World Food Thursdays

Country No.20: Bulgaria

 

Date: 07/04/2016

 

Venue: Sunny Beach, Turnpike Lane

 

Attendees: Maor, Poppy, Ben, Kim, Lee, Ellen (venue chosen by Ben)

 

Cost per head: £15 a head

 

Hello gluttony my old friend. How I missed you.

 

It’s been almost 4 months since the last official world food outing (does Sweden count, only three gastronaughts attended and between them they couldn’t manage to put a single comment down on paper) and a lot has changed. Ben and Ellen became the latest couple to announce their engagement completing the set of world food collaborations. Poppy and Maor bought a house, and most significantly of all, Kim and Lee’s Citroen C3 Pluriel received it’s death sentence. Never fear though, as one member of the world food family passes on another arrives as Poppy and Maor edge closer and closer to welcoming little baby Kanafeh into the world. Poppy, deep into the third trimester had spent most of the afternoon adorning her baby bump with an homage to 2015’s fishing trip. Sadly Becky and PK couldn’t join us for our Bulgarian banquet, we were very much looking forward to their performance of the entirety of the Wombles of Wimbledon Common including the little known second verse.

 

That’s enough catching up though, this is a food blog not Hello magazine. Thanks to the fine work conducted by Dimitar Berbatov during his brief spell in London the city now possesses a thriving Bulgarian community meaning Ben had several Bulgarian restaurants to choose from. Sunny Beach was an easy pick, coming with glowing reviews from all corners of the interweb. You could have been forgiven for momentarily forgetting that you were in busy Turnpike Lane such was the authenticity of the venue, replete with an outdoor smoking area crammed with locals and plenty of native beer on the menu.

 

World Food Thursdays slipped back into old patterns of behaviour with punctuality falling back down the agenda for some attendees. Nevertheless the diminished gang all managed to make it in time to sample the pre-starters, a cheesy garlic pizza bread and some Cheese Shopski, an earthenware pot containing chopped peppers and tomatoes, lots of white Bulgarian cheese and topped off with an egg then baked. Delicious.

 

The pre-starters were swiftly followed with the real deal; shopska salad (tomatoes, cucumber, peppers topped with grated Bulgarian cheese), stuffed mushrooms, cured beef, a giant burek, deep fried cheese coated in cornflakes served with blueberry jam, minced aubergine and crème fraiche roast potatoes. A lot of food, the highlight being the cornflake cheese. At this stage we were feeling quite full and were starting to understand why the waitress refused to let us order anymore. Fortunately we’d only ordered two mains, unfortunately one of them was absolutely enormous and could have fed most of the people in the packed restaurant. The first main course, Chicken Cavarma, was served in a similar pot to the Cheese Shopski but contained succulent chicken, mixed vegetables and unnamed Bulgarian herbs (I am none the wiser as to how these differ to English herbs). The second main course and the star of the show arrived on a giant platter fresh from the grill. Sizzling away it contained a mountain of mixed vegetables and lamb ribs, all topped off with a Bulgarian cheese similar to mozzarella. We should have paid attention to the category it fell under on the menu…family specials! To make matters worse it was served with three more garlic bread pizzas.

 

At this stage the best we could manage was to ask for some of the leftovers to be packaged up as doggy bags and to stumble out of the restaurant, back into suburban London, and make our merry ways home.

 

Bulgarian Facts:

• The famous USA ‘94 World Cup team featured one player whose surname didn’t end in –ov, the centre back Hubchev

• The Bulgarian army has never lost a single flag in battle.

• Bulgarians express approval by shaking their heads rather than nodding