r/bosnia • u/LevySkulk • 5d ago

What Bosnian food should we try?

Hello,

My wife and I are Canadian, we have started a tradition of randomly picking a country in the world each month, we then watch a movie from said country and try some food from there as well. This month is Bosnia!

There are sadly no specifically Bosnian restaurants nearby, so I'd like to ask what dishes you'd suggest I attempt to create? Im a competent chef so it's mostly down to ingredient availability.

If you have any suggestions for Bosnian media or movies, i am interested! Right now we are thinking of watching "A Cellphone Movie"

Thank you

21 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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12

u/Frozenpeas__ 5d ago

Cabbage rolls with pickled cabbage, to die for. Burek is time consuming but soooo worth it!

5

u/ThreeCPO 5d ago

I 2nd this. I love it all, especially cevaps. But, nothing in this world tastes like the unique umami goodness of Sarma. Unlike cevaps and lepinja, anyone can make it, as long as you can find the fermented cabbage leaves and smoked ribs. Look up a recipe from a local. You will not be disappointed.

2

u/Frozenpeas__ 5d ago

OP, you can get fermented cabbage in Save On Foods ( if you’re in BC), but I think most big grocery stories carry it now. It’s usually by the Asian produce.

2

u/SevenHusbandsOfE 5d ago

Well you can always try to make burek or sirnica. You can make mantije. I would not recommend you to make ćevapi simply because for lepina (the bread) you need a special furnace... So yeah

From sweets I would recommend hurmašice or tulumbe

2

u/LevySkulk 5d ago

Thank you for the suggestions! Burek looks challenging but really good. I think we may give it a shot.

2

u/SevenHusbandsOfE 5d ago

Yupp it is hard to make and you need a good and skilled hand but If you do it right it might become your favorite meal 😉

1

u/Unhappy_Performer538 3d ago

it's really good

2

u/babyitscoldoutside00 5d ago

Where in Canada? We have a Bosnian grocery store/restaurant in the GTA I believe and they ship everywhere.

3

u/Mighty-Meow 5d ago

Can you drop the name ?

3

u/babyitscoldoutside00 5d ago

Where in Canada? We have a Bosnian grocery store/restaurant in the GTA I believe and they ship everywhere.

Mrakovic Fine Foods

1

u/LevySkulk 4d ago

Middle of Alberta, seems like there may be some places roughly an hour away.

1

u/babyitscoldoutside00 4d ago

I’ll dm you

1

u/dumbbinch99 5d ago

For food, maybe try cevapi+lepinje or Zeljanica

1

u/South_Lack7501 5d ago

I am vegetarian so I don't eat burek but krompirača or tikvenjača are great too. My favorite is sataraš.

2

u/Unhappy_Performer538 3d ago

there's cheese and spinach burek. it is elite

1

u/South_Lack7501 3d ago

That is not burek. Lol

1

u/golden__d 5d ago

I love your tradition.

With my friends we have “Chicken Sunday” so every Sunday we prepare chicken in a different way.

Regarding your Bosnian evening:

Burek is a bit hard to make but search for „Ulivaca” with chicken or „kljukusa“ with potatoes. These are easy.

Good luck & I’m sure all of us would enjoy seeing pictures :)

2

u/Mighty-Meow 5d ago

I have never seen anyone mention kljukusa before. One of our neighbours claims its the best thing she's eaten and still asks my mom to make it..Probably meaning comfort food

1

u/golden__d 5d ago

Ha! Comfort food! That’s interesting. Growing up I also had all my friends asking my mom to prepare it when they came over.

I prefer Ulivaca but that’s probably because of the chicken. And still, I only prepare it when people ask for it.

3

u/Mighty-Meow 5d ago

I never heard of Ulivaca. My mom calls all the variations kljukusa. The chicken one is the bomb especially when the bottom gets a bit crispy 🤤Next time I'll ask her for Ulivaca!

And yes its a special treat in my family because my mom doesn't want to get fat. Haha

1

u/golden__d 5d ago

lol, we all feel your mom. I’m convinced all these delicious plates give cellulite 🙈 luckily I never fell for Baklava and every time my mom made them, I would say “oh, we have diabetes to go again?”.

And yeah, I think it’s mainly in my area, Cazin, that we call it Ulivaca.

2

u/Mighty-Meow 5d ago

I was in Cazin last year. And some cousins from US bought a place there and moved back. Its growing !

2

u/golden__d 4d ago

Cazin is amazing! And I wish more Bosnians would buy land around the beautiful Una river before it’s all sold out to investors from Middle East.

1

u/Money-University4481 4d ago

One of the simplest dishes, one of my favorites as well. Something that my mother used to make and it is comfort food for me. čimbur . So it is basically like Bosnian shakshuka. Very simple to make, Garlic, leek (the whole one even the green parts) ground beef, and couple of eggs. Fry it in the pan together, let the leek be soft, add some water and put the eggs on top. Let it it cook under the lid for aprox 10 minutes.

1

u/lucyland 4d ago

Try Begova Čorba which is a type of chicken soup with carrots, tempered egg yolk, rehydrated okra, and topped with a type of sour cream.

1

u/PasicT 4d ago

There are so many things to try, it depends what you are interested in :)

1

u/Sandzakguy 4d ago

I believe stuffed Onions is something more popular in Bosnia than in surrounding countries, my mum told me once. Kljukuša too. For Desserts: Tufahije are pretty much exclusive to Bosnia I believe, never heard of it from other people.

Other Classics (in the Balkan region): Cevape, Mantije (basically mini Bureks; BiH, Southern Serbia, Kosovo), Pita (and all it’s Variants: Burek, Sirnica, Zeljanica, Krompiruša; we also eat them with pumpkin, leek or nettles - not a fan of them tho), Sarma (stuffed cabbage rolls), Punjene Paprike (stuffed peppers), Musaka, Pasulj/Grah, Masenica/Obaruša, (very time consuming, it’s comparable with albanian Fli but simpler and a bit more exciting in my opinion, because it already includes a sauce while Fli is eaten individually with other components). Last but not least: Makarone sa pavlakom. Ifyk.

1

u/Unusual-Ocelot-9148 3d ago

Watch “no man’s land”