Lonely Planet Romania & Bulgaria

by Lonely Planet

  Between the Danube and the Stara Planina range, and hemmed in by the Serbian border and the eastern Dobrudzha Valley, these sun-kissed plains produce a signature Gamza, a fruity and fresh red dinner wine. Cabernet sauvignon and merlot are also crafted here, as are whites such as chardonnay, riesling and sauvignon blanc. Other common northern wines include Muscat Ottonel, Aligoté and Pamid.

  Damianitza's 'No Man’s Land' wine is made from grapes grown in the once off-limits border-zone fields between Bulgaria and Greece.

  Wineries

  Magura Winery Flood your taste buds with local wine on a tasting tour in Magura Cave in Belogradchik. Book wine tastings a few days in advance.

  Han Hadji Nikoli This historic Veliko Târnovo tavern is a superb place to sample regional wines, either from the broad wine list in the restaurant or at the classy wine bar. Han Hadji Nikoli also boasts six of its own wines, from merlot to sauvignon blanc.

  The Valley of Roses (Sub-Balkan)

  South of the Stara Planina mountain range and north of Plovdiv, this narrow region produces dry whites, such as distinctive pinkish Misket – better here than anywhere else in Bulgaria.

  Degustatsija na vino is Bulgarian for 'wine tasting'.

  Wineries

  Vini Sliven (www.vini.bg) Look out for Chardonnay, Misket and Rkatsiteli wines grown in the sandy soil of these 1920-founded vineyards around Shivachevo village, 30km west of Sliven.

  Bulgarian Cuisine

  Fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy and grilled meat form the basis of Bulgarian cuisine, which has been heavily influenced by Greek and Turkish cookery, as well as home-grown Balkan traditions. Pork and chicken are the most popular meats, while tripe also often features. You will also find recipes including duck, rabbit and venison, and fish is plentiful along the Black Sea coast and in the Rodopi Mountains. Yoghurt and two types of cheese are also key ingredients.

  VEGETARIANS & VEGANS

  Vegetarianism has been slow to catch on in Bulgaria, but cities are finally wising up to the diet. In smaller towns, the lack of dedicated veggie eateries is not usually an obstacle to following a meat-free diet. Most restaurants offer a dozen or more salads, which are sometimes large enough for a main course. Omelettes, vegetarian pizzas and pasta dishes are common, but note that the ‘vegetarian’ designation is applied with varying degrees of accuracy. Similarly, some restaurant menus now label the allergens of each dish, but it is worthwhile asking about the rigour with which 'dairy-free' or 'gluten-free' labels have been applied (dietary requirements remain a slightly alien concept to most Bulgarians).

  Tasty vegetarian meals and snacks include sirene po shopski (cheese, eggs and tomatoes baked in a clay pot), gyuvech (potatoes, tomatoes, aubergine, onions and carrots baked in a clay pot), mish-mash (scrambled eggs with peppers, tomatoes and cheese), kashkaval pane (fried breaded cheese), chuska byurek (fried, breaded peppers stuffed with egg, cheese and parsley), bob chorba (bean soup) and the ever-popular banitsa (pastry). Tarator (chilled yoghurt and cucumber soup) is a deliciously refreshing dish at any time of year.

  Grilled Meats & Stews

  Grilled meats (skara), especially pork, are among the most popular dishes served in Bulgarian restaurants, mehana (taverns) and snack bars. You can't escape the omnipresent kebabche (grilled spicy pork sausages) and kyufte (a round and flat pork burger), which are tasty, filling and cheap staples of Bulgarian menus, usually served with chips, fried potatoes or salad. The kyufte tatarsko, a seasoned pork burger filled with melted cheese, is another variant. The Greek-influenced musaka (moussaka), made with minced pork or veal and topped with potatoes, is a quick lunchtime staple of cafeterias.

  Shish kebabs (shishcheta), consisting of chunks of chicken or pork on wooden skewers with mushrooms and peppers, as well as various steaks, fillets and chops, are widely available.

  Meat stews and 'claypot meals' (hot, sizzling stews served in clay bowls) are traditional favourites. Kavarma, normally made with either chicken or pork, is one of the most popular dishes. Exact recipes vary from one region to the next, but the meat is cooked in a pot with vegetables, cheese and sometimes egg, and is brought sizzling and bubbling to your table.

  Pig, cow and lamb offal, in various forms, is a distressingly common feature of many a restaurant menu. If you're in the mood for something different, though, you could try such delights as stomach soup (shkembe chorba) or perhaps brain (mozâk) or tongue (ezik), which come in various forms, including in omelettes. Spleens and intestines also turn up in soups and grills.

  The Food & Cooking of Romania & Bulgaria by Silvena Johan Lauta features 65 easy-to-follow traditional regional recipes.

  Salads & Starters

  Salads are an essential part of most Bulgarian meals, and are often eaten as a starter, but some are so large that they could be a full meal in themselves. There's a bewildering array of salads available at most restaurants.

  Shopska salad, which is made with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and onions and covered with feta cheese, is so popular it’s regarded as a national dish. Snezhanka (‘Snow White’), or milk salad, is made with cucumbers and scoops of plain yoghurt, with garlic, dill and crushed walnuts; it's essentially a more solid version of tarator (chilled cucumber and yoghurt soup), and is especially tempting in summer.

  Ruska (Russian) salad features boiled potatoes, pickles, eggs and chopped ham, while the hearty ovcharska salad includes ham, mushrooms, chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cheese and olives. Rather lighter, and more common, green and Greek salads are served everywhere, and restaurants often have their own inventive concoctions worth trying.

  Appetisers, or starters, are eaten before a meal, sometimes with a glass of rakia (fruit brandy). Plates of sliced, dried sausage (lukanka), stuffed vine leaves (losovi sarmi), roast peppers stuffed with cheese and egg (chuska byurek) and fried, breaded cheese (sirene pane or kashkaval pane) are all very popular.

  If you’re looking for a quick and easy Bulgarian recipe, www.findbgfood.com gives instructions for several popular dishes.

  Street Food

  If you just fancy a quick bite, there's a wide choice of cheap and tasty street food available all over Bulgaria. By far the most popular takeaway snack is the banitsa, a flaky cheese pastry, freshly baked and served hot from simple counters and kiosks. They are often eaten for breakfast. Fancier bakeries will offer variations of the basic banitsa, adding spinach, egg, ham or other ingredients. Sweet versions (mlechna banitsa) are made with milk.

  Sweet and savoury pancakes (palachinki), croissant-shaped buns (kiflichki), filled with marmalade, chocolate or cheese, and deep-fried yoghurt doughnuts (mekitsi) are all worth sampling.

  Bulgarians are great snackers and in big towns you will see vendors in parks selling toasted sunflower seeds wrapped in paper cones. Steamed corn on the cob is served on street corners and around parks, and bagel-like, ring-shaped bread rolls dusted in poppy or sesame seeds (gevrek) are commonly sold by street vendors.

  Traditional Bulgarian Cooking by Atanas Slavov gives more than 140 recipes you might like to try out, including all the favourites such as kavarma, banitsa and shopska salad.

  Cheese & Yoghurt

  It’s amazing how much Bulgarians make of their two types of cheese, sirene (‘white’; brine cheese, similar to feta) and kashkaval (‘yellow’; hard cheese, often melted in omelettes). Those who are lactose-intolerant or non-cheese-lovers should read menus carefully.

  Bulgarians claim to have invented yoghurt (kiselo mlyako; literally 'sour milk'), and, indeed, the bacteria used to make yoghurt is called lactobacillus bulgaricus, named in honour of its Bulgarian origins. Yoghurt is used in many sweet and savoury dishes, including salads and desserts, and drinking yoghurts are very popular; ayran is a refreshing, chilled, slightly salty, thin yoghurt drink that makes an ideal accompaniment to light meals.

  Drinks

  Coffee is the beverage of choice for most Bulgarians, though tea is also popular. Most common are the herbal (bilkov) and fruit (pl
odov) varieties; if you want real, black tea, ask for cheren chai, and if you’d like milk, ask for chai s’mlyako (though some bewildered waiters may bring tea and milk in separate cups).

  Beer (bira) is sold everywhere, either in bottles or in draught (nalivna) form, which is generally cheaper. Leading nationwide brands include Zagorka, Kamenitza, Ariana and Shumensko, while there are several regional brews, which are rarely available far beyond their home areas. Lower-alcohol fruit beers have become popular in recent years.

  The national spirit is rakia, a clear and potent kind of brandy. Distilled from plums, grapes or apricots and ideally served ice cold, there are numerous brands available (as well as some powerful homemade versions made from quince, cherries and apples). It’s drunk as an aperitif, and served with ice in restaurants and bars, which often devote a whole page on their menus to a list of the regional rakias on offer. Shopska salad is considered a superbly salty accompaniment to rakia.

  Bulgaria produces huge quantities of both white and red vino (wine), which varies greatly in quality.

  SHOPSKA SALAD

  Although it might seem one of the most ‘traditional’ of Bulgarian dishes, the origins of shopska salad are unclear, and it may have been created as recently as the 1950s. Usually a medley of tomato, cucumber and crumbly sirene cheese, every restaurant will have a different twist, from a sprinkle of oregano to handfuls of roasted red peppers. They are usually crowned with a solitary olive, whose plumpness and freshness foretells the quality of the salad overall.

  Where to Eat & Drink

  Cafes & Markets

  Cafes are cheaper affairs and include basic self-service cafeterias offering pre-cooked meals, soups and salads. In the cities, small basic cafes or snack bars offer drinks and snacks, sometimes with a few chairs outside, or just a table to lean on. Some bake their own produce, especially banitsa. Look out for signs reading закуска (zakuska; breakfast).

  Self-caterers will find plenty of choice at Bulgaria's many street markets; this is where most locals do their shopping, and much of the produce will be fresh (though in many villages, locals whisper that produce touted as organic and locally grown is quietly imported).

  Mehana

  A mehana (tavern) is a traditional restaurant, often decorated in a rustic style, adorned with rugs and farming implements, and offering only authentic Bulgarian cuisine. Some of these, of course, are tourist traps, luring foreign tourists with noisy ‘folk shows’ and waiters in fancy dress, though the genuine places provide a pleasant atmosphere in which to sample the very best of local food. Look out for those frequented by locals. Rounding up a bill is common; some waiting staff simply don't bring back change.

  Restaurants

  Most outlets providing seating describe themselves as restaurants, and this covers a pretty broad range of dining spots and every imaginable type of cuisine.

  In the big cities and coastal resorts, most restaurants will offer menus in English and, occasionally, other languages. Reservations are rarely necessary, unless you are in a large group or the restaurant is especially popular. Bills will usually be ‘rounded up’, and a service charge of 10% is sometimes added. If it isn’t, a small tip is expected.

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  PRACTICALITIES

  AThe metric system is used.

  ASeek out Vagabond (www.vagabond.bg), a glossy, English-language lifestyle magazine, published monthly and available at bookshops and newsstands in Sofia, and some coffeeshops in Varna, Plovdiv and Stara Zagora.

  AAround 45% of Bulgarians smoke – one of the highest proportions in Europe. Since 2012, smoking has officially been banned in all public spaces, including restaurants, bars, hotels, cinemas and workplaces, but is still permitted at outside restaurant tables.

  ANovinite (www.novinite.com) is an online English-language source of Bulgaria-wide news.

  AKey radio stations include Radio Bulgaria (BNR; www.bnr.bg), which has a daily one-hour English-language broadcast, and BG Radio (91.9FM; www.bgradio.bg).

  Book Your Stay Online

  For more accommodation reviews by Lonely Planet authors, check out http://lonelyplanet.com/hotels/. You’ll find independent reviews, as well as recommendations on the best places to stay. Best of all, you can book online.

  Accommodation

  Accommodation is most expensive in Sofia and other big cities, notably Plovdiv and Varna. Elsewhere, prices are relatively cheap by Western European standards. Demand and prices are highest in coastal resorts between July and August, and in the skiing resorts between December and February. Outside the holiday seasons, these hotels often close down, or operate on a reduced basis.

  AGuesthouses Usually small, family-run places and great value, with cosy rooms and home-cooked breakfasts.

  AHizhas The mountain huts in Bulgaria's hiking terrain are convenient, though basic, places to sleep.

  AHotels Bulgaria has a good range of hotels from budget to top-end.

  SLEEPING PRICE RANGES

  The following price ranges refer to a double room with bathroom in high season. Unless otherwise stated, breakfast is included in the price.

  Category Cost

  € less than 60 lv

  €€ 60–120 lv (to 200 lv in Sofia)

  €€€ more than 120 lv (more than 200 lv in Sofia)

  Camping

  Most campgrounds are open only between May and September. They are mainly popular with Bulgarian families, and are rarely convenient for anyone relying on public transport. Camping in the wild (ie outside a camping ground) is usually prohibited, and stiff fines can apply if you're caught doing so in a national park.

  BOOKING SERVICES

  ABulgaria Monasteries (www.bulgariamonasteries.com) For contact details to book monastery stays.

  AHostelling International (www.hihostels.com) Has hostels in Sofia and Plovdiv.

  ALonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com/bulgaria/hotels) Recommendations and bookings.

  AZig Zag Holidays (www.zigzagbg.com) Based in Sofia, this outfit can arrange accommodation in the mountains and villages.

  Hostels

  Sofia has more hostels than anywhere else. You will also find hostels in Veliko Târnovo, Varna, Plovdiv, Bansko and Burgas. Most are clean, modern and friendly places in central locations.

  Hotels

  Usually, the most attractive, and often best value, places are the smaller, family-run hotels. Towns famous for their spas, skiing or beaches usually have a wide range of high-quality hotels, often with spa centres or saunas on-site.

  Book Your Stay Online

  Monasteries

  About a dozen of the 160 monasteries around Bulgaria offer accommodation to anyone, of either sex, from pilgrims to foreign tourists. Some rooms are actually inside the monastery, such as at the Rila and Cherepish monasteries, or at guesthouses within metres of the monastery gates, for example at the Troyan, Lopushanski and Dryanovo monasteries. Some only offer rooms on a sporadic basis and availability may be unreliable; contact the monasteries directly to see if they have room. Be prepared to dress modestly and adhere to evening lock-out times throughout your stay.

  Mountain Huts

  Anyone, especially those enjoying long-distance treks or shorter hikes, can stay at
any hizha (mountain hut). Normally a hizha only offers basic, but clean and comfortable, dormitory beds with a shared bathroom, and cost from 15 lv to 35 lv per person per night. Most are open only from May to September, but those situated at or near major ski slopes are often also open in winter. They are privately run, frequently change hands, and often only Bulgarian is spoken. It's sometimes advisable to ask a Bulgarian speaker to call them in advance.

  Private Rooms

  Stays in private rooms can often be arranged through an accommodation agency in a town centre, or at a bus or train station. Rooms cost anywhere between 10 lv and 45 lv per person. You may see signs outside private homes advertising rooms available, either in Bulgarian (Свободни Cтаи) or, quite often, in English or German. The pensioners who hang around outside bus and train stations offering rooms in their homes are invariably living on very low incomes, so by paying them directly, without the commissions taken off by agencies, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping them get by. These days, due to the increasing number of hostels and social accommodation websites such as Airbnb, this kind of private room arrangement is much less common.