Our Bulgarian Dinner Party Plan

My new favorite ladybug (or kalinka in BG) slippers.

  

 None of us like these pictures. Neli is lucky that she didn't get sucked into out bad luck.

Idk what this is, but its from Bulgaria.

This is it. Are we not majorly accomplished?

When we do a dinner party, we go all out.

When I asked Neli and Lusi to teach me to cook Bulgarian food, they asked me what to make. I told them simple staples that they make often, but aren't too complicated. (That was redundant.) This is the menu they came up with. Literally, a full, three course meal. Applause is in order, because not only was it fancy and amazing, but it was easy.

Salad - “Snow White” phonetically spelled “snejanka”

Banitsa

Bean Stew - Fasul

Pork Patties/Meatballs - “Kufteta”

I went over at around five and they already had the beans on the stove. I threw on a pair of lady bug slippers and got to work. We made the pork first, then the banitsa and then the salad and stew. All while rocking out to Mamma Mia.

We reminisced, cooked, and took notes. Lusi was my scribe. She did a great job and I am considering hiring for all of my next projects. I will be using some of her quotes in the recipes.

Around seven my mom came by and we had a mother-daughter dinner party. In the dining room no less! It was grand, and must be repeated soon.

Neli and Lusi

Lusi (left) looks like a model. Neli (right) does too but she doesn't like pictures. I got this when she wasn't looking.

“What was your favorite food as a kid?”

Neli - “Sour cabbage leaf stuffed with rice and ground beef.”

Lusi - “Fried banitsa with yogurt drink*.”

“What was the food that you were most proud of making?”

Neli - “My friends I would sneak away when we were younger during the summer and make ourselves fried eggs.”

Lusi - She never told me. Which probably means she is proud of everything.

“What is your favorite ingredient to cook with?”

Neli - “I add savory to everything! Or cheese. I love Bulgarian Cheese.”

“What is your guilty pleasure treat?”

Neli - “I don’t feel guilty eating anything!”

Lusi - “Biscuit cake, mmh.”

Me - “Bulgarian chocolate wafers. I order them in bulk.”

“What is your favorite American food?”

Lusi - “Peanut butter!”

*Yogurt Drink Recipe:

Plain greek yogurt and water. Mix to your consistency preference. Add salt. Drink.

Cookin' BG Style, First an Intro...

Here we are on the only ride we could stomach at the beach (Sozopol)

Here I am at ancient ruins in Varna, I think. I did not know I was climbing on such cool things.

Because we were cute.

Me looking ridiculous in front of a sign that says something that I don't know how to read.

Beach! We matched on purpose because we are lame.

I think this is that Roman theater in Plovdiv.

This is us climbing down 225 steps to an ancient sacred landmark place. Visitors tie pieces of their clothing on their trees for good luck.

This was the place of good luck. A butterfly landed on me, which was magical and I was going to kiss a frog I found for good measure but it hopped away because I was too slow.

It's so pretty.

We took model pictures.

 

This is us now. We grew up a little bit but we are still awesome. 

I wish I could post more pictures of Bulgaria (that are of the country and not our faces), but the ones I have, all have our faces in them. Lusi gave me some but I broke the CD that they were on. Oops. Sorry about all of the pictures of us, it is just representative of how impressively vain we are. And also how much fun we had.

I don’t know if you have read my About Me, but if you haven’t I would recommend that you do because I’m hilarious. I am kidding, I am only funny. You should actually read it because in it I tell you that I like to eat more than I like to cook. And then, I say I have a story about eating brains, but the time for that story will come. WELL, MY FRIENDS, THAT TIME HAS COME.

Long, long ago in a land far away, (2011 in Bulgaria), I adventured. I have a Bulgarian friend. Her name is Lusi. We like to adventure because we are adventurous. I was going off to Germany, she was taking her biannual trip to her home country, and we had a lightbulb moment. It was that I go with her. And it happened, which is the most unbelievable thing of this whole story.

It was a wonderful trip. I spent a month and a half in Bulgaria. We flew into Sofia, and everyone there loved my name. (Because I am named Sophia, in case you didn’t know.) We then stayed for about a week in Veliko Tarnovo (which used to be the Bulgarian capital), driving back and forth between a city apartment and a country villa. There I had my first ever stuffed pepper, and accidentally caught Lusi’s aunt stove on fire after Lusi and I tried to make ourselves frozen french fries. We have tallent. We visited her grandparent’s farm and her other grandparents apartament in Plovdiv, and we also went to the beach. At the beach, Lusi accidentally ordered calamari thinking it fried squid, but it wasn’t. It was an entire uncooked squid that I tried. I also tried tongue on that trip. The squid was slimy but the tongue was delicious. However, nothing was as horrifying as what happened at her grandparent’s farm.

We arrived, and to celebrate they had killed a lamb and cooked the entire thing. That sounds worse than it was. It was great. (I remember it sort of like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but that’s because I have a bad memory.) We ate the lamb that night and it was delicious. They made homemade french fries, too. It was wonderful. The next day, Lusi handed me a bowl of rice with something in it. So I started to eat it. And it was gross. I mean really gross. I don’t want to be insensitive, but my taste buds did not appreciate what I had just put them in contact with. THERE WERE INTESTINES IN THE RICE. Not brains, I’m sorry about that. I always remember things much more dramatically than they actually were. But yes. That is my story.

So for my first official, real, and totally awesome blog post (the way I planned them to be) I picked Bulgarian food. That is right. The food of my people. JK. They will never claim me, as much as I have tried. But I have on good authority that I am very close to being a surrogate Bulgarian, but just not there yet. It’s an exciting process.

Let me tell you a little bit about why Bulgaria is so cool.

1. I just made it cool by posting about it on here.
2. Ok for real though. Some of the best people I know are from there, so that is a plus one for BG.
3. They have seriously delicious food. You are about to see that. You are welcome. (Except do not try the intestines. I am pretty sure intestines would taste bad in any country, though)
4. Bulgaria has some pretty impressive history; European’s earliest civilizations were in Bulgaria. The world’s oldest golden ornaments were found in Varna. That officially makes them awesome.
5. It was part of the Roman Empire. I think I am at the Ancient Theater and the Roman Stadium in Plovdiv in one of the above pictures. I will have to check about that though before I seem too fabulous.
6. Bulgaria was the birthplace of the Cyrillic alphabet.
7. It was a part of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires and was victorious in the first Balkan War in 1912. It was a member of the Allied Forces in WWI and allied with the USSR in WWII.
8. The country was declared a republic in 1946 and the Bulgarian Communist Party came to power. Democratic changes occurred in 1989. In 2007 it became a member of the European Union.
9. It is historically Eastern Orthodox Christian (think Byzantine Empire).
10. Dancing on live coals is an ancient Bulgarian ritual still practiced in a few villages in the Balkan Mountains. This is cool but also kinda scary because I think that would hurt. I must do more research.
11. The symbol of Bulgaria is the rose and rose smelling stuff is everywhere.
12. On New Years Eve children decorate sticks and after midnight hit the adults on the back with the stick while chanting good luck. Then the adults give the kids money as a thank you for the good luck and a happy new year. I was lucky enough to participate once and I made $37. It was the best-weirdest way I have ever made money. My friend is writing a hilarious college supp on it.
13. Bulgarians have a fascinating and incredibly rich culture and past. I highly encourage you to do some virtual traveling and sail away to the black sea for awhile and research it.

I found a lot of this history on the fascinating Official Tourism Portal of Bulgaria.

Also here is the link to Lusi’s blog, Exclusively Lusi, where you will get a sneak peek of what we ate. She is also blogging for her mentoring project, but she had the incredible idea to blog about seventeen things she will experience before she is seventeen. I realize that last sentence sounds sarcastic, but it was not supposed to sound that way, I just have trouble not sounding sarcastic. She is great and you should follow her.

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

My Wonderful Fried Plantain Meal

Courtney, Laura, Annie and I went to waffle house. They know us there by now.

Me sipping my hot cocoa. Annie is next to me. My true love.

 This is a weird picture, I acknowledge that. But it's my form of before and after.

Caramelized or burnt.

Doesn't it look freaking delicious?? Well it was.

Bout to have my world rocked by this plate of food and Scandal. Can't help it. It just happens that way.

For about an entire month I did not cook anything except one meal. That is embarrassing, but what can I say? I’ve been trying to college and stay sane. Both of those things haven’t been going great, but hey it’s the most stressful semester of my life so far. I’m impressed that I’ve stayed alive.

One weekend I had a bunch of friends over and we worked our way through $22 dollars of junk food and two chick flicks. It was great. After my friends left at 8 the next day, I wandered into the kitchen. I hadn’t eaten anything that day since we had been to Waffle House at 11. And in the kitchen I concocted a meal that I am to this day incredibly proud of. (In the midst of all of these self-esteem killing college apps one must take pride in the little things.)

My Wonderful Meal:

• 1 fried plantain
• 2 chicken quesadillas

Tip: Eat while watching Scandal. Overwork yourself with excitement and then fall asleep.

Yes. I know. Impressive. Just hand me the medal.

This is why I am proud of this meal. 1) I came up with it all by myself. 2) It was delicious 3) It was incredibly fatty but I convinced myself it was healthy 3) It reminded me of Germany.

Number three may seem weird but let me tell you a story. My host family was pretty big, so we didn’t go out on adventures much. It was March or one of those boring months and we were all bored. (That was redundant. Oh well.) My host mom, Sophie, decided to take me and my sister, Louise, to a museum and a market in Frankfurt. We spent hours in the museum and then walked to the market which was full of international foods and bought two plantains and lots of other crazy foods. That night we fried up our plantains and watched The King’s Speech. It was one of my favorite nights in Germany that I can remember.

That was my story. Now here are the directions to make my awesome meal.

1. Heat enough oil to fry things in. This should be done in a pan.
2. Peel plantain.
3. Put plantain in hot oil. Fry until caramelized. Or burnt if you can not control them like me.
4. Grab two corn tortillas from fridge. Some cheese and leftover chicken too. If you have all of those things. If you don’t then I guess you are screwed. That sucks.
5. Spray pam on both sides of tortilla (this makes them crispy). Heat one side
6. Flip it over and immediately fill with cheese and chicken and fold in half. This is a crucial moment and it may cause you to panic. But don’t stay calm and everything will turn out fine.
7. Wait until they are prefect. Or overestimate perfect and wait until they are burnt.
8. Put on plate with plantains. Take to computer and turn on TV show. Good.

Now a moment on plantains. They are not from Germany. Even though this is what I think of. They are from Central America. African food uses plantains too. So equator region. There are sweet and savory forms of plantains. Personally I like to make myself sweet plantains but buy salty plantain chips with lime. That is the way to go. But you can literally prepare them in a thousand different ways. Fried, steamed, grilled, baked or boiled and more. There is also a drink and flour. And the leaves can be used as plates. Basically it is a wonderful fruit. (Wait. Is it a fruit? Or a starch. Shit. I don’t know. Now I’m confused.)

Food Trucks and Other Necessary Adventures

Kitty will def not be happy about this but it's happening.

The food trucks were more like food stands.

The foods stands were a lot like Crave. WE AS COOL AS SF.

I appreciate this.

We sat at the first table outside.

This is exactly like what I drank. Wow.

 Arepas and Yuca fries from the Pica Pica Website. It tasted as good as it looked

This is what the inside of The Mill looks like. They get credit for being beautiful.

Other necessary food adventures in San Francisco include food trucks. Actually, I think food trucks are always necessary. They are lots of fun. Kitty and I made a trip to the food trucks before our bitter dinner with Ted to see if we could find dessert. We didn’t find much though because it had to be gluten free. But we did get this amazing pumpkin creme brulee at a creme brulee food truck that - get this - had a Kentucky creme brulee. I know. What a coincidence. But I didn’t get it because my appreciation for my home state does not surpass my love for all things pumpkin.

Other good food trucks included a Popsicle one that was manned by a very gruff dude angrily reading philosophy. I guess his sales weren’t that great in the 60 degree weather. There was also a truck that was called the Bacon truck. It was designed to look like a pig and everything it sold included bacon. If I recall correctly, there was a heart warning on the side of their truck. I was in love. One sold Asian tacos which I really wanted to try but was too scared to. Another had a huge line and sold Asian fusion food. Everything was fried or incredibly fatty. It was perfect. There was even a beer food truck, which didn’t really seem legal to me. The whole experience was pretty epic even though we did not buy anything.

Three other amazing culinary adventures we had were small so I am adding them here. First, Kitty and I had a college planning moment where we worked out some of my supplements. And at La Boulange I drank a latte out of a bowl. I have never felt as cool as I did in that moment, and I doubt I ever will again. The second was on my last day we went to Kitty and Louis’s favorite gluten free restaurant in the Mission. It is called Pica Pica and it is all corn based food. We ordered arepas, which I have decided are my new favorite corn based food. Miles ahead of cornbread, even ahead of corn chips and queso. Arepas are “a grilled corn pocket crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside, and stuffed with your choice of slow-cooked meats, beans, plantains, cheese or vegetables”, according to their website, which happens to be correct. We also ordered Yuca fries which were pretty damn good. After we ordered I realized that I had actually had arepas before, with Kitty no less! Kitty took me to the inauguration as a Christmas present last year. It was freezing and we got crowded out of our spot, so we headed towards the parade. (We actually saw Obama so it was totally worth it.) But on our way to claim our spot a street vendor was selling cheese arepas and Kitty smelled it and doubled back to buy two. She used to eat them when she lived in Colombia so it was a throwback for her and plain deliciousness for me. I was not disappointed at Pica Pica. Third there was a bakery in the Mission called The Mill that served homemade bread. Kitty talked to the baker for a long time while I ate toasted white bread with apple cinnamon butter and this dude tried to talk to me but I didn’t realize he was talking to me so I didn’t answer and it was awkward.

Photo Credits:
La Boulange - Shop and Latte
Pica Pica
The Mill 

Flourless Citrus Cake

A.K.A. Louis’ Birthday Cake

I consider this foreign because it is gluten free and I like to keep that kind of cake far from my tastebuds. But not this one. Because it is good.

Ingredients:

• 2 oranges (But I have on good authority - my aunt - that 1 meyer lemon and 1 valencia orange is also delicious (best))
• 4 eggs
• ¾ cup agave syrup (Again my good authority says Lyle’s Golden Syrup* is pretty great)
• 2 cups blanched almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Wash and boil the entire orange and lemon for 1 ½ hours or until they are soft . Even the peel. Just trust me.
3. Put the entire orange/lemon in the food processor and blend until they are smooth.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients (eggs, syrup, almond flour, baking soda) and process until mixed.
5. Pour into a greased 9 inch pan.
6. Put in oven for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Eat. It is good with whipped cream and fresh berries but if you have to you can eat if for breakfast without the berries or cream.

*Just a note about Lyle’s Golden Syrup because its cool. According to the website: From working in the sugar business, Lyle noticed that the sugar cane refining process produces a treacly sort of syrup, which could be further refined. The result was a delicious preserve and sweetener for cooking. He started selling small quantities of “Goldie” from wooden casks to his employees and local customers. I wikipedia'd it and realized that I have eaten it in Germany but there it is called Zuckerrübensirup which means sugar beet syrup. Pretty cool.

Photo Credit: Lyle’s Golden Syrup