Since this has mutated into a regional food thread, I’d like to mention one very special dish from the Balkans, called burek. It originates from Turkey, but it has changed quite a bit here on the Balkans, so our version only superficially resembles the Turkish dish.
It’s especially popular in Bosnia, the best burek I’ve eaten was in Sarajevo. It is also very, very common in Croatia, here in Zagreb there are at least a hundred places where you can buy it, usually at bakeries (of varying quality, some great, some inedible). It is also very popular in Serbia, Macedonia and Albania.
It is a pie-like dish made from very elastic, thin sheet pastry. When property made, the pastry is chewy on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside. The filling is typically minced meat (beef or lamb) and onions, but cottage cheese is just as popular, and there are other varieties, which are quite rare: like cheese and sour cream, spinach and cheese, apples, potatoes, cabbage, leeks, even pumpkin or zucchini. It’s always savoury, except the apple filling, which is sweet. My favourite filling is cheese, but I also like it with apples.
It comes in two variants, the large one which serves four, and is cut into four triangles:
And the single serving one (which is actually a larger portion) which is rolled up and shaped into an elongated spiral, like this:
It goes very well with yoghurt as a drink, and even better with sour milk.