Burek at Pekara Arta
Posted on June 5, 2006
Freshly baked breads and sweets are everywhere in Croatia. One can scarcely propel oneself 500 meters without seeing a pekara or pekarnica (’bakery’ and ‘bake shop’ respectively), and while I was in the Maksimir area of town waiting for a friend to finish work, I did some work of my own: I walked up and down Maksimirska Ulica looking for good burek. I think I found the best burek in town at Pekara Arta. As you may know, everyone has “the best” everything in Croatia, regardless of where you go or what you’re talking about. In the case of this burek, though, gushing with hyperbole is fairly apt…
Burek is a flaky, layered pie that can be filled with all sorts of delightful things. It is not unlike the tiropita or spanakopita of Greece, but portions of burek are generally far larger. Burek came to the Balkans from Turkey, most likely arriving with Turkish conquerors in Bosnia and Hercegovina before spreading to the neighboring regions of Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. My friend Sulejman from Banja Luka tells me of burek that is filled with ham, cheese and apples. In Croatia I have still only seen the cheese and meat varieties. No problem. If you know me, you know that I’ll first request meat every time. Seldom is the actual animal source of the meat specified, but meat burek is usually filled with beef. In Croatia, “meat” is generally beef, veal, lamb, pork, or a commingling of any of the above. Bring me two of every animal.
Unfortunately, they had no meat burek at Pekara Arta when I visited. Perhaps they ran out, or maybe they never proffer it. My grasp of the Croatian language is still fairly weak, so I seldom ask why a thing is or is not so. I’m generally ecstatic when I receive what I ask for, but in the case of the cheese burek I “settled” for, ecstasy is not a strong enough word.
Arta’s burek was served quite warm, and QUITE full of cheese. Whether it was the fresh, ricotta-like svježi sir of the region or Zagreb’s own Zagrebački sir (slightly firmer and drier, but not by much) is impossible to discern. It was as soft and splendid as the lamb brains on-the-halfskull I enjoyed with the Strinić and Brozinčević families in Grabovac back in April. And just look at the butter leaking from my burek sa sirom onto the paper…
A friendly young man standing outside the bakery overheard my accent, recognized me as an Irish-American who has studied Russian, and informed me that it is customary to squeeze a little bit of cheese or meat into your eye before you enjoy your burek. I thanked him in Gaelic for his helpfulness and promptly did so.
» Filed Under Uncategorized, croatia
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.