Bulgaria

Bulgarian cuisine is a representative of the cuisine of Southeastern Europe with some Turkish and Greek influences, but it has some unique elements. The relatively warm climate and diverse geography produce excellent growth conditions for a variety of vegetables, herbs and fruits, Bulgarian cuisine is particularly diverse.

Famous for its rich salads required at every meal, Bulgarian cuisine is also noted for the diversity and quality of dairy products and the variety of wines and local alcoholic drinks such as rakia, mastika and menta. Bulgarian cuisine features also a variety of hot and cold soups, an example of a cold soup being tarator. There are many different Bulgarian pastries as well such as banitsa.

Certain entries, salads, soups and dishes go well with alcoholic beverages and the alcohol of choice for some is Bulgarian wine.

Restaurants serving international cuisine have also made a presence in the country, offering various options such as Chinese, French, Italian, and international contemporary.

traditional milk products

There are only two native kinds of cheese: the yellow-colored Kashkaval Кашкавал - more or less akin to the Dutch Gouda - and the more popular white Sirene Сирене - a kind of Feta cheese, similar to Greek Feta in taste. Originally made from sheep milk, it is available from cow or goat milk, or mixed.

The native Bulgarian kiselo mlyako yoghurt contains Lactobacilicus Bulgaricus, a bacterium which serves as the basis for active culture "plain" yoghurts in other countries. Normally made from cow or sheep milk, it can also be prepared from buffalo milk, with a remarkably stronger taste.

Being a staple, and quite favourite around the country, Bulgarian yoghurt also is an ingredient to many dishes, the most famous one being Tarator Таратор, a cold soup made from yoghurt, water, cucumbers, garlic, dill and walnuts . A drink called Ayran - a yoghurt-water mixture with salt- is also very popular.

popular local dishes

The most popular Bulgarian salad is the shopska salad, which is a mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, raw or roasted peppers preferably roasted, and sirene. Traditionally it is dressed only with salt, sunflower or olive oil and vinegrette. Another popular salads are the snow white salad, the shepherd salad and the lyutenitsa.

As a main course you can have moussaka a rich oven-baked dish of potatoes, minced meat and white sauce, gyuvetch, sarmi rolls with vine or cabbage leaves, drob sarma lamb liver and lung with rice, kavarma minced meat with tomatoes, mish-mash fried peppers, onion and eggs.

Another thing not to be missed when travelling Bulgaria is the Lutenitsa, which is a red pepper, aubergine and tomato purée, normally eaten on bread. If you cant fınd it homemade, go for one of the vareities wıth chunks in it.