Börek or burek are a family of pastries or pies found in the Balkans, Middle East and Central Asia. The pastry is made of a thin flaky dough such as filo with a variety of fillings, such as meat, cheese, spinach, or potatoes. Boreks are mainly associated with Anatolia, the Middle East, Armenia, and also with the former Ottoman Empire, including the Balkans and the South Caucasus, Eastern European and Central European countries, Northern Africa and Central Asia. A borek may be prepared in a large pan and cut into portions after baking, or as individual pastries. They are usually baked but some varieties can be fried. Borek is sometimes sprinkled with sesame or nigella seeds, and it can be served hot or cold. It is a custom of Sephardic Jews to have bourekas for their Shabbat breakfast meal on Saturday mornings. In Bosnia and Herzegovina it has become commonplace to have borek as a breakfast food with coffee. It is commonly served with afternoon tea in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is commonly served with a yogurt drink in Serbia and North Macedonia. Origin and names The English name borek comes from Turkish (Turkish pronunciation: [bœˈɾec]), while burek is the form used in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Other variants include byrek, in Albania; boureki in Greece; byurek () in Bulgaria; brik in Tunisia; and burekas in Israel. According to Sevan Nişanyan, the Turkish word may have come in turn from the Persian (), the diminutive form of or or (), meaning "stew", and refers to any dish made with yufka (filo). The Persian word bureh goes back to the Middle Persian *bōrak. This word ultimately goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root *bher- which meant "to carve, cut, split". The name of another pastry, shekarbura, is also borrowed from the same Persian word. Nişanyan noted the possibility of Turkic origin for the Persian word. Borek may have its origins in Persian or Turkish cuisine and may be one of its most significant and, in fact, ancient elements of the Turkish cuisine, having been developed in Central Asia before some westward migration to Anatolia in the late Middle Ages, or by nomadic Turks of central Asia some time before the seventh century. Another popular theory posits that it may be a descendant of the pre-existing Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Anatolian dish en tyritas plakountas (Byzantine Greek: εν τυρίτας πλακούντας) "cheesy placenta",