Bulgarian Food and Drink Information - SimpliBulgaria

Because of its geographical position and long history Bulgarian cuisine is a mixture between the best parts of the Slavonic, Greek and Turkish cuisines. National specialities include a lot of different products. Bulgarian food is close to traditional European cuisine. A traditional Bulgarian menu includes bread, yogurt and fresh milk, cheese, tomatoes, paprika, potatoes, onions, beans and fruits, grappa and red or white wine.

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Bulgarian bread
Bread is the most important mainstay of the Bulgarian diet and is eaten with every meal. Bulgarians consume more bread than the people in the neighbouring countries - more than 10 kg per person monthly. Most commonly seen is the shops are bread like the one pictured below. The crisp, thin outer crust is cracked in places on top and nearly glistens; inside is of a coarse yet soft, white texture. Of course many other styles and types of bread are to be found - including whole-wheat and pre-sliced.

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Bulgarian Salads
Salads in Bulgaria are usually eaten as a starter, or as the accompaniment to a stiff aperitif (Rakia). Most common are those formed from the following vegetables, whether singly or in combination: cabbage (zele), tomatoes (domati), cucumber (krastavitsi ) and peppers (piperki or chushki). A meshana salata (mixed salad) consists of cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes; a Shopska salata is the same topped with grated white cheese, while a selska salata comes with a few additional slices of boiled egg. Two yogurt-based salads are mlechna salata (like tarator but thicker, with nuts) and snezhanka (pickled cucumbers covered in yoghurt).

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White cheese
White Cheese - a particular variety of the increasingly-popular Greek Feta cheese now popular in many places. It originated on the Balkan Peninsula in a region called Trakia, which is the current day Southern Bulgaria. This Bulgarian sirene has much the same texture as the Greek feta. It is a brined cheese, produced from sheep or cows milk, and is both used on the table and as an essential part of other foods from Shopska Salad to Banitza. Feta Cheese is produced in many different countries, but it is widely known that Bulgarian-made Feta is the best!

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Kashkaval
Another common Bulgarian cheese is Yellow Cheese or "Kashkaval". This hard yellow table cheese, made of sheep's milk, may otherwise be called "The Cheddar Cheese of the Balkans". It is frequently served as "fried cheese" .The Kashkaval (Kashkaval Pane) is especially good when freshly breaded (dipped in egg then rolled in bread crumbs) and deep-fried. You'll find it's not gooey and much more flavorful than mozzarella.

Kiselo mlyako
Kisselo mliako is known as yogurt. The yoghurt originally comes from Bulgaria? It is particular variety produced by the Lactobacterium Bulgaricum bacteria. It grows no place else in the world. Yoghurt ("kiselo mlyako" - literally meaning sour milk) has found an important part in many Bulgarian foods. Bulgarians are also fond of "Ajran" a beverage of water mixed with yoghurt. Yoghurt can be purchased in many different grades and qualities, each characteristic of the quality of the milk to which the bacteria culture has been added. Yogurt junkies, this is your promised land - the quality, taste and choices for yogurt you'll find in Bulgaria are unsurpassed!

Popular bulgarian spices

Chubritsa - this plant, which botanists claim to be a species of the herb Satureia hortensis appears to grow particularly well upon Bulgarian soil. It also shares certain characteristics with Oregano (Origanum vulgare). The dried leaves are crushed and sprinked on top of soups in the last few minutes of cooking or ground into a fine powder and used on bread like butter.
Parsley - This is probably the most widely used spice in Bulgaria since ancient times. Its leaves are applied fresh or dried to flavour and add vitamins to soups, broth and main courses, as an ingredient of vegetable preserves, or to decorate salads, roasted meat or fish in all seasons.
Thyme - It is also called "granny's soul" or "shepherd's basil". Fresh or dried, it is used for seasoning meat and vegetable dishes or soups, and bean, pea or bread-bean stews, and sauces; Thyme is also added to salads and pickles.
Onion - While some dieticians consider it to be a spice, others do not. In either case, it is worth mentioning that onions are grown everywhere in Bulgaria and are widely applied in Bulgarian cookery. The onion stimulates our appetite and secretion of gastric juices. The onion is used in the preparation of salads, sauces, stews, vegetable and meat dishes, preserves. Fresh onion is a basic ingredient of many salads.

Kavarma
Kavarma (or Kavarma Kebap) is the national dish of spiced chopped meat, leeks or onions and red pepper grilled on skewers until juicy or served as meatballs in their own sauce. There are a lot of recipes depend of region (Radomir, Sofia, Dobrudja, etc.), meals (pork, beef, chicken), etc.

Rakia
Rakia is Bulgarian brandy, the national drink; often quite strong; grape is most common, there are fruit varieties.

Bulgarian wine
Bulgaria is a renowned producer and exporter of wine to more than 70 countries in the world. On the territory of Bulgaria there are 12 wineries producing a variety of excellent wines. Bulgarian wines are the perfect companion for Bulgarian food.

Wine regions in Bulgaria Bulgaria can be geographically divided into five wine producing regions - Northern, Eastern, Sub Balkan, Southern and South Western. Each one of those has its own distinct features and peculiarities and is somewhat different from the rest.