One place that was fairly close by and was something I have tried to go to in the past was Mo Gridder's. Mo Gridder's is one of those unusual business combinations, consisting of barbecue and auto repair. But they were closed for the winter so the next closest thing I had was for Dukagjini Burek.
Unfortunately for me all I could remember was that I saw an episode of the tv show Bronx Flavor and they highlighted this restaurant for their burek, but I could not remember what the heck burek was. Not having a smart phone, I called up a friend to see if he could find out what is burek. After a few tries of spelling out the dish, he was able to find out what it is.
Burek (or borek) is a pastry made of phyllo dough and filled with meat, cheese, or vegetables that originated from the Balkans. Anything made with phyllo and filled with meat can't be bad so I made a beeline to Dukagjini Burek at the end of the day.
Dukagjini Burek looked kind of out of place situated amongst an array of hispanic restaurants and businesses. It is a small establishment with only 5 tables and counter service. The menu is quite limited to serving 3 types of burek (meat, cheese, and spinach), home-made yogurt and espresso. A whole burek costs $16 or you can get a slice for $4.
Unless I have had a dish before, I usually have a hard time making up my mind on what to select. With the aroma of the fresh baked bureks filling the air, it made my choice more difficult. There was one customer in the place and I asked him what he liked, and he was not really all that helpful as he said that he liked them all with some of the home-made yogurt on top. I decided to buy one of each but did not get the yogurt as I am not a really big yogurt fan.
The lady behind the counter took out a 3 freshly made bureks and cut them into slices and put them into a pizza box. I took the bureks home to eat and tried a little from each one as each slice was enough for a meal. The cheese burek was filled with feta and ricotta cheese, the spinach burek was filled with spinach and some feta, and the meat burek was filled with seasoned beef.
Overall the bureks was quite tasty with the beef being the best. It was savory with the meat having the right amount of seasoning. Next best was the cheese burek and then the spinach. I would have preferred there to be more seasoning in the spinach burek as it tasted of mostly spinach and very little feta. Next time I will try the yogurt to put on the burek.
Dukagjini Burek (***)
758 Lydig Avenue
Bronx, New York
(718) 822-8955
