Category Archives: Food

Autumn in Bulgaria – 2024

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Autumn Adventure in Bulgaria

This was our second adventure to Bulgaria, a destination that had piqued our interest since our first visit in 2007. Back then, we drove through the country in early spring, admiring the stunning Belogradchik cliffs, the serene Bachkovo Monastery, and exploring the picturesque Black Sea coast. The memories remained, but we were eager to return for a deeper exploration in the fall of 2024.

There is also a video about this trip on my YouTube channel.

A different way to explore Bulgaria

Unlike our previous journey, this time we flew from London to Sofia, ready for a weeklong adventure. No more long drives from Riga to Bulgaria, we were here to savour every moment. After landing in Sofia, we rented a car from CarRent Bulgaria, a local company we booked through DiscoverCars. Having used DiscoverCars for car rentals in Riga and Greece, we knew we’d get a great deal. Their service was reliable, and the pricing was better than other platforms like Booking.com.

view around plovdiv
View around Plovdiv

It should be noted that we do not receive any money or other benefits from any of the companies mentioned here for referring to their websites. The references we give, good or not so good (we usually try to avoid publishing bad reviews), is based on our own experiences.

Car rental

Local car rental companies may have some drawbacks – their offices are often located outside the airport area. This was the case on this occasion too, but we had our own person in Sofia who took me to the car rental office in just a few minutes, so there was no inconvenience at all. The walk would have taken about forty minutes (about two and a half kilometres to walk from the airport).

We had made the right choice, the car was practically new, the car rental company employee took care of everything quickly both when we picked it up and when we returned the car. When we returned the car, we had washed it thoroughly (it was in the terms of the contract), so we even earned praise for it.

A look at Bulgaria’s past and present

Bulgaria has long been a favourite vacation spot, especially during the Soviet era, attracting vacationers to the Black Sea coast with its affordable prices and sandy beach resorts. However, in recent decades, other destinations, such as Turkey and Spain, have overshadowed the Bulgarian tourism industry. Despite these changes, Bulgaria remains a very good choice for those looking for an authentic experience and hospitality.

Bulgaria borders Greece, Turkey, Serbia, North Macedonia and Romania. It ranks 103rd in the world and 16th in Europe by area, with a land area of 108,489 square kilometres. Bulgaria is about half the size of its neighbour Romania, Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean, is a similar size.

Bulgaria has a population of almost six and a half million, similar to neighbouring Serbia, although Serbia is about a quarter smaller. The population density in Bulgaria is about the same as the world average (61 inhabitants per square kilometre, the European average is 72).

The country’s capital is Sofia, with a population of almost 1.2 million. Other major cities are Plovdiv (321,000 inhabitants), Varna (311,000) and Burgas (188,000), these data are from 2021. It should be noted that the population of Bulgaria continues to decline quite rapidly. It peaked in 1985, when the country had over 8.9 million people. Since then, the population has been declining, falling to less than almost two and a half million between 1985 and 2021, although this is a fairly well-known and not too surprising story for Eastern Europe.

Bulgaria today

After 17 years, we were eager to see how Bulgaria had changed. Our goals for the trip were simple: explore more of Plovdiv and enjoy some downtime at a Black Sea resort.

Let me start by saying that the overall impression of the country was positive from the very first moment. We were greeted by a warm and welcoming atmosphere, the food was excellent – high-quality, tasty and reasonably priced. Regardless of whether we dined in roadside taverns or elegant restaurants, each meal was special and it seemed that each next one surpassed the previous one. Although the prices of the restaurants were higher, the quality of the food and the size of the portions were definitely adequate for the price. I can’t say anything about the offer and prices of the grocery shops, because we didn’t cook anything ourselves during this trip.

If you want to visit local wine producers, in Bulgaria you can taste and buy high-quality wine for a very good price. Wine tastings are organized at a fairly high level and snacks are also offered. What was especially surprising was the fact that a lot of local Bulgarian grape varieties are grown widely and producers who specialize in them were able to offer excellent products. If you’re a wine enthusiast, Bulgaria is still an undiscovered treasure.

Plovdiv – the heart of Bulgaria

After arriving in Sofia, we took a private car and headed towards Plovdiv, but on the way we had planned to visit the Chateau Copsa winery. It is located near the road that leads from west to east along one of the northern Bulgarian mountain ranges.

Wine tasting in the afternoon

Since Chateau Copsa is literally in the middle of a field, there is no point in mentioning the address. You can see the location on the map or simply Google Chateau Copsa Bulgaria. They offer both wine tastings and accommodations, hotel is located in a stylish old fortress-like building, which was actually built recently, but looks quite impressive.

The wine tasting took place in a charming cellar beneath the fortress, where we enjoyed a selection of high-quality local wines. The Bulgarian guide who led the tasting added to the experience with fascinating stories and a warm, welcoming atmosphere. If you plan to visit, we highly recommend booking in advance, as Chateau Copsa can get quite busy.

Evening walk in the city

In the evening we arrived in Plovdiv, where we quickly checked into the hotel and went to explore the city. We had booked the Hotel Ego, which is located a few minutes walk from the central city pedestrian street, so in a very good location.

The hotel itself was also very good for the price (about 45 euros) we paid, so I can definitely recommend it to other travellers. The hotel address is 2 Eliezer Kalev Str., Plovdiv Center, 4000 Plovdiv, their website is here. Although the number of places is limited, the hotel also offers free parking. We were lucky with parking too, because we got the last free space. We had booked a more expensive and larger option, the Deluxe Studio, just in case we wanted to use the kitchen, which was in one corner of the room. Since we wanted to have dinner in the city, we didn’t use the kitchen to cook though.

Food in Plovdiv

The charm of the city is undeniable, with cobblestone streets, lots of squares, fountains and ancient buildings. The most important thing was to have dinner, so we went to a restaurant with good reviews we had spotted while preparing for trip (Restaurant Diana-1, address Plovdiv Center, ul. Knyaz Al. Dondukov-Korsakov 2, 4000 Plovdiv Bulgaria), which is located within walking distance of the city centre.

bulgarian salad
Bulgarian salad

As you can see from the photo, the portions in the restaurant are large and the variety of dishes is fantastic.

After a hearty dinner, we went to explore the city centre. Surprisingly, even though the tourist season was already over, there were quite a few people on the streets. Mostly they were local young people who were walking around the city, chatting, enjoying life and the nice evening. And all this was done in a very polite manner. This is one thing that surprised us in Bulgaria – people are in a good mood and know how to relax, having fun and not disturbing others. This was the case not only in Plovdiv, but also in other places we visited.

Only around midnight, tired but having enjoyed the night-time Plovdiv, we returned to the hotel. I will write about the next day in the next blog about this Bulgarian trip. Click on the link to read about our second day in Bulgaria.

Lithuanian dessert sakotis

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Bakery near Ignalina

This is another part of our trip around Lithuania. On the morning of the second day of our trip, after a coffee and light breakfast, we went to Ignalina. Our destination was bakery Romnesa, where Lithuanian desert sakotis (šakotis, šakočiai or raguolis), what is a national delicacy, is produced.

romnesa bakery
Romnesa bakery

Sakotis is a special muffin in the shape of a tree with a hollow in the middle prepared by monks since the 15th century. A similar kind of muffin is also popular in Germany, Poland, Sweden, Hungary and Japan.

However, every country has its own specific traditions of preparing them. Variants of preparation may vary but just for an example here is one sakotis recipe (keep in mind that the same importance as ingredients also is a technology of sakotis preparation). In this case, sakotis was made on open fire. We were also told about the history of sakotis (there is a small museum inside the factory’s premises) as well as made our own.

The size of sakotis depends on the amount of eggs used for its preparation.

Components of Lithuanian desert sakotis

1/2 cup butter;
1/2 cup sugar;
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel;
1/2 teaspoon vanilla;
6 egg yolks;
2/3 cup flour;
1/3 cup cornstarch;
6 egg whites;
1/4 teaspoon salt;
1/4 cup sugar

Preparation of sakotis

  1. Cream butter until light and gradually add 1/2 cup of sugar, lemon peel and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.
  2. Add yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  3. Mix flour with 1/3 cup of corn starch, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and stir into butter mixture.
  4. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, and beat till stiff peaks form.
  5. Stir a small amount of egg white into the flour mixture, and fold the flour mixture into the egg whites.
  6. Bake on a rotating cone.

Serving

Do not forget to remove your sakotis from the cone before serving – it looks so tasty that anyone would like to try it straight away.

cooking lithuanian sakotis
Cooking Lithuanian sakotis

You can also read a blog about another delicacy of Lithuanian cuisine – Lithuanian dumplings Cepelinai.

Italian cooking classes in Rome

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This experience was part of our trip to Italian capital city Rome. After returning from our one-day long trip to Vesuvius, we had one more major attraction booked – cooking classes in Italian restaurant.

small restaurant in rome
Small restaurant in Rome

Almost everybody around the world knows Italian food. Italian cuisine has been developing since ancient times and has spread around the world until nowadays. One of the main characteristics of Italian dishes is that it is usually simple to prepare a meal because just a few main ingredients (often two to four) are normally used. However, Italy is large country and the same dish may be very different in different areas of the country.

Some very well know ingredients of Italian cuisine are olive oil, pesto, pasta, tomatoes, peppers, olives, garlic, artichokes, eggplants, zucchini, all kinds of meat, fish, seafood and cheese (parmesan, pecorino, ricotta etc.).

There is a huge range of pasta used in Italy as well as in other countries around the world – macaroni, spaghetti, linguine, fusilli, penne, lasagne, ravioli and tortellini. Pasta differs from each other with various lengths, widths, and shapes but, for example, ravioli and tortellini are filled with other ingredients.

A while before coming over to Italy, we booked cooking classes at Le Fate Restaurant (Le Fate means fairy). In this privately owned restaurant, Italian Chief Andrea Consoli was teaching groups of 4 to 6 people about preparing excellent Italian dishes.

tiramisu
Tiramisu dish

We were really enjoying this cooking class and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to enjoy free time acquiring some new knowledge mixed with just having fun. However, I was checking for availability of this cooking class in 2019 and it appears that this restaurant has been closed – what a pity.

There is another blog about finding good restaurants in Rome for eating breakfast, lunch and dinner – this may save your some time in finding those as I can recommend all of them after my own positive experience.

So, this is it about our cooking classes in Rome but there also are travel notes about another trips to Italy, for example, to Italian Alps.

Cooking classes near Marrakesh

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When visiting other countries, we always try to familiarise ourselves with local cuisine, at least as much as possible. For example, on our own we were buying and preparing seafood in Montenegro.

One way of doing this is visiting local restaurants, though it is even more exciting if there is a possibility to prepare food ourselves. It appeared that Morocco offers visitors to enjoy cocking classes; this is both an adventure and getting new useful skills in preparing Moroccan food.

Moroccan food

In Morocco, we booked a cooking class near Marrakesh – FAIM D’EPICES. The price was approx. EUR 50 per person and that included transportation, lessons in Moroccan food preparation, preparation of meals in practice, drinks and spice workshop (pick-up place usually would be arranged near the place you stay in Marrakesh, which is a norm in Morocco).

We learned how to make a complete meal, meaning bread, salad, a tajine and the special Moroccan patties. The main dish on the day we were there was the tajine of lamb with prunes. Be aware that they do not accept credit cards, so cash should be taken with you; we also paid a deposit in advance (half of the price).

Cooking classes

Faim d’Epices operates for a while, the kitchen is large and well-equipped. We also got very useful tips on different topics, for example, how to find out if argan oil is pure or how to make sure that saffron is genuine (these ingredients are expensive and people may try to sell fake stuff).

Argan oil is an oil produced from the kernels of the argan tree and saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus. Saffron has long been the world’s most costly spice by weight.

Both, argan oil and saffron are specific to Morocco. In addition to this, every household prepares its own mix of different spices to be used for everyday cooking; those may include caraway, cumin, saffron, sumac, fennel, mustard and many other ingredients.

You may wish to watch on YouTube my video about the Moroccan town Tafraout which we visited during COVID in 2020 (opens in a new window). In Morocco we also visited such places as Marrakesh, Taroudant, Agadir, Paradise Valley, Sahara desert and more which you can find on this blog.

Seafood specialities in Montenegro

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During our vacation trip to Montenegro, we obviously enjoyed a lot of seafood in Montenegro and local fermented grape juice of course. Especially, we were excited about buying fresh seafood on the shore from fishermen and preparing our (not anymore their) catch at home.

In my opinion, there are more tasty oysters in neighbouring Croatia, however, the taste of mussels from the Bay of Kotor outperforms many regions offering similar production. In local warehouses, it was possible to buy different kinds of seafood (and the price was excellent indeed). It was a real celebration of summer every evening in Montenegro all week long.

Seafood in Montenegro is a usual thing for locals. Humans have used seafood in their cuisine for thousands of years. For example, mussels can be smoked, boiled, steamed, roasted, barbecued or fried in butter or vegetable oil. As with almost all shellfish, mussels should be checked to ensure they are still alive just before they are cooked.

We have had mussels for a meal in many countries and definitely those we had in Montenegro, along with Scottish mussels, have been one of the best experiences. We did not particularly buy any fish, which I believe should also be excellent in Montenegro. The main reason for that was a huge variety of shellfish – mussels, clams, scallops and many more.

Quick and easy seafood preparation recipe – scallops

Scallops are high in protein, low in calories and contain a whole lot of good things for our body like Omega-3, minerals and vitamins. I am wondering why there really are not that many things around, which are that much beneficial for our health as well as really tasty.

So, what you should do if you have been lucky enough to buy some big fresh scallops (this recipe may not be suitable if you get frozen scallops from a supermarket).

  • The first thing – bring home and wash if there is some sand or dirt on the shells
  • Open shells and leave scallops in one half of the shell (kids may like to play with them later on).
  • Chop garlic, put over scallop, add pepper and salt.
  • Put on a frying pan (see a picture here) and cook until it gets ready (it should not take long – just a few minutes).

Enjoy your results and read about our experience of visiting Durmitor National Park in Montenegro.