Some local specialties
Hello everyone !!
So, it's been now a little more than a week that I'm here in Veliko Tarnovo, and as a great amateur of food in general and always searching for new tastes to test, I had to make a review of my "first food impressions", so here it is :
First of all, the sweets and pastries
Banitsa with cappucino
I ordered that in a cafe in town, a day or two after my arrival. The cafe claims to be italian, but has some delicious local pastries. The drink is a classic cappuccino, but the pastry is typically bulgarian. It's puff pastry with pumpkin inside, along with some nuts and cinnamon (generally I don't like cinnamon, but the association with pumpkin is amazing). This is really delicious, and costs 1,40 lev (which is about 70 cents in euro).
When Nicolas and Firmin arrived in Veliko Tarnovo, we met each other and went out for a snack in town (the place is called Burgers and Sweets). That was the occasion for me to taste something new, a cake with almonds and cream. The most surprising thing about this pastry was the white thing on top of it. This is not cream but meringue. Also really good, I recommend it 100%.
The last sweet I tested so far was yesterday, when I went out to eat some snack with my Erasmus friends. However, I think it was more something you eat at breakfast or as a meal, because it was a bit salty (some kind of brioche with sirene cheese inside). It was really good though, and I recommend it with pleasure.
Now, let's talk a bit about real dishes.
We went with other Erasmus students in a typical restaurant, called The Green restaurant, just at the foot of the Tsarevets Fortress, where I had the chance to taste the so famous Chopska Salata. This is a very well-known (if not the most popular) typical dish of Bulgaria. It is made with tomatoes, roasted peppers, cucumbers, red and white onions. On top of it, there is the Bulgarian cheese : the "sirene". This cheese tastes like fresh, like summer. If I were to compare it to one that I've known before, I would compare it with feta (even though sirene tastes a bit more salty).
This Wednesday, we went with all of the other Erasmus students in a very typical restaurant called Bolyari, in the center of Veliko Tarnovo. The general atmosphere of the restaurant is really bulgarian-like. A good address if you want to taste some bulgarian dishes.
My meal over there was basically chicken with mushrooms and a lot of cream and melted cheese. It was very good and enough to fill my so empty stomach.
That's it for now, but I am far from being done with testing all of the bulgarian dishes and telling you what I think about them.
xoxo
Déborah