burek / pita
Burek and Pita
Burek is the meat pie, and the cheese, spinach and potato pies have their own names. All of them are pita.
How It Works
In Bosnian bakeries, called buregdžinice, the names matter. Burek is a pie of thin pastry rolled around minced meat. A pie with another filling is a pita, and each has its own name.
| Name | Filling |
|---|---|
| burek | minced meat |
| sirnica | cheese |
| zeljanica | spinach or greens |
| krompiruša | potato |
There are more, such as tikvenica (squash). All of them can be called pita: Volim pite.
Outside Bosnia, and even in speech at home, people sometimes use burek sa sirom for a cheese pie. In Sarajevo you will usually hear the stricter names, and a visitor who orders burek expects meat.
All of these names are feminine except burek, which is masculine: jedan burek, jedna sirnica.
Examples (4)
- Jedan burek i jogurt, molim.
One burek and a yoghurt, please.
Burek means the meat pie.
- Za mene sirnicu, molim.
A cheese pie for me, please.
Sirnica becomes sirnicu as the thing asked for.
- Mama pravi zeljanicu za ručak.
Mum is making a spinach pie for lunch.
Zeljanica is a pita with greens.
- Imate li krompirušu?
Do you have a potato pie?
Krompiruša has its own name.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Food words.