Bosnia and Herzegovina

Food is similar to that in the rest of the Balkans, with kebabs (lamb-based Doner kebabs are the norm here) and Burek (meat, cheese or spinach wrapped in fried puff pastry) being the order of the day. Amazingly, there are currently no MacDonalds in Bosnia, although just to prove me wrong a branch is probably being airlifted into Sarajevo even as you read this.

Self-catering

There should be little need for self-catering, since restaurants are so plentiful and so cheap. If you do find yourself craving some hostel-cooked pasta or other tasteless rubbish, there are plenty of convenience stores, and market stalls for the more economically-minded. Don't expect to save any money this way though - restaurants and bakeries (Pekara) are already serving up the local food as cheap as it comes, and more varied foreign food comes at a high price.

Drinks

Beer

The local beer is very much in the Balkan style - quite light and sweet, and definately best served cold.

Wine

The locals throughout the former Yugoslavia only seem to drink wine mixed with cola (which is almost as disgusting as it sounds). Our French correspondent (who has the refined pallete for these sorts of things reports that the wine is so bad that it is in fact only fit to be mixed with coke. Unfortunately our second-cheapest-bottle-from-the-corner-shop correspondent agrees. Bosnia is no Bulgaria to be sure.

Coffee

Comes either in the turkish style, with the grinds still in the cup, or as espresso. If you want espresso-style ask for it, otherwise it is pretty much 50-50 what you will get. The actual taste of the coffee seems reasonable. Neskafa instant coffee is starting to make an appearance, but is still a premium product and hardly seems worth it.