UTICA — Balkan Road Meals is coming to the New York State Honest to share a little bit of tradition and scrumptious meals with the lots.
Tarik Pehlic owns Two Brothers Cafe and Pizzeria and the meals truck Balkan Road Meals. “The truck is model new, however we’ve had our store right here in Utica for 20 years now,” Pehlic stated. “We named it ‘Balkan Road Meals’ after the Balkan area, which is Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, and Albania. And the meals that we’ll be promoting are the highest go-to meals from that area.”
Pehlic stated his household are immigrants from Bosnia who got here to america after the Bosnian Warfare of 1988. “My father is a baker by commerce, and proper after we immigrated, we opened up a enterprise in 2002,” he stated. “We began with a bakery after which transitioned to a restaurant and pizzeria.”
When requested why they had been going to the honest, Pehlic stated the purpose was to take among the meals bought at Two Brothers, deliver it to a broader viewers, and introduce it to individuals who is likely to be seeing it for the primary time.
Whereas Two Brothers has loads of widespread meals like subs, wraps, rooster, and pizza, it’s the meals from that Balkan space that can be on the menu on the honest.
One in every of these things is the selfmade phyllo dough pies — burek and sirnica.
“It’s made with handcrafted phyllo dough. We don’t purchase it at a retailer,” Pehlic stated. “It comes with a selection of both meat or cottage cheese filling.”
It takes time and ability to make phyllo dough by hand, one thing Pehlic says takes an actual craftsman to make. Usually made with flour, water, and a small quantity of oil, phyllo dough requires progressive rolling and stretching into a big sheet.
“You need to stretch the dough till it’s virtually paper skinny,” he stated. “When you fill it with meat or cheese and roll it up, it offers it a fluffy and flaky texture that units it other than every other savory pie.”
Different objects embrace cevapi, a nationwide meal within the Balkans consisting of minced veal and beef served in sausage type. The cevapi are then stuffed inside a selfmade bread referred to as lepinja. Sides embrace onion, bitter cream, roasted pink pepper, and a conventional eggplant sauce referred to as “ajvar.”
Gyros, also referred to as “doner kebabs,” are on the menu and manufactured from seasoned lamb and beef cuts. Recent cuts of meat are shaved off a vertical broiler after which served on pita bread. This wrap is then topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, pink cabbage, and selfmade tzatziki sauce.
Pehlic stated the cafe has turn out to be a go-to place through the years for folks on the lookout for some genuine dishes and thanked the Utica group for its hospitality.
“Utica has been open and handled us nice. We’ve been blessed, and it’s an incredible place to do enterprise,” he stated. “There’s a big Bosnian group right here in Utica, and whereas they’re consuming our meals, we even have Utica locals who aren’t used to it coming again and consuming as properly. General, we’re glad. Utica’s an incredible place.”
Pehlic stated that sharing meals is an opportunity to share tradition as properly, and the New York State Honest is an opportunity to try this on a much bigger scale.
“There’s going to be lots of people [at the fair] and hopefully, having extra folks attempt our meals or are simply curious, then resolve to make a visit out to Utica and go to,” Pehlic stated. “And if all the things goes properly, we hope to be part of the honest for years to come back.”
