Feature image: Ines Nasup and her daughter. (Provided).
Inside a small open kitchen on Wyatt Street in the city, Ines Nasup and her mother Jasminka Nasup will soon be stretching paper-thin pastry by hand, sharing the Bosnian food traditions that helped shape their family.
For Ines, the café is about more than food. It’s a tribute to the women who rebuilt their lives after war, and the community that taught her mother how to cook.
“My mum was an orphan, she was removed from her mother’s care when she was three,” Ines said.
“She lived in an orphanage until she got married.”
Because of this, her mother did not learn to cook until a close-knit community of women in Bosnia began sharing their knowledge and recipes with her.
“The older women in the community really took her in, and her husband’s mother taught her, and she loved making food,” Ines said.
Ines herself was born in Bosnia before arriving in Australia at 10 years old.
“We’ve come from the war here to Australia together,” Ines said.
“We’re dedicating the café to my mum and grandmother, and the resilience of Balkan women through everything that has happened.”
Bosnia has a rich pastry tradition shaped by its Ottoman and Balkan heritage. At the heart of the tradition is pita, made by stretching pastry by hand until it is almost paper-thin.
In Bosnia, only the meat-filled version is technically called burek, while cheese, spinach and potato varieties have their own names – something Ines said “is a big deal in Bosnia because the only thing that’s burek, is the meat.”
Every pita will be handmade on site, allowing customers to watch the pastry being stretched and prepared fresh throughout the day.
While Little Pita Co is deeply personal for the family, Ines also hopes it introduces Adelaide diners to Balkan cuisine.
“We, as Balkans, former Yugoslavia countries, would really like to educate people a little bit on the former Yugoslavia through food, not just Bosnia specifically.”
The two will be preparing every pita together in the café’s open kitchen, something Ines said has brought them even closer.
“A lot of our relationship is coming out through this process, which is so nice for me to see.”
“It’s become a sort of competition that I’ll make it better and quicker than her.”
The Little Pita Co.
When: 8am to 3pm weekdays from the end of July/ beginning of August
Where: Shop 6 & 7/34 Wyatt St, Adelaide
Find out more here.
