Bakery Counter · Custard Pie
Bougatsa Thessalonikis
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: avlxyz / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
The name goes back through Turkish poğaça to the Latin focacia, the same root as Italian focaccia, though the Greek pie has become something entirely different.
Hand-stretched, paper-thin filo is layered around a semolina custard (or, in savory versions, cheese or minced meat), baked until golden, then dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Bakeries across Thessaloniki serve it hot, sliced into squares, from early morning.
Why it's made this way: Refugees from the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe resettled heavily in and around Thessaloniki, and the bougatsa shops they opened made the pie the city's signature breakfast.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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