коледа в българия (Christmas in Bulgaria)

This year I stayed in Sofia for the winter holidays. We have two weeks off from school (yay!) and, lucky for me, I got to spend Christmas with my Bulgarian family. Kiril's folks are absolutely amazing and have welcomed me into their lives in every way.

For Christmas Eve (Budni Vecher in Bulgarian) we arrived early to help his mother, Mimi, prepare the meal. This mostly entailed making two large banitsas (homemade layered pastry filled with cheese and eggs) with fortunes wrapped in foil inside. These fortunes are a very special part of the tradition, as they tell you what kind of luck you will have in the coming tear. Kiril and I also made desserts ahead of time, which was my American contribution to the meal. We made one of my holiday favorites, peanut brittle, and toffee-nut blondies, which were a big hit.

In the Bulgarian Orthodox tradition, very much like the Catholic one I grew up with, Christmas Eve is the bigger event and is always spent with the family. Unlike the Christmases I know from my childhood, however, in Bulgaria the meal is always vegetarian. There must also be an odd number of dishes on the table, and at least 7. I think we had 11 dishes total (more dishes are supposed to bring more good luck). Usually, the dishes are fairly simple with a few traditional meatless favorites making an appearance. We ate stuffed peppers with sultanas, lutenitsa (roasted red pepper spread), fresh sheep and goat cheese, banitsa, pickled vegetables, dried fruits and nuts, and a special bread called pogacha which Kiril's brother Kalin prepared. The bread also had fortunes inside, as well as a hidden coin. When the meal begins, the oldest member of the household breaks the bread and gives it to the youngest member. And of course, the meal wouldn't be complete without a glass of delicious homemade wine.

From left to right: Kiril, me, Mimi and Kalin

On Christmas day we went over to Kiril's father's apartment for lunch. He had prepared a very hearty dish called kapama, which is made in a big clay pot and slow-cooked for at least 8 hours. Inside of the pot were layers of sauerkraut, pork, beef, chicken, two kinds of sausage, red wine, bay leaves and other seasonings. We ate this with another big pogacha, more cheese and a dried sausage called lukanka. I was the person to find the coin in the bread that time, so I should be very lucky this year. After two days of eating so much delicious food (and drinking spectacular homemade wine), I was exhausted! The rest of the week was rather a blur, and I'm happy to report that I've caught up on some very much-needed rest and relaxation. 

Photos I found online of the food- this is pogacha (bread)

And kapama, cooked in a clay pot

Orthodox Easter in Bulgaria

Bulgarians are getting ready to celebrate Easter this Sunday. While much of the Western world follows the Gregorian calendar, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (along with most Orthodox Christian churches) goes by the Julian calendar to determine the date of Easter. However, Bulgarians do celebrate Christmas on December 25th as many Roman Catholic and Protestant followers do, unlike followers of the Russian Orthodox faith who celebrate it two weeks later on January 7th. The date of Christmas never changes; Easter changes every year. Last year Orthodox Easter fell on the same date as Catholic Easter, but this year it's happening one week later- hence the lateness of this post!

Yesterday Kiril and I painted Easter eggs, an important tradition which reportedly dates back to the time of Christ's death and resurrection. You're not allowed to dye eggs on Good Friday (or "Crucifixion Friday" in Bulgarian), so most people do this on either the Thursday or Saturday preceding Easter Sunday. The first egg is always red, which symbolizes health, and is left as an offering for the house. Many families keep this red egg stored somewhere for the whole year, until it is replaced by the next year's egg. Sounds a little smelly to me. One of my students told me that there is an additional tradition where you crack open the old egg and if it's still intact, this is an omen of good luck for the household.

We painted 8 eggs, a random number but that's because I forgot that I already had two in my fridge when we went out to buy half a dozen eggs yesterday. For some of them we mixed colors together and tried to use something called "crystal powder" that makes the eggs looks like there are little crystals all over them. I don't think we followed the directions very well for those ones, but the rest turned out great. On Sunday we get to play a game with them, which is another Bulgarian tradition.

The game goes something like this: each player holds an egg and knocks it against the other player's egg twice- first on the pointy end and then on the rounder end. The player whose egg survives this test is the winner, although I'm not sure what the prize is. If we were in the States, it would probably be a chocolate bunny or maybe a marshmallow shaped like a chick. But sadly, those are not really traditional here. 

A little slice of Poland in Sofia

Today I went with my friend Patrick, who happens to have a very entertaining new blog on public transportation in Sofia, to the Polish grocery store. It's located in Krasno Selo, which isn't that far from where I live unless you're going on foot or with public transportation. We rode the metro for three stops then took the number 5 tram to the Krasno Selo market and walked to the shop (about 40 minutes). Even with all of the melting snow making it especially messy to walk around the city, it was definitely worth the trip. I got some dried sausages (kabanos), pickles (ogurki), herring (sledz) and beetroot soup (borszt)- it was the instant kind, not pictured. 

As I imagined, the shop didn't have everything I wanted (Zubrowka vodka?!) but it did have a lot of good stuff and it's nice to know that I can find these products here. In some small way they remind me of my Polish family and lots of memorable visits to Warsaw. Hopefully I'll be making a return trip soon- after all, they don't sell my aunt's homemade pierogi or potato pancakes here!

Market time

My friend E. and I went to the Women's Market (Zhenski Pazar) in Sofia on Sunday to buy veggies and herbs. It was wonderful. I love going to the market, and how cheap it is! For example, I bought a kilo of pumpkin (I'm too lazy to cut it up on my own) along with some onions, chili peppers, beets and lots of fruit for a grand total of five leva, which is about $3.50. Across the street from the market we found a shop that sells all sorts of tea, coffee and spices AND a Turkish shop that has lots of amazing imported stuff like hummus, basmati rice and Turkish delights. I spent a little more money there than I did at the market, but it was totally worth it. Apparently there is also a Russian grocery nearby where you can find Polish-style pierogi! And, if I can find it one day, I'll visit the Polish grocery in Sofia, too. Don't get me wrong, I love Bulgarian food. And Zhenski Pazar is one of the places where I love to go because I can find fresh local produce and even special things like home-made honey. But it's always good to have a little variety, and it's nice to know that there are so many places to find something different. Next week is Thanksgiving, and to continue our tradition from last year, there will be a party with all the American Fulbrighters who want to join here in Sofia. My friend L promised to bring cranberry sauce and she's even baking a pumpkin pie! Now how's that for "exotic" cuisine? 

Bulgarian cooking project: Mish Mash

Today I am doing lots of overdue household chores: organizing all of my papers and lesson plans from last year, putting my summer clothes away for the winter, and figuring out how to use what's in my fridge before I go on a trip next week. The last one, clearly the most fun, presented me with the opportunity to continue my Bulgarian cooking project!

Here is my recipe for "Mish-Mash," a mixture of eggs, cheese, tomatoes and peppers. It was a perfect choice because I needed to use up most of those things, anyway:
- one tomato, diced
- two small peppers (I used the green ones, smaller than your average bell pepper)
- one yellow wax pepper (smaller and spicier than the green ones)
- three eggs
- 150 grams of cirene, soft white Bulgarian cheese (Feta is an ok substitute)
- sunflower oil
- chubritsa (a Balkan spice that grows in summer, also known as "savory")

Fry the tomato and peppers with sunflower oil in a large skillet. In a bowl, whisk the eggs together with crumbled cheese. Pour this mixture over the veggies after they're cooked, and continue stirring until firm (just like scrambled eggs). Before serving, sprinkle liberally with chubritsa. An easy-to-make meal, ready in less than 20 minutes! Other recipes included onions and parsley, neither of which I had. It was still just as good without them.

* Note: I modified the recipe on the back of the "Sofia Cartoon Map." 

I found the photo here, with another variation on the same recipe.

Authentic American Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today is a national holiday in Bulgaria: St. George's Day, or the day of the Bulgarian armed forces. Everyone named Georgi or Gergana has a name day today and from what I understand it's yet another day to eat lots of good food, drink, and hang out with family and friends. Exactly like pretty much every holiday we have back home. In honor of St. George everyone gets the day off, and since today is a Friday we have a long weekend. At my school, Monday is a holiday, too. We're celebrating the school's birthday (161 years old!) and also the day of European culture. Because I teach at a Foreign Language School, the day will be celebrated with decorated classrooms from every language studied by the students: English, German, French, Russian, Spanish and Bulgarian. I helped some of my students to decorate the "English culture" classroom. They were free to choose any city or country in the English-speaking world and they decided on San Francisco, which I am very proud of. They're transforming the room into a vintage cafe, with handmade posters featuring slogans such as "Make Love, Not War." Part of the event will include a charity bake sale, and I am going to bring American-style chocolate chip cookies and banana bread. Today I went over to my friend Dessy's house and we baked the cookies together, which was great because she already taught me how to make Bulgarian banitsa. Cultural exchange through dessert! How exciting! Another feature of the San Francisco room will be "street performers," aka some of our talented guitar players, and a "tourist information booth" where I will sit and answer questions about that lovely city. It should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the reactions of other teachers and students when they see all of the hard work my students have put in.

On a completely unrelated note, talking about recent events with students has been a very interesting and eye-opening experience for me. Osama bin Laden's death is significant for them but also somewhat confusing. One thing I found shocking in their reactions was the belief that his death may have been a publicity stunt or had an element of conspiracy to it. Perhaps this is a cultural difference stemming from a lack of trust in government or something else completely. It definitely made me conscious of the fact that I am a foreigner and, to some extent, representative of the attitudes and actions of my home country. The celebratory patriotism displayed in New York and Washington is something I can relate to and that makes sense to me, even if I don't feel the need to do the same. But explaining it to students was somewhat difficult considering the sensitive subject matter. I plan on showing my older students excerpts from a documentary about 9/11 and discussing the US war on terror and what it means for global security. Hopefully this will result in a more illuminating discussion for all of us. 

Bulgarian Cooking Project: Banitsa

A friend of mine suggested that I make Bulgarian cooking a "side project" while I'm here. I think it's a great idea and I've decided to document my experiments. First up is banitsa, a Bulgarian cheese pastry made from eggs, yogurt, cheese and paper-thin dough (like phyllo). The filling doesn't always have to be cheese- there are versions with apple, onion and my favorite, pumpkin. I learned how to make it from my friend Dessy, who showed me the way her grandmother taught her.

Here are the ingredients:
- 1 package banitsa dough
- 5 eggs
- 1 pint of yogurt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- Crumbled cirene (soft, white, feta-like cheese)
- Sunflower oil

Preheat oven. I still haven't figured out what the correct temperature is exactly, but about 175 Celsius seemed to work fine. Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Combine baking soda and yogurt separately, let sit for one minute until yogurt starts to expand. Mix with eggs. Add crumbled cheese and oil. I use about 300-400 grams of cheese and less than a half cup of oil, but you could add more of either one. Grease a large, round, shallow baking dish with oil and place two layers of dough on the bottom. For the remaining layers you should squeeze them gently into a loose ball and then place in the pan so that the folds can hold the mixture. Spoon the egg mixture over the folds, not coating the dough entirely but spreading it across the whole pan. Continue until you run out of dough and make sure to leave enough of the egg mixture to coat the top of the pie with it or the dough will burn. Brush oil on any remaining dough poking out and place pan in the oven. The pie will be ready in 25 to 40 minutes, depending on the oven. Wait for it to cool before cutting into slices and enjoy! One variation is to sprinkle a little water on the top and then add sugar- this makes the banitsa both savory and sweet.

Not the most beautiful banitsa in the world but pretty tasty!