I’ll just go ahead and say that Bulgarian food is not super different from American food. I thought it would be fun, though, to highlight some of the more interesting things we have found since coming here. If you have kept up with James and Matt’s blog, then some of this you’ve already seen.
One thing we’ve found to be interesting, and also quite helpful (if you pay attention), is that on all restaurant menus the amount of food, in grams, is listed beside each menu item. When ordering an entree in Bulgaria, you will likely not receive any side items with it. So if you want anything other than the main dish (oftentimes just meat), you will have to order it separately. Let’s just say that we learned the hard way to begin paying attention to the gram amount. At one particular restaurant, James decided to order one chicken kebab with a side of fries, and I decided to order some Bulgarian sausage. Knowing that we would want to eat more than just meat, I decided to add a plate of “fried potatoes” (aka french fries, but this was not known to me at the time), and James ordered a plate of grilled vegetables. We should have suspected something when the waitress seemed a bit mystified by our order and even came back several times just to make sure she had it right. Well, you might be able to guess that we got a bit more than we were expecting. The plate of “fried potatoes” alone would have been enough for the both of us. Here’s some footage of this feast, after we had already eaten a bit of it. Oh, and by the way, that is Bulgarian cheese on top of the french fries. It is good, but only for a couple bites.
You might have already figured out that meat is an important staple around here. All kinds of meat, but especially pork. Kebabs, meatballs and sausage seem to be some of the most popular selections in restaurants. Chicken is pretty common, too, especially for kebabs, but we have heard that it is not uncommon to be served chicken that is only partially done. Luckily, James’ chicken kebab was about 90% done.
Shopping in the store can be quite an adventure as well. We have a large “hypermarket” down the street where we can find just about anything we need (minus things like macaroni and cheese, velveeta, rotel…you know, the really healthy things). I have found myself buying staples like flour, sugar, and spices much more often because they come in much smaller packages (and stocking up doesn’t really work for lots of items, since we have to carry them home). This is what our spice cabinet looks like:
Another thing we have found interesting is coffee. Bulgarians prefer instant coffee, and Nescafé appears to be the brand of choice. It comes in individually wrapped packages, with the choice of plain coffee, 2-in-1 (coffee + milk), or 3-in-1 (coffee + milk + sugar). I personally prefer the 2-in-1, while James likes the 3-in-1 best.
Bread is another important part of the Bulgarian diet. In fact, we have heard that a typical Bulgarian man eats half a loaf of bread at one meal. James hasn’t quite become a true Bulgarian, because it usually takes us 2-3 days to finish a loaf of bread. I don’t blame them, though, for how much bread they eat, because it is quite tasty and not to be compared with the stuff you pick up on the bread aisle in Wal-Mart. In a normal week, we probably go to the bakery 2-3 times for fresh bread.
And last but not least, we have learned how to enjoy some of the finer foods from back home. Here is James rejoicing because he is eating Mexican food for the first time in months. We were so excited to get a care package from James’ parents with some much-missed corn tortillas, taco seasoning, and taco sauce.































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