The food here in Bulgaria is something else. Every day you have a new experience in Bulgarian cuisine. I must say that it helps a lot that my partner is Bulgarian and cooks like an angel, but other than that, Bulgarian friends and neighbors still tickle my taste buds at every opportunity with their own cooking.
Since I’ve been here, there really hasn’t been a time where I’ve drawn attention to Supermarket brand food. No Twiglets, Mars Bars, Baked Beans or even Sherbet Fountains with the licorice sticking out felt necessary or desired. In fact, to this day, the only thing I can remember about these foods is the horrible aftertaste. Those who have been here eating natural Bulgarian food long enough will know exactly what this means!
Every few weeks someone asks: ‘I’m going, what would you like me to bring you?’ It is very difficult to think of something, even after thinking a lot. So these nice folks usually bring some English tea bags, Cadbury cream eggs or a bottle of whiskey, thanks a lot guys and I mean that in all sincerity but they are actually used for the English guests that come over so they are very helpful anyway. This is not being outraged but simply speaking the truth about the way things are now.
Back in Bulgaria, most of the food products come directly from the houses of the villages, most of which are not just houses but small properties. Food from a variety of sources mainly land, but also chickens, cows and calves, goats and sheep. Occasionally food is bought at the supermarket, but most of the time at my local town store. These consist mainly of bread and flour (both made and ground in my village), sunflower oil (produced locally), salt and sugar (although local honey is used more often to sweeten than sugar), filo pastry for the Skalitsa banitsas, the recipe given later in the book, and other pastry variations on this. And of course beer! I can’t say much more is needed. As much wine, rakia and liquor as you could want is all home made.
The sunflower seeds are collected from the field next to my land and as long as it is for personal consumption there is no problem with this, in fact the mice in the field eat more than any villager. They are half dried, salted and stored in airtight recycled plastic food boxes. Chickpeas are grown and stored in the same way, sweet corn is grown or taken back from the fields and dried but not used for animal feed (would not be correct if taken from cooperative fields) dried and stored. fry in oil to make popcorn, what another treat from the garden flavored with honey or salt before popping. So there’s your little range of snacks with drinks ordered.
All cheeses and yogurts are homemade. All of this is from natural ingredients. The nuts are collected and kept for up to a year for cooking and storage. Honey Baked Walnuts are another Bulgarian legend in good tasting food or simply used as another accompaniment to drinks. Almonds are picked with shells that you can remove without a nutcracker, have you ever tried that from a supermarket almond?
Fresh figs and in syrup, there is an abundance of both honey and water melons, the latter being a wonderful jam to consume throughout the year. Strawberry jam used for cakes and smoothies is an unbeatable summer flavor all year long. Apples, pears, sliva, can be stored in boxes or bottles in syrup and kept for up to 6 months. My last apple was eaten in April of this year almost as well as the one I picked in October of the previous year! And it was sweet and tasted like apple!
Non-Bulgarian guests occasionally visit and sometimes ‘turn up their noses’ at some of the food on offer from a point of not being like what you can buy in the shops. You’ll be surprised how many say that! This is the only other reason supermarkets are frequented, to meet the needs of these occasions. Don’t be offended at this point, it’s not their fault, it’s the system they’ve come to trust.
So out-of-season produce has been frozen or bottled and supplies have carried us through the winter and spring. This is no chore as the garlic and onions are plated and the tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and squash boil for bottling on the outdoor wood-burning contraption. Everything is done slowly and very systematically. When it comes to doing something like this in village life, there is never a panic or rush with the long day ahead. Why do we on the other hand still try to rush things and try to do it as fast as possible all the time?
With all this food on hand, including most meat, a variety of poultry, and dairy, you can do whatever you want with the ingredients. Even beef can be grown, bought, or traded in the village. Everything is grown here and more than in the UK, what’s the problem there? Nothing it seems, the problem in the UK for many is the culture of buying convenience food rather than growing your own. How many have a garden where products can be grown, most people. The climate here helps a lot, but what makes it work here and not there is the local way of life and food culture that left the UK some 40-50 years ago. You come to Bulgaria and take a big step back in time.
Last night I realized once again how the simplest of ingredients can turn into another memorable meal. Just a slice of garden fresh marrow dipped in flour and fried until golden brown, then served hot topped with homemade yogurt. It was that simple but the result was something very special.
Every day another flavor or recipe is introduced and enjoyed, it really is like going back to the basic ingredients and enjoying them for what they are. How often is this reverence for commercially processed foods made for you from a lazy and easy point of view forgotten? Conveniently, the process squeezes the flavor of natural foods into chemically enhanced products as a replacement and this becomes the “taste of the norm” for weekly consumers.
Food regulations don’t help and to be fair the argument will always be health first, which I have to agree with. But I must add a summary of the situation at this point by saying that this is perhaps an exaggeration in the regulations. Perhaps this is an unfortunate phrase considering that the artificial preservatives and enhancers that are ironically required to be consumed in processed foods for health reasons defeat the purpose.
It’s quite strange that most of the townspeople don’t have the option of buying food instead of growing their own food, they just can’t afford it. If they could afford it and had the choice, the convenience foods are there, waiting in the wings ready to take advantage of the winnings, which is the name of the game. The new generation of Bulgarians is making their way to become part of the American and European fast food brigade. Gardening activities in Bulgarian villages may be restricted to commercial dimensions, as was the case in the UK many years ago. It is a grateful thought and a privilege that the opportunity to experience Bulgaria as it is now presents itself at this time.
Just one point I must mention as I continually hear stories about this and it is an ‘old wives tale’. Eggs! The chickens I have are totally free range with access to all natural food in the large yard and greenery from organic waste vegetation, with a supplement of natural wheat to call them home at night. Nothing could be countryier than these chickens. So when someone says, ‘Oh, I tried some free-range eggs and the color of the yolk was so deep, almost orange!’
What are you thinking right now? Got this picture of this seemingly fresh free-range egg now revealing its sultry, lush orange yolk just waiting to melt in your mouth after being lightly fried in a little oil and placed on a bed of the softest buttered white bread? what can you imagine? You can see it well? Tastes good? I doubt! This is not true, the color of free range eggs is a very pale yellow and at best just yellow!
By contrast, My Dear Watson: Battery and commercial egg producers (in addition to the chickens themselves, of course) put color additives in the feed to produce a deeper colored yolk, which is what the consumer wants and gets: supply and demand. Market research has found that the soft pale yellow yolk does not sell well, so they artificially change the color. Next time you go to a supermarket in town and buy the cheapest mass produced eggs, see how orange the yolk is, you know why.
Finally, and this doesn’t apply to many people who come here, but to some, it’s so mean when I hear complaints about Bulgarian food from non-Bulgarians. Comments include, ‘it’s tasteless’ or ‘it’s bland’ or it’s boring, ‘well these sentiments just come back to thinking it’s not the food but people complaining it’s tasteless, bland and boring. In many cases they have not even tried Bulgarian food! I only remember a quote from someone talking about Bulgarian food saying, ‘I hate Bulgarian sausages, I’ve never had one and I never will!’ No names are mentioned here of course, but this comment speaks for itself.
Coming back to the Bulgarian land boys: I still have a lifetime to go before my products reach the level of my Bulgarian neighbors, the path of learning continues all the time. With a previous life in the UK weaned off convenience foods and no time to eat due to work constraints, it’s like being born again here in Bulgaria. In Bulgaria I have found one thing that rings true, food grows faster than the pace of life.