As we’ve written before, each of your stories is something special. But this one… This one is REALLY special. Ben Garbutt dedicated his cycling journey from Slovenia to North Macedonia to finding the perfect burek, a very popular dish in this part of the world. We have to admit that he delved quite deeply into the ingridients, taste, and even method of serving this delicious and nutritious dish, and that he also wrote down some very good tips on how to find a good local burek and get to know the locals. That’s it, we’ll stop with the introduction, welcome to burek-landia! Ben, on behalf of all burek lovers (including everyone from the Trans Dinarica team), we thank you very much for your selfless adventure and comprehensive report.

Here’s a gift for all of you who are about to start your Trans Dinarica adventure: we’ve added almost all Ben’s favourite burek places (two of them we haven’t been able to identify precisely) as POIs to our navigation packages. Enjoy!

And, if you’d like to wear an ‘inspired by rakia, fueled by burek’ hoodie or T-shirt, you can find them in the shop.

Burek is one of the most common snacks as you cycle on the Trans Dinarica.

Bikepacking makes you hungry. Replacing those calories you are continually burning is important. What luck, then, that throughout the Balkans you can find tasty, affordable, handily-sized foodstuff anywhere you go: the mighty burek!

Setting off on my own tour from Slovenia to Macedonia, I made it my mission to try to find the most delicious burek everywhere I went. I had previously done a tour in Cornwall in the UK, where the Cornish Pasty – a pastry-based meal filled with meat and vegetables – had been my staple nutrition. Like the Cornish Pasty, the burek holds high cultural significance in its region of origin. People will have their own secret recipes, hold memories of especially excellent ones, sit with friends to share a meal for a moment, and go out of their way to visit their favourite vendor. The burek is a way of life!

What is burek?

Let’s do a quick explainer for the uninitiated. A burek is a savoury, layered pastry, made from thin filo dough wrapped around a filling*. This could be meat, cheese, spinach, potatoes, cabbage, or any combination of those things and more – there’s pretty much always a vegetarian option. It can be presented as a single individual hand-held spiral, but can also be served as a quarter of a larger whole (pizza sized) pie, or in parallel lines if it has been tray baked as a large batch.

Comment: Let’s please leave aside the debate about whether a real burek is only made with meat or can it also be made with cheese (which some call sirnica). There are certain local specifics regarding naming, which can be overlooked in the case of a cycling route across 8 countries. Thank you for your understanding.

Just as the presentation of the dish can vary, so can the restaurants. Ben also described some interesting suggestions on how to find a good burek.

Evaluation criteria

I wanted to rate my bureks as objectively as possible, so I devised a ranking system. Marks out of five were awarded for each of these criteria:

1. Crispy-chewy ratio. This is the essence of a burek. The outer layer must be crispy and provide a delectable contrast to the chewy inner layers of pastry.
2. Filling amount. You need enough to give a good contrast to the amount of pastry, but not too much to detract from it.
3. Filling flavour & seasoning. The chef’s special recipe and secret spice mix will come in here.
4. Temperature at sale. It must be warm, but not so hot as to burn your mouth.
5. Price-weight ratio. Providing an economic value-based score.
6. Aesthetic. Is there an inviting golden colour to the top? How well has it been presented to you?
7. User-friendliness. Is your burek easy to eat? Does it maintain its integrity, or does it fall apart?
8. Condiment offering. Bureks can be served with yoghurt (sometimes lightly salted).

Although this was my first trip through the Balkans, with the amount of bureks I was sampling I quickly became adept at finding the most likely places to offer a special one. Yes, you can buy bureks from supermarkets, and I frequently did (some of them were actually quite good), but specialist burek eateries are much more likely to offer a better product.

How would you go about finding the best burek in town?

Ask a local. Obvious I know, but let me encourage you even if you don’t have the language – which I do not. Sometimes I simply stood in the town square and said “Burek?” to the nearest person, miming eating and shrugging. It’s a great way to meet people. More often than not they will help, because they will be proud of their town’s finest offering. If you don’t want to ask, you can always ride around a bit and look for burek places that are busy.

Look for specialist establishments. Yes, bakeries which also offer all sorts of dough-based products will often have top notch bureks. But the places which exclusively serve burek will always be the best. They are often modest and unassuming places – you won’t find clever displays or the latest fonts and marketing on the shop window. In fact, they sometimes look slightly tired or old-fashioned. Seek these places out!

Use your map function. Just type “burek” into the search bar on your map. Most burek places will have been rated by customers. Look for many good ratings, not just one or two who may have been friends of the owner.

Check the presentation of the product. If you are offered the parallel line shape or the quarter-pie shape, it is more likely to be fresh from the oven. The individual spiral shapes are usually made for a clientele which want a portable product and may have been made some hours ago.

My quest for the perfect burek gave me some unforgettable experiences. More than once I was given free burek by the server for no apparent reason, or a person standing in line would simply offer to pay for mine without prompting. I can personally attest that the famous Balkan hospitality is alive and well!

Luckily, I could sometimes repay the karma circle by offering to buy the burek of the local who had graciously led me to the burek eatery. Eating together is a form of special human connection especially when there might not be a shared language. Everybody in the Balkans speaks the language of burek.

Some claim that the only true burek is the one with meat, but in the same form (thin dough) we can find various fillings, from cheese to various vegetables.

And the best bureks according to Ben are:

So where can you find a great burek? This list, whilst not being in any order at all, are my top recommendations:

• Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina – Bosna Buregdzinica; Bravadziluk 11, old town, Sarajevo. Truly special and fresh, served with a flourish and some yoghurt dressing.
• Peja, Kosovo – Byrektore. Tucked away, not obvious and very unassuming, but a spectacularly good product.
• Ljubljana, Slovenia – Burek Olimpija. The undisputed king of Slovenian burek emporiums, as voted so multiple times by locals.
• Novalja, Croatia – Pekarnica. On the island of Pag, up a side street slightly away from the centre, but worth the short detour.
• Tutin, Serbia – In between Caffe Atrium and Pizza Don lies a burek eatery serving hot, fresh, perfectly seasoned burek. No name adorns the shopfront, but the full tables of local clientele offer clues to the quality of the product.
• Skopje, North Macedonia – Bucko Burek Corner. Slightly out of the centre, not flashy but exceptional.

Go forth, cycle, and eat burek!

PS – there is another one I recommend: Burek Sarajeva in Prizren, Kosovo. Filled with locals and with a wonderful view over the old stone bridge as you eat. However, I didn’t stick it in because I was self-editing to include one per country that I visited, and I didn’t want to over-represent one country above any other. I didn’t include any in Montenegro because I was only in Rožaje for one night, and I didn’t visit Albania, sorry.

Notice: this is a selection of a cyclist who tried bureks on his cycling adventure. This does not mean that he tried every possible burek in the city. Therefore, we ask for your understanding if he did not try your favorite burek. Let this be an idea for another similar article. We are open to publishing YOUR research work!