Tony & Tina's Pizza and Burek

The bureks filled with mish, djath, and spinaq take the typical pielike form, but the kungal will throw you a curve.

Like most savory bureks in the city, Tony & Tina's meat, cheese, and spinach varieties are baked in a circular pan, and they hold their shape even in quarters (the size of a slice; $3.50). But the pumpkin (above and below; $3.50 each) is filled with a messy (and sweet) puree that must be confined in a long thin roll, which is then coiled before baking. This spiral shape is common to many bureks in Albania and Kosovo, said the counterman, but because it requires so much prep room, Tony and Tina's uses it only for the pumpkin. (Since my original post, readers have pointed out a number of other venues that prepare spiral bureks.)

That's not to slight the more familiar style; even though a reheated slice (below) was covered in crispy phyllo and filled with crumbly ground meat, the pastry layers within retained a nearly noodlelike chewiness. (With savory bureks, many folks also order a cup of plain yogurt (not shown; $1.25) to balance the oiliness, and it's exactly that: a cup of plain yogurt.) But the phyllo that encases Tony and Tina's pumpkin burek is so feathery and pliable, it invites playfully gluttonous competition. Go with a good friend, and you can have a tabletop tug-of war.

Tony & Tina's Pizza and Burek
2483 Arthur Ave. (at East 189th St.), Bronx
718-733-8094

Comments

[Aaron Byrd]

I think Cevabdzinica Sarajevo in Queens makes all their bureks in a coil.

[steve koppelman]

And... uh... shoot.. some Balkan grocery store I ran across in Ridegewood a few weeks back... Parrot Coffee & Grocery, it was. Darned fine pumpkin burek and they didn't heat it in a microwave. Nice and crunchy and flaky.

[Dave Cook]

Thanks for the tip, Steve. (Balkan parrot?)

[Dave Cook]

Previously, BTW, an email correspondent informed me that Chuck's Pizzeria, at the corner of Victory and Cebra Aves. on Staten Island, also prepares coiled bureks.

[zoirusha]

delicious indeed

[Stephanie]

Wonderful stuff. I passed by here on my way to the shops on East 187th, and picked up a pumpkin burek to take home. It crisped up nicely in my oven.