Balkanika - Des Plaines

Hi all,

My wife and I spent some time in Bulgaria for her brother's wedding and were looking for a taste of some of the amazing food we had there and stumbled upon Bulkanika which is just a few minutes from our house.

We sampled quite a few dishes (grilled feta salad, cheese bites and jam which we had every morning in Bulgaria!, vegetarian sach, grilled salmon, veggie clay pot, etc.) and some of them were very enjoyable and the price point was well worth it. While not specifically Bulgarian there were definitely some dishes on there that reminded us of our time spent in that region. Just wondering if anyone else has tried this spot and what your thoughts were.


Bulkanika
1414 E Oakton St
Des Plaines, IL 60018
(224) 567-8267

Thanks for the comments. Balkanika is seconds away from our house and we've been eyeballing it since they opened. Somehow, we just never found the right occasion, or got up the nerve, to check them out. We've been to Mehanata, Des Plaines other big Eastern European offering, several times and really enjoyed it. Now we'll need to get over to Balkanika and see how they compare.

Buddy

another Des Plaines spot to check out, excellent. Thanks for posting.

Chicagoland has the largest Bulgarian population outside of Bulgaria, and to the best of my knowledge, it is centered around Des Plaines. Balkanika has great food, Mehanata's strength is the wide variety of appetizers served in a charming, rustic setting, Malincho is a Bulgarian grocery store with a selection of lutenitsa, Bulgarian feta, and various cured meat products, and next door is a liquor store with a wide variety of Bulgarian wines and rakia (fruit brandy).

This post is making me hungry. I need to get back to Balkanika.
Balkanika mixed grill

Balkanika shopska salad

Restaurant Mehanata
1141 Lee St.
Des Plaines, IL

Malincho
1475 Lee St.
Des Plaines, IL

Any new reports? Planning to go and would like advance intel. Previous posts made it sound like several people planned to go.

diversedancer wrote:Any new reports? Planning to go and would like advance intel. Previous posts made it sound like several people planned to go.

I am one of those as I'm local to Des Plaines. Haven't been yet to Balkanika, I have been again recently to the Des Plaines Bulgarian restaurant Mehanata, I was with a large group of folks in late fall 2018, still delicious. viewtopic.php?p=537226

In the same general area, at the corner of Oakton and 83 in Mt. Prospect, is a little strip mall that covers a lot of the world -- and includes Serdika, a Bulgarian and Balkan grocery store and deli, and Balkan Taste, which is Serbian/Balkan restaurant -- which clearly hasn't found a need to cater to non-Balkan visitors (no decaf coffee or iced tea, for example). I've only visited once, but I liked it well enough to already have a return visit scheduled.

Cynthia wrote:at the corner of Oakton and 83 in Mt. Prospect, is a little strip mall that covers a lot of the world -- and includes Serdika, a Bulgarian and Balkan grocery store and deli, and Balkan Taste, which is Serbian/Balkan restaurant --

I've been to Balkan taste, as I recall, a more limited menu than Mehanata (been to many years ago) or Balkanika, but certainly good for a quick in and out. Also been to the Sushi place with sushi delivered on boats, many, many, years ago.

I chose Balkanika because they have a parking lot plus plenty of local street parking. The tiny lot at Mehanita is usually filled with broken cars awaiting service at the auto shop (or clearly long term junkers) and liquor store customers, and street parking is very limited within 2-3 blocks (and mostly filled with cars for the restaurant across the street). Last time I went with a crowd, people parked in lots for other stores, a risky business, and I don't want to be the person in charge if somebody gets towed this time.

Thanks for reminding me of the several ethnic grocery stores that I'll have to check out.

I led a group of 15 adults and one child Sunday, it was a rounding success, even the 6 year old had a great time. I'll go back, at least if I have anybody to go with (hint hint), or maybe just get carry out for some items I want to try.

Chicken hearts were popular, even a few people that said they didn't normally like them.

I loved the calamari, but then I'm a calamari addict.

Others like the wolf bites (pork) and they were almost gone before I got one.

The sausage and smoked pork would have been good as a snack food at a party, but not as suitable for a sit down dinner, perhaps.

Soup was kind of typical, good but not memorable, IMHO. If I go back I'll try a different one. In my conversations, they seemed to indicate this was the most typical Bulgarian soup.

Katak was tasty, would have been a good spread on crackers or mini breads, like at a buffet for a party, but didn't go so well at a sit down, though, I still liked it as I am a cheese-o-holic too.

Good, though IMHO, typical middle eastern, salad. good ingredients, how can it be otherwise, nothing memorable to me (might get again, but would look at alternatives)

Good stew.

Chicken fantasy was perhaps another standout, or perhaps not as I did get to take some home.

The lamb was great, but I don't understand the (I think) frozen crinkle french fries added to it. Couldn't they cut and add fresh potatoes, for it being one of the most expensive entrees (though it was intended to feed two).

See next post for remaining dishes.

This is multiple orders (one order is one patty or one complete "sausage". Both good, maybe not memorable.

Almost forgot to get a picture of dessert, this was 1/2 serving. Fantastic, but it was chocolate, so almost had to be. Would get again unless I decided I had to try one of the others.


and my traditional picture with the chef...

I was going to wait one more day of eating salads before eating the left overs, but after making these posts, I may have to go eat what I brought home.

Interesting meal with some real standouts. Particularly loved the chicken heart, the wolf bites, the fantasy chicken, and the lamb.

Trying (unsuccessfully) to find a recipe for wolf bites, I did run across several lists of "Bulgarian dishes you must try," and we hit most of them -- all lists included the tarator (soup--which was pleasant but really needed salt), the hunter stew, the lukanka (sausage), the shopska salad, and kebapche.

Couldn't help but wonder if kebapche is linguistically related to cevapcici -- sound similar if said aloud -- and Bulgarian kebapche seems to just be a bigger version of Serbian cevapcici.

Everything was good, just liked some things better than other. And I like the shopska salad at Balkan Taste better than the version here -- but there are a lot more choices at Balkanika than at Balkan Taste, so I'd definitely return to this spot for the greater range. (And back to Balkan Taste for the things I love there. Nice to have options.)

Cynthia wrote:Couldn't help but wonder if kebapche is linguistically related to cevapcici

Yes. If you look carefully, you'll notice that ćevap and kebab are the same word, with the /k/ "softening" to a /tʃ/ "ch" sound; the /b/ becomes a /v/ (very common relationship between those two sounds--confusing the two for each other is called "betacism" and happens pretty commonly) and the final /b/ just becomes voiceless and turns into a "p." (It's very common in Slavic languages that terminal voiced consonants become devoiced, i.e., a /d/ becomes a /t/, a /b/ becomes a /p/, a /v/ becomes an /f/, etc. This phenomenon is called final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing.)

And the ćevapčići form is just a diminutive version of the word ćevapi. (The "i" is a plural marker.)

I never realized the connection until I was in Kosovo and at a grill they had their menu both in (Latin Alphabet) Serbian and Albanian, and when I saw ćevap/kebab written next to each other, the relationship between the words clicked.

I realize you asked about the Bulgarian word, but you can see it's the same process, but even closer to the original language. Kebapche comes from "kebab" and, like in "ćevapčići," the "che" ending is a diminutive. So both ćevapčići and kebapche would mean "little kebabs," or "kebabbies" if you want to try to add an English diminutive suffix.

Binko wrote:

Cynthia wrote:Couldn't help but wonder if kebapche is linguistically related to cevapcici

Yes. If you look carefully, you'll notice that ćevap and kebab are the same word,

I realize you asked about the Bulgarian word, but you can see it's the same process, but even closer to the original language. Kebapche comes from "kebab" and, like in "ćevapčići," the "che" ending is a diminutive. So both ćevapčići and kebapche would mean "little kebabs," or "kebabbies" if you want to try to add an English diminutive suffix.

I was asking about the Bulgarian word simply because I came to it second, of the two -- but I'm delighted with your more extensive explanation -- and pleased that my guess was right. I enjoy following linguistic paths like this.

Oh -- and thanks for the term "betacism." I encountered the b/v interchange in Spanish but didn't realize it was sufficiently widespread to qualify for a technical term.

Cynthia wrote:Oh -- and thanks for the term "betacism." I encountered the b/v interchange in Spanish but didn't realize it was sufficiently widespread to qualify for a technical term.

I was just reminded that Key & Peele had a sketch (warning: some loud & strong language) that featured the words "chevapi" and "kebapi."

Disregard his pronunciation of the words "kajmak" and "ajvar" in that sketch, though. (he does the thing that some English speakers do when confronted with a foreign word, pronouncing "j" as "zh" as if it were a French word, instead of a "y" sound as would be correct in this case.)

diversedancer wrote:I chose Balkanika because they have a parking lot plus plenty of local street parking. The tiny lot at Mehanita ...

FYI for anyone concerned about parking at Mehanata, one is able to park in the large well lit strip mall parking lot on NE corner of Algonquin and Lee (only 1/4 block south of Mehanata)

I went to Balkanika recently and while the outdoor patio was nice to sit in, I found the food falling well short of Mehanata.