Dolma is something you have to try when in Bosnia and unlike the Lebanese (or neighbouring) cuisine, the variety is very interesting. In this post we’ll talk about the typical dolma and also the variety available in the Bosnian cuisine. We will explore its significance and origin in the cuisine and we will also highlight where you can sample some of the best dolma in Sarajevo Bosnia.
What is dolma?
Dolma is stuffed vegetables and the most common form is grapevine leaves that are stuffed with rice, onions and meat. The taste is tart and sour and they are usually served as a starter or as part of a mezze (spread of cold (or hot) starters). Where is it from? This is a debate that can go on forever and honestly I don’t know conclusively where it is originally from. It has been attributed to Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey Greece and even Armenia! Yeah that’s a lot of nations staking their claim for this dish. Let’s delve into what is Bosnian dolma.
What is Bosnian dolma?
Let’s now talk about Bosnian dolma and how it is different to the above. Dolma in Bosnia takes a variety of forms and unlike the other nations the grapevine leaf one is not necessarily the most popular or best one. They all have their own names too. When you have all of them on one plate then it’s called Šarena (which means colourful) dolma, the one with onion by itself is sogan dolma, japrak is with vine leaf, punjene paprike is stuffed peppers, sarma is with cabbage, and the stuffed tomato is (I think) used when making Šarena dolma. If you’re visiting Bosnia and want to sample as much of the local food as you can, I’d recommend getting the colourful platter so you can try the variety (Šarena). This way you can try multiple dolma in one sitting. If you only want to try one, I’d strongly recommend trying the onion dolma (Sogan). This is probably the most popular and in our opinion the tastiest one we tried.
Where is the best place to try Bosnian dolma?
We were advised by a local that if you want to try local cuisine (including dolma) the best restaurants to visit are Ascinica – I’m not sure what these mean to be honest, but I assume they kind of represent the London cafs, where the place is no frills and the food is what locals would have at home and the prices are reasonable and affordable. That is what it seemed like anyway. And there are numerous Ascinica in the old town of Sarajevo, so you can take your pick. According to our own research the best one or one of the best is ASDZ. Unfortunately, these close early (7 pm latest with some even earlier). So, if you want to visit them maybe go for lunch. We didn’t know this and so weren’t able to visit any.
Nanina Kuhinja supposedly does good dolma (this is the place we tried klepe in – read more). But where did we try our dolma? We wanted to visit ASDZ on our last night, but didn’t realise they close early. So, we stumbled upon Steak House Bosanska kuća. They were halal and they had authentic dishes on their menu and most importantly they had dolma. The dolma was delicious here, but even more so what took us by surprise is the veal curry we got. It was splendid. The restaurant itself had this soviet looking style to it. It felt like we were in Russia or something.
Is it just Turkish food??
Most of my Bosnian food series posts on Instagram and TikTok went viral and so this attracted numerous people from numerous parts of the world to comment and engage with my posts. Unfortunately, this meant that a lot of haters have come through to spread hate and, in all honesty, expose their own insecurity. To simplify Bosnian food and just call it Turkish, is naive, silly and just straight up culturally ignorant. Firstly, you need to educate yourself about the history of the ottomans and Islam in Bosnia. It will surprise you and hopefully make you realise a little more about the country, its history, its religion and even its food influences. Secondly, you need to educate yourself about how food works. Wherever you go in the world, you’ll find dishes (a few to many) that have been derived from or influenced by dishes from other parts of the world. I come from England and so I’ll use my country as an example – I implore you to look up the national dish of England. And I’ll leave it there…
Getting there
Google Maps link
