Travelogue

Here is the text of the travelogue I wrote for The Blue Banner:

Bulgaria is a meat and potatoes kind of country. I am not, however, a meat and potatoes kind of girl. In fact, I don't eat any meat. I've been a vegetarian since my freshman year of high school. In Asheville this isn't such a big deal, but in Bulgaria it shaped most of my experiences.

My first meal in Bulgaria rapidly became my favorite. Jet-lagged and starving, I went to the student canteen in search of food. While classes at the American University of Bulgaria are all conducted in English and it is the common language of the university, the staff in the residence halls do not necessarily speak English. That is how I found myself on the morning of January 16 standing in the canteen and pointing at saran-wrapped pastries lined up before me. The lady working that morning (who has subsequently increased my Bulgarian vocabulary as much as my language class) saw my confused expression, held up a plastic bag and said “cheese.” That sounded great to me. It turns out that she sold me a cirene banitsa which is a phyllo-dough-based pastry filled with the creamiest feta cheese I've ever had in my life. There are two types of cheese in Bulgaria—yellow cheese (one of the few Bulgarian foods I detest) and cirene which puts our crumbly, dry, American feta to shame.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but banitsa was the staple of my diet for the first few days. All of my new Bulgarian friends frowned when I asked them what foods were vegetarian. After a while, I stopped asking anyone besides my Bulgarian-American friend, Kostadin, because everyone else told me to eat the chicken dishes. When I explained I didn't eat chicken, they all made this Bulgarian tsk-tsk noise—it's akin to our humpf. One guy was so shocked that he had to press me further. “Really? You're a vegetarian that doesn't eat chicken? I've known vegetarians that didn't eat lamb before, but never a vegetarian that didn't eat chicken.”

I came to rely heavily on Kostadin's guidance. Thankfully, he introduced to me to feta-stuffed roasted red peppers, apple banitsas and mish-mash which is a a delicious mix of roasted red peppers, eggs, potatoes, feta and onions. After a few days of being fresh-food starved, I found the Green Market which is an open market where people from the countryside sell their wares. Although you can buy everything from trees to shoes at the Green Market, I kept going back for the tomatoes. Bulgarian tomatoes, even in the throes of winter, rival North Carolina tomatoes it the summer. I took up eating at least two tomatoes a day. The citrus fruit imported from Greece and Turkey is also to die for. I usually ate three or four clementines a day because something had to balance out the heaviness of banitsa. I bought heads of lettuce for 40 stotinki each (or roughly a $0.25). Being able to eat food that was shipped less than 10 hours to your table is heavenly.

After a week or so I discovered the joys of Bulgarian pizza. Pizzas are made on very thin crusts with little cheese and sauce. The vegetarian pizzas usually come topped with peas, carrots, corn, cucumbers and tomatoes. Pizza slices can be bought almost anywhere as can dooners, a pita wrap filled with chicken, cabbage, tomatoes and french fries that are eaten in every country that was previously occupied by the Ottoman Empire. I learned how to say without meat (“bez misoh”) so that I too could eat delicious street food.

A few weeks into the semester, I entered into culture shock with earnest. Because finding a variety of food was increasingly becoming a struggle, most of my culture shock whinings revolved around missing harmony bowls at Laughing Seed, grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches at Tupelo and slices of Moon Pie at Brew and View. I let myself whine for a week or so, ate only youurt and tomatoes and then dove headfirst back into Bulgarian cuisine. A nice bonus to my whining was that I discovered that none of the other visiting American students had been privy to such delicious food back home. I think they are all planning a trip to Asheville just to eat.

I attended a dinner where we ate all traditional Bulgarian dishes and because they knew I was a vegetarian, they prepared almost every meatless Bulgarian dish that exists. I still dream about that meal. We ate Shopska salad which is the national salad of Bulgaria. Although it varies slightly, all Shopskas contain cubed tomatoes and cucumbers topped with feta. My favorite versions also add in raw green onions and roasted red peppers. I had mousaka for the first time. It is a potato casserole that normally contains lamb, but that was substituted with corn for me. We ate cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and olives.

It might seem cheesy or trite, but my journey with Bulgarian food in many ways parallels my journey with Bulgaria itself. Surprising and tasty discoveries are waiting around every corner.