While traveling through the former Yugoslavia in the last year before the war, we grew fat on mass quantities of grilled sausages, gelato-like ice cream and burek. For the uninitiated, that last item is a flaky, buttery phyllo dough pastry filled with meat, cheese, potatoes and sometimes spinach. Often baked in a large sheet pan and cut into squares that cost the equivalent of 50 cents, burek were a comforting and addictive hand-held meal for backpackers on a budget. And as Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood has seen a surge in the number of Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian eateries in the last few years, it has become an addiction that is relatively easily fed. Two-year-old Jadran Food Imports (4719 N. Lincoln Ave.; 773-878-1232) bakes up its generous oval-shaped burek (below) on site and serves them in meat or cheese varieties for $5 apiece. The meat ones are filled with ground lamb, while the cheese-stuffed variety offer a flavor akin to homemade macaroni and cheese. Balkan Restaurant (2321 W. Lawrence Ave.; 773-878-7764) serves up a similar burek to Jadran’s at the same price. If you can take the cigarette smoke, stay and enjoy the burek with a full meal at one of Balkan’s tables. And finally, Beograd Meat Market (2937 W. Irving Park Rd.; 773-478-7575), which has expanded into a full deli, dishes up a brown crispy round burek ($4.50-$5) that seems even more substantial than those at the other two places. Burek are best eaten while they are still warm, but they also reheat fairly well in the oven.
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Burek (BOO-rec)
$4.50-$5
Jadran Food imports
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Balkan Cafe
Beograd Meat Market
Thank you in Serbo-Croatian: Hvala