As you can imagine, Bulgarian cuisine combines flavors,
tastes and recipes of Mediterranean cuisine as well as its neighboring
countries, such as Greece or Turkey.
Read below to
find out what are the 8 most famous Bulgarian dishes that you should totally try:
Gyuvech
This food is really similar to the Greek “giouvetsi”.
More specifically, it is cooked in a special pot, that is made out of clay.
Bulgarians call this pot “gyuvech” and they named the dish after the pot.
Bulgarian Gyuvech contains beef, peppers, onions and
mushrooms. Everything is stewed together. Later, they are put inside the pot
and they are topped with grated yellow cheese. Lastly, they get baked inside
the oven until the cheese is completely melted and golden brown.
Banitza
Banitza is a traditional cheese pie with phyllo
pastry. More specifically, it is layered phyllo pastry with butter between
every layer and white cheese similar to feta-cheese in the center.
There is also a sweet version of Banitza. The most
popular is banitza filled with apples and walnuts. When we went to Bulgaria, we
tasted both savory and sweet banitza. More specifically, we tried one banitza
with spinach and cheese and one with rosewater filled with Turkish delight.
As for where to find banitza, it will be everywhere in
Bulgaria, from bakery shops to the smallest coffee place.
Lyutenitsa
Lyutenitsa is a red-pepper chutney. Bulgarians love it
and everyone has it in their homes. They usually use it as a meat-sauce, but
they like spreading it on a slice of bread as a snack, mostly for children.
Some of the main ingredients are: roasted red peppers,
tomatoes, garlic and herbs. Also, we have to mention that Lyutenitsa takes a
lot of preparation and that’s why people buy it instead of making it at home.
Shopska Salata
Shopska salad is a traditional salad, that newly-weds eat, after the wedding. It is one of the most famous Bulgarian salads around the world.
Shopska salad resembles the Greek salad (“choriatiki”), because it contains cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and white cheese, similar to feta.
Printsesa
Printsesa is a simple and favorite Bulgarian snack. It
is basically a crunchy open-faced sandwich with grilled cheese on top. After
the bread is topped with cheese and any other ingredient, it is baked until it
gets golden brown.
It’s important to mention that there are many toppings
that you can try. For example, some toppings may be: eggs, onions, other types
of cheese and also bacon, salami, minced meat or ham.
Garash cake
Garash cake is a delicious chocolate cake with walnuts and chocolate. Personally, we tried Garash cake when we were in Bulgaria and it tasted like a chocolate cake, made of thin crepes.
Indeed, it is a thinly layered cake with walnuts and egg whites. Each layer is baked like a crepe and the cake is assembled using the thin layers stacked on top of each other, with chocolate frosting in between.
Mekitsa
Mekitsa is a deep-fried dough, which is usually eaten
as breakfast in Bulgaria. It resembles the Hungarian “langos”, which we have
tried in Budapest, but mekitsa is always sweet.
It is similar to donuts, traditionally topped with icing
sugar and honey, jam or white cheese.
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