The pastry is made of a thin flaky dough such as filo with a variety of fillings, such as meat, cheese, spinach, or potatoes.

It is commonly served with ayran or yogurt in Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, North Macedonia and Romania.

According to lexicographer Sevan Nişanyan, the Turkish word börek is ultimately originated from Turkic bögrek, from böğür (meaning 'kidney').

[3] According to another theory, it may have come from the Persian burak (بورک), the diminutive form of būra or buġra or (بوره/بغره), meaning "stew", and refers to any dish made with yufka (filo).

There are many variations of börek in Turkish cuisine: In the former Yugoslavia, burek, also known as pita in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is an extremely common dish, made with yufka.

Modern bakeries offer cheese and spinach, meat, apple, sour cherries, potato, mushroom, and other fillings.

The final form can be small, individual triangles, especially from street vendors called "byrektore" which sell byrek and other traditional pastries and drinks.

[30][35] Eaten for any meal of the day, in Bosnia and Herzegovina the burek is a meat-filled pastry, traditionally rolled in a spiral and cut into sections for serving.

Bougatsa (Greek is a Greek variation of a borek which consists of either semolina custard, cheese, or minced meat filling between layers of phyllo, and is said to originate in the city of Serres, an art of pastry brought with the immigrants from Constantinople and is most popular in Thessaloniki, in the Central Macedonia region of Northern Greece.

[44][better source needed] In Slovenia, burek is one of the most popular fast-food dishes, but at least one researcher found that it is viewed negatively by Slovenes due to their prejudices towards immigrants, especially those from other countries of former Yugoslavia.

[45] A publication of a diploma thesis on this at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana in 2010 stirred controversy regarding the appropriateness of the topic.

[46] The mentor of the student that had written the thesis described the topic as legitimate and burek as denoting primitive behaviour in Slovenia in spite of it being by his account "sophisticated food".

[47] In 2008, an employee of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SRC SASA) had attained his PhD degree with a thesis on meta-burek at the University of Nova Gorica.

[48][49][50] The regional cuisine of the Moldavian West bank of the Pruth still yields a type of dumpling-like food called burechiuşe (sometimes called burechiţe) which is described as dough in the shape of a ravioli-like square which is filled with mushrooms such as Boletus edulis, and sealed around its edges and then tossed and subsequently boiled in borscht like soups[51] or chorbas.

In Algeria, this dish is called bourek, a delicious roll of pastry sheet stuffed with meat, onions, and spice, is one of the main appetizers of Algerian cuisine.

[55] It is a starter served when receiving guests and especially during Ramadan evenings during the round meal of the holy month, usually accompanied by Algerian Chorba or Harira.

Other forms include bourek packed with chicken and onions, shrimp and béchamel sauce, or a vegetarian alternative usually made of mashed potatoes and spinach.

It is a savory entree made from brik leaf, stuffed with mashed potatoes and a mixture of minced meat, onions, cheese and parsley.

Other related pastries traditionally consumed by Sephardic Jews include bulemas and boyoz, which are also popular in the Turkish city of Izmir.

In Tunisia, there is a variant known as the brik (/briːk/ BREEK; بريك) that consists of thin crepe-like pastry around a filling and is commonly deep fried.