Bulgarian food does not particularly differ from the traditional European cuisine. Bulgarian wines are the perfect companion for Bulgarian food. I like Bulgarian food very much and many visitors from other countries think Bulgarian food is the best. People living in a Bulgarian property in a village or small town will find a varied selection of seasonal Bulgarian foods and drinks available in their local market or grocery shop.

Cheese On The Menu

A traditional Bulgarian menu includes bread, yogurt and fresh milk, cheese, tomatoes, paprika, potatoes, onions, beans and fruits, grappa and red or white wine. Feta Cheese is produced in many different countries, but it is widely known that Bulgarian-made Feta is the best. Banitsa is a traditional Bulgarian pastry prepared by layering a mixture of whisked eggs and pieces of sirene (white cheese) between filo pastry and then baking it in an oven.

For lunch or dinner, a mixed tomato-cucumber-pepper-and-onion salad with grated sheep-milk cheese on top (the "shopska salata") followed by a tasty stew of pork meat with paprikas (the "slav gyuvech") or just a vegetable stew (the "gyuvech zarzavat"), stuffed peppers or aubergines, stuffed vine leaves' called sarmia. The basic food products used in the Bulgarian cuisine are tomatoes, potatoes, apples, water-melons, grapes, peppers, cabbage, onion, carrots, eggplants, cucumbers, leeks), beans, lentils, milk, yoghurt, white brined cheese, yellow cheese, as well as bread, etc.

The most typical Bulgarian salad is the shopska salata made, in its most basic form, from chopped tomatoes and cucumbers and sprinkled with grated white cheese (sirene). A popular variation of this standard banitsa is made by replacing the cheese and egg mixture with grated pumpkin, ground walnuts, sugar and cinnamon. This feta is much stronger, more salty and more creamy than the other feta cheeses.

Cuisine

Bulgaria Food has grown out of wealth of culinary traditions, both local and foreign, combined in a way which is uniquely Bulgarian, offering cuisine with its own characteristics, originality and exceptional variety. The variety in Bulgarian cuisine is based on the long history of the country, as well as on the long-lasting migrations of the tribes that founded Bulgaria more than 1300 years ago.

Gourmets have long since esteemed the merits of Bulgarian cuisine with the verdict that it is tasty, spicy and varied, appealing to one and all. One of the main features of Bulgarian cuisine is the use of fresh seasonal food, including nettles, dock leaves, sorrel and spinach in spring, tomatoes and cucumbers during the summer, and peppers and pumpkins in the autumn. Bulgaria is a small country but even with this there is a difference in cuisine between its North and the South. In recent years the country has been flooded with thousands of private catering establishments, which serve traditional Bulgarian cuisine.