Besides the cultural and historical landmarks of Bosnia and Herzegovina, visitors will very likely love the Bosnian cuisine featuring lots of influences left of the rule of the Ottoman Empire for almost 500 years. Bosnian cuisine is about the food, cooking, and eating habits balanced between the Western and the Eastern influences. Bosnian food is closely related to Turkish, Greek, and other Mediterranean cuisines. However, due to years of Austrian rule, there are many influences from Central Europe. Special joy and pleasure of visitors to Bosnia and Herzegovina provides meze, which is actually slow enjoyment in food and drink consumption, along with conversation, that is truly art of life, which often lasts the whole day, in tasting of smoked meat, sausages, cheese, pickeld vegetables, homemade bread and other specialties.
Locals usually joke that Bosnia is not good place to visit if you are vegetarian or vegan, because a lot of meals involve meat or cheese, or both in most cases. However, while there are many more options for people who do eat meat, there is still plenty of delicious vegan or vegetarian meals.
Bosnian cuisine uses many spices, but usually in moderate quantities. In most occassions only the Christian population eats pork. You should not go through or go out of Bosnia, and not to try delicious ćevapi or tempting “Bosnian pitas” or the chopped burek under the iron pan in number of bakeries.
Most of meat is fresh and comes from mountains, so visitors immediately taste the difference.
Here are specialties of the Bosnian cuisine not to be missed : Sogan Dolma /fried onions stuffed with minced meat/, Ćimbur sa suvim mesom /slightly baked mixture of minced meat and spices/, Aščikadumine sarmice /pancakes filled with chicken meat and cheese and kaymak/, Begova čorba /the most popular soup made of veal and vegetables/, Bosanski lonac /famous meat stew cooked over an open fire/, jagnjetina /roasted lamb/, sudzuk /smoked beef or sausages similar to pepperoni/, pilaf /rice cooked with onions and meat/, bamija /okra with veal/, balkava, tulumba, tufahija /traditional sweets flaky pastry with a filling of nuts, drenched in sugar syrup or honey.
The best local wines come from Herzegovina where the climate is suitable for growing grapes. Plum brandy – sljivovitza or apple rakija are produced in Bosnia and renown for thier taste and quality.
Also, most of the products, from vegetables to cheese are organic and produced on the private farms of the locals. The food is also a lot cheaper