Choose traditional cooking in restaurants rather than the tourist menu if you want to sample the rich variety of local meat, vegetables, fruit and breads in well-prepared interesting dishes. For breakfast try some of Bulgaria’s yoghurt, delicious eaten with honey and fruit. For lunch or dinner start with a mixed salad with sheep’s cheese (shopska salata) and an aperetif (rakiya), followed by a tasty stew of meat or pork with paprika (slav gyuvech) or vegetables (gyuvech zarzavat), or meat-balls (kyufteta), kebabs or fish; together with stuffed peppers, vine leaves’ sarmi, or aubergines (Imam Bayaldi). Look out for delicious breads made with spinach or cheese, and for sweet pastries filled with walnuts and syrop.

The traditional feast for Easter Day and St. George’s Day is lamb
stuffed with rice, herbs and fresh liver cooked on a spit or in a clay oven.

Wine is inexpensive and plentiful. Local vineyards produce a white wine for local use, the white wines from Varna are more widely known. Try also Trakiya and Melnik, two red wines still produced from a sweet grape introduced centuries ago by the Thracians.

Every town has a weekly market selling fruit and vegetables and home made wine and brandy. It’s usually held on Friday or Saturday but in summer it sometimes lasts a whole week!
 

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