Börek

Börek is a family of Turkish savoury pastries made from layers of thin yufka around a filling. It is not one dish. The form matters more than the filling, and two things both called börek can eat nothing alike.

What it actually is

Yufka — a very thin pastry sheet, the same kind used for baklava — is layered or rolled around a filling of white cheese and parsley, spiced minced meat, spinach or potato, brushed with butter, and baked or fried.

The forms are what to know:

• Su böreği — "water börek", the most laborious and most prized. The yufka sheets are briefly boiled in salted water before layering, which gives a soft, yielding, almost lasagne-like result rather than a crisp one.
• Sigara böreği — thin rolls the shape of cigarettes, filled with cheese and fried.
• Kol böreği — rolled into a long rope and coiled, then baked.

It is Ottoman in origin and travelled widely: across the Balkans, where it is burek, and into the Caucasus and Central Asia.

How it's served

• By the slice or by weight, from a börekçi — a shop that sells nothing else.
• From early morning, with tea. It is breakfast food as much as anything.
• Warm, cut into squares from a large tray.

Writing it on a menu

• Name the form, not just the filling. Su böreği is soft and layered; sigara böreği is crisp and fried. A line that only says "börek" tells the guest almost nothing.
• Say whether it is baked or fried, and sell it by the slice or by weight the way börekçi shops do.
• The cheese and spinach versions are vegetarian; the meat one is not. List them separately.
• Note the allergens: gluten, dairy and usually egg.