Lejla Mehmedović

Sarajevo runs on coffee, and I mean the real Bosnian kind in a copper džezva with a sugar cube you dip and bite. I studied Turkish language at the university and worked as a translator, which is a nice job but a lonely one. We start with burek at a place that has been baking in the same wood oven since the sixties, then ćevapi in somun bread with raw onion, then tufahija and baklava, and we finish with coffee on a low stool in the Kazandžiluk, the coppersmiths' street. I also host a cooking afternoon at my aunt Senada's house in Vratnik, where she teaches pita dough stretched thin across the whole kitchen table. I will explain which food is Bosnian, which is Ottoman and which argument you should never start at a family table. These days you can join me from anywhere: I walk Sarajevo live with my phone and answer questions on the spot.