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Comment by bump64 | Hacker News Reader

If you visit the Balkans make sure to try it. There are many variations of the börek and all them are great.

At least in Bosnia, there are no variations of the börek. There is only one börek - with meat. Other "variations" with cheese, potato etc.. they have also a different name. Basically if you order a börek, you will get it with meat.

Yes, this is a common "fight" between people in Bosnia and neighboring countries:

In Bosnia, "börek" (or "burek", as is its local spelling) is only filled with meat, while the rest of the dishes fall under the broader category of "pitas" (or pies): sirnica (filled with cheese), krompiruša (filled with potatoes), zeljanica (filled with cabbage), jabukovača (filled with apples)...

In Serbia and Croatia, they're all "burek" with different stuffings, so burek with cheese, burek with potatoes, etc.

It's a weird hill to die on, but you will receive some weird looks if you request just "burek" in Serbia/Croatia/Montenegro, or "burek with cheese" within Bosnia.

Zeljanica is, despite its name, filled with spinach rather than cabbage. Then there's also an abomination called "pizza-burek", it's probably as bad as it sounds...

Borek and Goran Bregovic are the only 2 things that whole Balkans can agree on.

They also all agree that their country once comprised all of the Balkans and possibly was the cradle of western civilization.

Albanians have it, too - byrek.

Most typically 'me mish' or 'me spinaq' - with meat or with spinach.

There's a few places in the Chicagoland area that serve Börek (I see it spelled Burek here also). The one closest to me offers fillings of ground beef, spinach and feta, mushrooms, or potato. They are all very good.

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