Bulgarian Cuisine

When invited to a Bulgarian’s house for dinner, it's best to show up hungy, thirsty, and ready for anything. Bulgarian food is delicious. Mainstays in the cuisine include tomato, cucumber, fresh dill, feta cheese, yogurt, bread, meat and potatoes. With these basics, a myriad of mouth watering dishes can be prepared. The simplicity of the ingredients allows for the unique (and convenient!) perk of being able to shop for and prepare this food anywhere. Bulgarian Food is Made From


Simple Ingredients
A typical meal might look like this:
Start off with rakia, an intense but flavorful Bulgarian grape brandy. Bulgarians take their rakia very seriously, some not eating for hours beforehand so as not to tarnish the palette. Rakia goes remarkably well with the most traditional appetizer: Shopska Salad. Also known as peasant salad, Shopska (named after the regional Shopi people) is made from a base of chopped tomato and cucumber and roasted red pepper. Add onion, perhaps some black olives, and top with fresh Italian parsley, oil, vinegar and plenty of grated feta. It’s best to let it sit for half an hour or so to let the juices carry the flavor. Three hours or so later - because Bulgarians can be shockingly slow eaters - it is time for the main course.
Delicious Bulgarian Food is Steeped in Tradition
This is likely to be several dishes served all at once, providing a tantalizing and colorful array. On every Bulgarian table is a loaf of bread. There just always is. Even better if it's a hand made round loaf called pitka. Dips on the table might be dried tarator, a yogurt based dip with cucumber and garlic minced inside, and the so-called Russian Salad, a mayonnaise base with peas, diced carrots and potatoes and optional ham. A hearty and delicious main course is gyuvech It's a thick stew made from potato, eggplant, tomato, green beans, okra and tender chunks of beef. This can be made in any deep dish, but for a more authentic flavor it should be made in a clay pot, actually called a gyuvech. To go all out, in the tradition that some Bulgarians uphold today, the stew is cooked in a dug hole in the ground amidst smoldering rocks and covered to cook in the earth. In today’s modern kitchen, however, this method is sadly losing popularity. A sweet follow-up to the gyuvech is garash, a divine cake made of ground walnuts and topped in rich chocolate cream. With just egg whites, sugar and a little flour, the simple ingredients are misleading. This dessert requires patience and good timing. Made the same way today as it was hundreds of years ago, it is a fabulous example of the ingenuity of Bulgarian cuisine.
Music and Dancing Wrap Up the Night
As the meal winds to an end, the party is in full swing. There is no doubt plenty of music and dancing and joke telling as the rakia and assorted after dinner drinks flow. It's easy to get charmed onto the dance floor for the rest of the night. Go for it! Relax, enjoy; the next party is surely around the corner.