry blisters.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kvrgusa

Kvrguša

Kvrguša is a Krajina bake of chicken set into a cornmeal-and-egg batter until the edges brown.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lepina

Lepinja

A soft, flat Balkan bread similar to pita, used to wrap ćevapi and pljeskavica, with a crisp crust and airy interior.

🇷🇸Serbia

Lepinja

Лепиња

A soft round flatbread baked plain and split open to hold grilled meat, kajmak and onion.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Livno Cheese

Livanjski sir

Hard yellow cheese from the Livno plateau made from sheep's and cow's milk, aged in wheels for at least sixty days into a firm, piquant paste.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lokum

Локум

A soft, chewy confection made from starch and sugar, flavored with rosewater, lemon, or mastic, and often studded with pistachios, hazelnuts, or walnuts. Known internationally as Turkish Delight, lokum has been produced since the Ottoman era and mass production began in 1777. A few pieces are traditionally served alongside Turkish coffee.

🇧🇦Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Loza

Loza is a grape rakija, distilled from fermented grape pomace and sometimes sold as the Croatian PGI Lozovača. It is a clear, dry spirit of the Adriatic and Herzegovinian cellar.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Meat under Sač

Meso pod sač

A traditional Bosnian dish of lamb, veal or goat slow-cooked under a metal or ceramic lid (sač) heaped with hot coals and ashes, with potatoes and vegetables.

🇷🇸Serbia

Meringue Slice

Шампита

A tall block of cooked egg-white cream between two sheets of puff pastry, lighter and paler than the custard version beside it.

🇧🇦Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Neretva Tangerines

Mandarine

Tangerines grown in the Neretva delta around Čapljina, harvested in October and sold by the crate at the roadside.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Orahovac

Green walnuts picked before the shells harden, steeped whole in spirit and sugar for months until the liquid turns black.

🇷🇸Serbia

Pljeskavica

Pleskavica

Large ground meat patty, sometimes stuffed with cheese, grilled and served with flatbread, a beloved Balkan street food.

🇹🇷Turkey

Pogača

Flat round loaf baked for holidays, weddings and the breaking of the Ramadan fast, sometimes brushed with butter and stacked in layers.

🇽🇰Kosovo

Raki

Raki rrushi

Albania's national spirit, a clear fruit brandy distilled from fermented grapes, plums, mulberries, or other fruits, 40-55% alcohol, served as a welcome drink and at celebrations, a legendary icon.

🇦🇱Istanbul, Albania

Revani

Ρεβανί

Semolina cake bathed in lemon syrup, baked golden and cut in squares — an Ottoman dessert that travelled across the Balkans and Greece under many names, served at cafés and home tables alike.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Rosehip Pekmez

Pekmez od šipka

Rosehips cooked down and sieved into a dark, tart, unsweetened fruit butter eaten on bread or thinned into a winter drink.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ružice

Rolled sheets of pastry cut and shaped into roses, deep-fried and dusted with sugar or dipped in syrup.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sack Cheese

Sir iz mijeha

Cheese packed into a whole cured sheep- or goatskin and left to ripen for months until it turns sharp, oily and pungent.

🇪🇬Egypt

Salep

Салеп

A warm, creamy winter drink made from the powdered tubers of wild orchids, mixed with hot milk, sugar, and topped with cinnamon. Salep has been consumed since Ottoman times and is sold by street vendors during the cold months. The same orchid root powder is a key ingredient in Turkish dondurma ice cream.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sarajevsko Pivo

Lager brewed in Sarajevo since 1864 at a brewery whose spring kept the besieged city in drinking water in the 1990s.

🇷🇸Serbia

Serbian Bean Stew

Пасуљ

Dried white beans cooked slowly with smoked ribs, bacon or sausage, onion and paprika until thick.

🇧🇦Belgrade, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sirnica

Sirnica is a cheese-filled filo pita. In Belgrade, the local bakery convention calls the cheese version burek even though Bosnia reserves burek for the meat filling.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sitni Ćevap

Small cubes of beef or veal browned and stewed with onion and paprika into a dark, thick sauce, served with mashed potato or bread.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Smetana

Сметана

Thick soured cream of Eastern Slavic kitchens, richer than Western sour cream and spooned over nearly everything savoury.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Smreka

Smreka is a Bosnian juniper-berry cordial fermented from young juniper berries and water.

🇧🇦Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sogan-dolma

Whole onions boiled, hollowed out layer by layer and each layer rolled around minced meat and rice, then baked in the onion's own broth.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Somun

Round leavened flatbread baked in a wood oven so it puffs hollow, split open and filled with ćevapi — and baked in vast quantity for Ramadan iftar.

🇷🇸Serbia

Stuffed Courgettes

Punjene tikvice

Stuffed courgettes are a shared Bosnian and Serbian summer dish of hollowed courgettes filled with minced meat and rice, simmered in light tomato sauce and served with yogurt.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Stuffed Peppers

Punjena paprika

Bell peppers stuffed with ground meat and rice, baked in tomato sauce, a popular summer dish when peppers are in season, hearty and traditional.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sudžuk

Dry beef sausage seasoned with garlic and pepper, no pork, air-dried into a firm horseshoe and eaten raw or fried into eggs.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sütlaç

Fırın sütlaç

A creamy rice pudding made with rice, milk, and sugar, sometimes baked in a clay pot until the top develops a caramelized, browned skin. It is one of the most familiar and comforting Turkish milk desserts, served chilled in individual bowls.

🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tahini Halva

Тахан халва

Crumbly sesame-paste confection sold in slabs, plain or marbled with cocoa, cut from a block by weight.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Tahini Halva

حلاوة طحينية

A dense sesame confection made by working tahini with boiled sugar syrup until it sets into a crumbly, fibrous block.

🇧🇬Bulgaria

Tarator

Таратор

A cold Bulgarian soup of diluted yogurt, minced cucumber, garlic, dill and walnuts, served chilled in summer.