Water...anyone?

In Bulgaria, drinking mineral water was not popular 5 years ago...Usually Bulgarians drink water from the tap. The water from the tap can be used for cooking, washing and bathing. 20 years ago mineral water was considered as healing water and only people with specific health problems drink mineral water. The most popular brand was “Hisar” mineral water and it is still one of the top popular brands. I will wite to you more about Hissar in the coming days.

Typical Menu Recipe

Bulgarians like to start the meal with a salad of chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and onions in summer or pickled vegetables in winter.Most main dishes are lamb, chicken or pork based. Grilled meats are also very popular.Sirene is the common cheese made from cow or sheep milk.Banitsa is a flaky pastry filled with sirene and often served for breakfast. It can also contain spinach, leeks or pumpkin and walnuts.Yogurt is a staple in the Bulgarian diet claimed to have originated there.Kapama is a traditional stew said to contain at least 7 types of meat cooked slowly in an earthenware pot

Cold Soup Recipe - Tarator

Tarator - Traditional Bulgarian cold soup

▪ Ingredients
* cucumber* 1/2 kilogram of yoghurt ("Kiselo Mlyako", lit. sour milk)* 1-2 cloves of garlic* several walnuts* some dill* salt* 2 teaspoons vegetable oil* water

▪ Directions
Grate or finely chop the cucumber(s) and place in a large bowl. Mash the garlic with salt and add to the cucumber. Add ground walnuts and finely chopped fresh dill. Pour in the yoghurt. Then gradually add water - the thickness is down to taste. Finally, add the vegetable oil.Tarator is a traditional Bulgarian soup and it's serve cold.

Enjoy!

Food Talk

A few words about food. There are a few staples here. Some may surprise you and others not.

The obvious is bread. It is cheap, and when fresh, it is amazing! In restaurants, they think it weird if you don't order bread with your meal.

The next is yogurt. The Bulgarians think they invented it and perhaps they did. They use it in cooking, they eat it, water it down and drink it.

Garlic! I like garlic and use it in cooking. I am accustomed to adding a few cloves. Bulgarians add a few heads of cloves.

There are mainly two types of cheese. The main one is like the Greek Feta cheese called Sirene. It can be made from cow, sheep or goat milk. It is used in salads but also in cooking with eggs, on pizza and in other dishes. The other is the yellow cheese or kashkaval. Less popular cheese but used mainly for pizza.

I will write to you more on Bulgarian cuisine recipe in my coming post. Keep tune:)

What do Bulgarians look like?

Compared to the average Anglo-European, Bulgarians tend to have darker skin and a prevalence for dark hair. There are a number of ethnic groups in BG, however. Turks tend to have darker skin, as do the Roma. The best way to answer this question is with photos, but looking through our snaps I discovered that we didn’t take many shots of people other than ourselves! More photos will follow throughout the year, of course!

Stork and it's nest...a common sight

As you drive around villages in Bulgaria, it's a common sight to see this wonderful creature's nest high up on top of the street lamp post, and on old buildings' chimneys. You have to judge for yourself if they can be classified as great builders when you see their nest. As for me, I find it all amusing and amazing!

Challenges of the Bulgarian Language

Some of you may be wondering what it is like to study the Bulgarian language. Difficult is an understatement!

Let’s start with the Cyrillic alphabet.: cyrillic X is equivalent to H in Roman alphabet; m is T; B is V; C is S; g is d; Are you following this?

And then of course…to confuse you even more…there’s a few inverted roman look-a-like alphabets to consider! Such as: R facing backwards; N that is up-side-down; W that comes with a tiny tail?!

After a year we discovered that there actually is a pattern to Bulgarian verb formation but most verbs have two forms and the tenses do not strictly match the English tenses. Don't even get me started with prepositions!!!!!!!!!!!