BALKAN CULINARY WARS I: TURKEY, BULGARIA, SERBIA AND GREECE IN A RUTHLESS FIGHT OVER A GREASY SNACK
by Albena Shkodrova

Balkan Travellers
ticle/272
Jan 9 2008
Bulgaria

A dozen modifications of the same dish are at the bottom of a deep
culinary dispute on the Balkans. The Bulgarian banitsa, the Serbian
gibanica, the Greek pita, the Macedonian maznik and the Bosnian-Turkish
borek are in constant competition over the hearts and stomachs of
millions of heavy dough snack fans. Not long ago, I went into a snack
bar in central Sofia with a friend. We were the only customers and
as soon as we approached the counter, the bored saleswomen greeted us:

"Would you like a banitsa or a borek?"

Because in Bulgaria the borek is not filled with meat as it is in
Bosnia and Turkey, but rather – similarly to banitsa, it is made
of phyllo sheets and cheese, I decided to clear up the confusion in
the terms.

"And what exactly is the difference?" I asked.

The saleswoman looked at me, cheerfully, and said:

"There is no difference!"

"Then why ask?" – that was the first question that came to mind. But
before I could utter it, it occurred to me that there was another,
much more interesting conundrum at hand:

"Then how do you tell them apart?"

The cheerfulness in the saleswoman’s eyes turned into genuine regret.

She had the expression of a mother who has just discovered that her
child doesn’t know the alphabet at the end of the first grade and
she was quick to disclose, very loudly, a fact that was apparently
a secret only to me:

"Well, one is turned over, isn’t it!" she explained condescendingly.

"That’s good!" I noted. "So, when you run out of borek, you turn some
banitsa over and then you have a bit of both again!"

My sense of humour was either not welcome or entirely missed, as it
led to an explanation about how the whole thing was like with sweets –
how in fact they are all sweets, made out of dough.

This conversation testifies not only for the complete chaos in
culinary terminology on the Balkans but also for the reason for
it – the similarity between the different cuisines of the people
in the region. This proverbial similarity makes people ignore the
differences. And Bacchus, without a doubt, is like the Devil – in
the details.

In Turkey

Turkish water borek with spinach

In Turkey, whose cuisine supplied all the Balkan nations with
inspiration, the borek is especially honoured – one is assured of
that upon seeing the sign on the unique International Borek Centre in
Istanbul. The word is used in reference to an assortment of stuffed
phyllo pastries. The water borek, su boregi, is prepared by boiling
the phyllo sheets before stuffing and baking them. Parsley is often
added to the cheese and it seems that Turks are the most creative
when it comes to vegetable stuffing. They use aubergines, nettle,
zucchini and many spices, with which the rest of the Balkan countries
traditionally have not had the courage and patience to experiment.

Despite that, all the varieties are all called borek, and the type
of stuffing is added as clarification.

Beside the water borek, other popular versions include the cigarette
borek, sigara boregi -it has the shape of a cigar, and the triangular
puf boregi.

In Bulgaria

The classic Bulgarian banitsa is made from pastry sheets of various
thickness, sprinkled with yogurt and oil, wrapped around a stuffing
made of cheese and eggs.

There are some variations, such as adding leek or spinach, or even
cabbage or rice. They are still called banitsa, though rarely one
can encounter names such as luchnik[ital], derived from the Bulgarian
word for ‘onion’, and zelnik – from ‘cabbage’. A definite exception
is the sweet banitsa with pumkin and walnuts, known as tikvenik –
from the word tikva, or ‘pumkin’.

Bulgarian Tikvenik

The introduction of mass eateries throughout Bulgaria dramatically
simplified the traditional banitsa recipe by leaving out one of the
four ingredients. The eggs were done away with (except, sometimes,
they are used in the phyllo preparation) and the feta cheese got
substituted with cottage cheese.

The introduction of pre-made multi-sheet pastry confused things even
more and any phyllo pastry stuffed with anything started going by
the name of banitsa, as long as it wasn’t croissant- shaped. It is
difficult to say what the word borek stands for in Bulgaria, as each
and every baker has an opinion on the issue. There are even internet
forums, where confused people ask about the difference between banitsa
and borek, without getting a proper answer. The consensus is that
the borek is "richer."

In Serbia

The traditional Serbian dish is the gibanica. It is very similar to
the Bulgarian banitsa – the phyllo sheets are prepared with eggs,
the traditional stuffing consists of feta cheese, though it could
also be made with onion, potatoes or spinach.

In Serbia, the word borek stands for a special pastry, the sheets of
which are hand-made through tossing them up in the air. The stuffing
could consist of meat, vegetables, leek or anything that one might
also put in a Bulgarian banitsa.

A popular version is the round borek from Ni~Z. Apparently, it has a
history spanning over five centuries- approximately since the Ottoman
Empire’s conquest of the Balkans.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina

Here the borek is very popular, but the word is used only in reference
to phyllo stuffed with ground meat. Even though the bakeries, known
as pekara, offer many kinds of pastries, they all have distinctive
names – krompirusa for potato-stuffed pastry, zelianica and sirnica
for pastries stuffed with cabbage and cheese respectively.

In Greece

Here the word borek is used in reference to small pastries. The cheese
and egg variety is called tiropita (tiro means ‘cheese’) and the
spinach one – spanakopita. Another version is the bougatsa, called
Μπου&am p;#947;άτσα in Greek –
in it, the phyllo sheets are not wrapped around but rather laid out
horizontally, with the stuffing spread between them, like lasagna,
and then baked. Other varieties are sweet – with a vanilla and egg
cream, with cheese and with minced meat.

The bougatsa – whose name is related to the Bulgarian word pogacha
and the Turkish bogaca, meaning a round loaf of bread, originated
in the Thessaloniki region. Today, it is still sold there and in two
other places in Greece – in Heraklion on Crete and in Khania. It is
said that Armenian refugees from Asia Minor brought it to Heraklion.

P.S. In Bulgaria, this dish is also called banitsa! Actually, in
Bulgaria anything can be called banitsa – even the country itself.

When media report on a redistribution of power between politicians,
they metaphorically claim that the latter are "splitting the banitsa."