Food and Dress

The cuisine of Bosnia shows influences from Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Middle East. Dishes based on mixtures of lamb, pork, and beef, especially in the form of sausages (called cevapcici) or hamburger-like patties (called pleskavica), were grilled along with onions and served hot on fresh somun (a thick pita bread). Bosnian hotpot stew (Bosnanki lonac), a slow-roasted mixture of layers of meat and vegetables, is the most typical regional specialty. It is usually served directly at the table in its distinctively necked, vase-like ceramic pot. More distinctly Turkish dishes are found in ascinicas (oriental restaurants), offering various kinds of burek (filled pastry), kebabs, and salads, with baklava for dessert. Pizza, that international dish, is readily available and often served with a cooked egg in the middle. It is generally eaten with a fork rather than the hand. Homemade plum brandy, known in Yugoslavia as rakija but exported to the U.S. as slivovitz, is the liquor of choice for men on most occasions, while women may opt instead for fruit juice. Popular nonalcoholic beverages other than fruit juices include Turkish-style coffee and a thin yogurt drink.

Huge bags of peppers are always available in the open air markets in the fall for home canning. Wild mushroom hunting is a popular family outing, as are picnics in the spring.

Although only a generation ago Bosnia was well known for having the widest variety of folk costumes in former Yugoslavia, little of this variety can be seen today except in very isolated mountain villages and in the stage costumes of amateur folklore ensembles. Most urban Bosnians in their daily dress are indistinguishable from other Europeans. In fact, bluejeans are ubiquitous. In large cities like Sarajevo, older men might occasionally be seen in the urban Muslim costume of breeches, cummerbund, striped shirt, vest, and fez. The baggy trousers worn by women (called dimija) spread to all three ethnic groups as a folk costume. They are rarely seen on the streets of cities nowadays, but are common in rural districts, and folk costume researchers were fond of saying that you could tell how high in the mountains a woman's village was by how high on the ankles she tied her dimija to keep the hems out of the snow. The chador (literally 'tent', which covers the woman from head to toe, especially her hair and face), familiar in orthodox Muslim countries, is not worn in Bosnia, even by the most devout Muslim women (the veil, per se, was outlawed after WWII). Headscarves and raincoats may have been symbolically substituted for the chador, particularly on religious holidays.

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