Bosnian speialaties – must eat when visiting Bosnia

When we travel to a foreign country we usually want to explore the history and the culture of that certain country and food is a big part of this exploration. Every country has their kind of cuisine and you might even find countries where the food is very similar. The Bosnian cuisine is for example very similar to the Turkish cuisine, the reason being that the Ottoman’s ruled the country for many years.

In general, they love meat in Bosnia so you’ll find a lot of meat dishes – especially grilled meat. If you tell a Bosnian that you’re a vegetarian they’ll look weird at you and tell you “oh so you eat like a rabbit”.

However, there are some dishes you simply HAVE to try when you travel to Bosnia and what’s even better is that the food is extremely cheap.

ĆEVAPI

is probably the most well known dish among tourists visiting Bosnia. This is what you can call a Bosnian kind of kebab. You’ll get small grilled meat sausages mad of lamb and beef mix served with onions, sour cream (that is kajmak) and Bosnian pita bread (lepina or somun).

When you order ćevapi you can either order a plate of 5 (for women) , 10 (for men) og 20 (for real men) meat sausages.

PITA

is the second most famous dish in the country. Pita is a baked filled pastry made of a thin flaky dough called “jufka”. Pita can be filled with almost anything but the most famous filling is of course the minced meat filling better know as burek. However, it’s typically filled with cheese, potatoes, spinach and other vegetables.

PEČENJE aka JAGNJETINA

is a very delicious meat-dish, especially known in the the area South from Sarajevo, Jablanica. It’s actually a whole lamb being roasted on a spit above hot coals for several hours. This dish is usually being served for weddings, birthdays and other family celebrations.

BOSANSKI LONAC

is a traditional Bosnian meat stew cooked over  open fire in a pot. There are many variations of the stew but usually the main ingredients are meat and various of vegetables. You have to look for a traditional restaurant if you want to taste this dish.

PUNJENE PAPRIKE

are fried or boiled peppers stuffed with minced meat, rice and potatoes. Super tasty!

GRAH 

is a student-dish, as I like to call it, as it’s very easy to cook but yet very rich and flavored. It’s a traditional bean stew with meat.

Bosnian Mezze

consist of the very popular smoked meat (usually beef) called “suho meso”, sausages aka “suduka”, sour cream (kajmak) and bread.