#26 - Bulgaria

Lots of cheese and yogurt this week! I'm not sure we really had any idea of what Bulgarian cuisine would involve, but it turns out it's very similar to Greek food. It also turned out that we really didn't know anything about Bulgaria itself! We learned that Bulgaria is one of the oldest countries in Europe, with the first Bulgarian Empire being founded in 681 AD, and it became an Eastern Bloc country in 1946. After revolution in 1989, it became a democracy. It also has one of the world's highest literacy rates.

I couldn't figure out what the "national dish" of Bulgaria is, but what I did find was a few typical and traditional Bulgarian dishes and so that's what we went with.

Banitsa (pictured above) is a combination of Bulgarian cheese (sirene) and eggs, baked between layers of phyllo. It was actually pretty good and tasted a lot like a quiche.

We also had Shopska salad, which really is very similar to a Greek salad with cucumber and tomatoes. Again sirene figured prominently.

The final element was Tarator - which was basically a cold cucumber soup with yogurt and dill. My mom & dad came for dinner and they both liked it, but Andrew, Ruth, Jack and I were not fans.

Overall it was a very light meal, and good for the summer.