Balkan Food

I enjoyed reading Jane Kramer's various thanksgiving adventures abroad in the New Yorker (rather belatedly...just read it this past weekend).  She recounted some of the worst Thanksgiving dinners and named the Sodertalje dinner the absolute worst.  Her dinner guests that year were from Yugoslavia, working in a local factory in Sweden.  She figured a dinner with all its heartfelt intentions and loving physical labor could set aside ethnic conflicts between the Serbs, Slovenes and Croats.  It turned out to be very awkward and the turning point for this was when a Slovenian woman boasted that her people made the best cake.  Such a innocuous comment, but it goes to show how food is so important to our culture and identity.

Anyway, I had Yugoslavian food in Croatia and then again at Kafana in the East Village.  It's rich and I definitely want to try the other ones listed in a NY Times review of the Balkan Burgers:

[...nytimes]

BOSNA EXPRESS 791 Fairview Avenue (Forest Avenue), Ridgewood, Queens, (718) 497-7577.
BROTHERS PIZZERIA 30-50 14th Street (30th Drive), Astoria, Queens, (718) 777-1111.
CEVABDZINICA SARAJEVO 37-18 34th Avenue (38th Street), Astoria, (718) 752-9528.
KAFANA 116 Avenue C (Seventh Street), East Village, (212) 353-8000, kafananyc.com.
PASHA 31-01 31st Street (31st Avenue), Astoria, (718) 726-0230.
STARI MOST (OLD BRIDGE) 28-51 42nd Street (28th Avenue), Astoria, (718) 932-7683, oldbridgeny.com.
EMPLOYEES ONLY 510 Hudson Street (Christopher Street), West Village, (212) 242-3021, employeesonlynyc.com. The restaurant has an untraditional (but delicious) “Balkan burger” on the late-night menu.