Alas Poor Burek....

One day, I was driving down Graham Rd. in Cuyhoga Fall, OH and passed by Kiflis Bakery. I have never been in there and quite frankly I'm a little confused by the place. They have signs for gyros and they have signs that state "Walnut Strudel made us famous" Gyros are Greek. Strudel is German. Kiflis itself, I believe, is an Hungarian dish. I don't know what to make of the place. Maybe it's just a melting pot of stuff.

At any rate, I was driving by and they had sign out front that said, "Fresh Burek with Beef today." I was intrigued. Just what is burek? Right away I got out my cell and called my friend Madonna. She is the most knowledgeable foodie I know. So I asked, "hey, what is burek?" She didn't know, but we decided I should go in and find out and give it a try. After hanging up, I called another friend, Elaine. She's Lebanese and knows way more about cuisine of that area than I ever will. I struck out again. She didn't know either.

Well by this time I was close to home and decided it would have to wait for another day. I looked online to see if I could find out what the heck burek is. Wikipedia had a whole ton of information. Confusing information really. It seems like it is from many many places, but generally the area along the Adriatic, but not exclusively. Many many counties have their own versions of burek. I welcome an education on this dish, so please right me if you know about burek.

So fast forward to this past Saturday. Nick and I were heading to Kreiger's Farm Market and had to go past Kiflis. Wouldn't you know the fresh burek sign was up again! This time I wouldn't be passing it by. We went in and the aroma in that place was heavenly! We went straight to the warm case and saw the burek for the first time. It was round and coiled. So for $4.95, you get this large pastry filled with beef or with cheese (the two they had available on this day). We bought beef.



Burek. I finally bought it and got it home and was ready to dig in. I split in half and Nick took half and I took half.



The level of deliousness here is off the charts! The meat is so savory and flavorful. Truly, if I didn't know it was beef, I would have thought it was sausage. It was amazing. I was so enamored with this dish that I didn't even pay attention to the spices and herbs that were used in the meat. I was just too busy enjoying it. The phyllo was flaky and crispy, but tender inside. The meat the perfectly cooked and not the least bit greasy. Nick said at first that he wasn't going to eat his whole half because he wanted to have something else too. But after the first bite he said, "I think I'm going to eat all of this."

So the moral to the story is, if you see a sign that says, "fresh burek today" don't hesitate! Now I can't wait to try the cheese one and the spinach and cheese one.