One of the most striking things about Bosnia-Herzegovina(I believe this is true about the Balkans in general) is the amount of food you are given when you order anything at any restaurant.
The portions here are HUGE, and I can almost never finish all the food that is given to me. Everything I order at a restaurant is really 2 meals for me.
The people here are also huge... the average man is a little over 6 feet tall, and the average woman seems to be around my height.(5'9") I'm sure this is because of large portions of food, but nobody is fat here, and I think it's because the food comes mostly from small farms, and not from giant, corporate, gmo garbage farms.
This is one of the trademark foods of the Balkans : Ćevapi.
This Ćevapi is from a place in old town, Sarajevo. It is the best one I've had so far.
Ćevapi is a huge pocket pita stuffed with mincemeat. I've only had it with mincemeat shaped like sausages, but it can be formed into any shape.
The first Bosnian restaurant I went to was in Visoko. I sat down and looked at the menu. I didn't know what anything was, so I just pointed at the first thing on the menu. It was Ćevapi.
Ćevapi usually comes in 3 sizes... 5, 10, or 15. I ordered the 10 size, because I figured a medium whatever it was would be nice.
The 10 meant there were 10 sausages stuffed into the giant pocket pita!!! 10 sausages!!!
This was at least 2 meals for me, and I didn't know how to ask for a to-go box, so I left a bunch of food on my plate, and slinked out of the restaurant in shame.
I was happy to learn that in Visoko, all uneaten food goes to stray dogs, so nothing was wasted.
This is another shape of mincemeat from a fancy restaurant in old town Mostar.
They called them mincemeat kukis(cookies), and they were served on a bowl of rice. This was like getting 5 hamburgers over rice!
Another thing I have noticed, is how much they love bread here! If you get bread with a meal, it's going to be 1/2 to 3/4 of a loaf! I have never been able to eat it all.
This is gulaš from Visoko. I ate every bit of this, but I couldn't finish the accompanying loaf of bread.
This gulaš was amazing, and was very much like the pot roast that my mom makes. I haven't found another place that serves gulaš yet:(
Sometimes I have the insatiable urge for a cheeseburger. Cheeseburgers are very common to find here, but, unless they are from a fast food place, they are way bigger than American cheeseburgers.
This is a cheeseburger from an amazing restaurant called 'Sova' in Prijedor.
This is a cheeseburger on the bottom with a freaking chicken sandwich on top of it!
Apparently the 2 in 1 burger is common, because they served me this today in Banja Luka.
This is a ham and steak sandwich, on top of a chicken sandwich, on top of a cheeseburger!
I have to stay active and keep walking up and down the hills here, because I will gain 1000 pounds if I don't!
Maybe if I eat enough Balkan food, I will get taller before I have to go back to America... that would be nice.