My own choice

TOP 100: MY OWN CHOICE

DimanaT — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 15:08:07 +0000

TOP 100: MY OWN CHOICE DimanaT Thu, 01/08/2015 - 17:08

Where the best places to eat are is one of the most important questions a foreigner has in a new or relatively unknown country. Knowing this, Vagabond has sought the sound advice of insiders, who have selected for you humble eateries, exotic places and exquisite establishments for a great or intriguing dining experience, or just shared their informed opinions on Bulgarian food.

"A roadside establishment, the Istanbul Turkish restaurant is on the motorway to Plovdiv, shortly before Ihtiman. With its unassuming interior, it was built to cater for Turkish truck drivers. The food is, however, so tasty that well-informed Sofianites gladly splash out on the petrol and time to go there for lunch during weekends. While arranging the skewered lamb, veal, chicken or mince over the charcoal fire in the modest room, the chef is also baking incredibly delicious bread in the wood-fired oven. You can hardly find better Turkish cuisine in Turkey itself and this is not just my opinion; the Turkish drivers eating at the next table will tell you the same."

GEOFFREY KEATING, Irish Ambassador between 2005 and 2010

"Speaking of tradition, I should say that my favourite Irish pub in Sofia is J.J. Murphy's. The interior has an authentic feel to it and, in the summer, the walled garden is a great place to spend an hour or two with a pint. The food's not bad either. I recommend the leprechaun burger, but only in spring or autumn when the Balkans are wreathed in rainbows and you can be sure of a good supply of fresh ingredients.

I am told that the little creatures are easily trapped and that they do not suffer in any way, although I have noticed that their pots of gold are removed before they reach the table."

LUCY COOPER, Vagabond editor in 2006-2007

"If you're after traditional Bulgarian fare in the capital, look no further than Pod Lipite. This is the place to take visitors, friends and family to give them an authentic taste of Bulgaria. Those wanting an all out Bulgarian dining experience can try the chicken hearts, livers, pan-fried calf's head or other strange pieces of animals. But if this doesn't appeal, stick with the pork knuckle, cold meats, sache, or wild boar. There are some vegetable options too and they do a great kyopoolu."

MEHMET GÜCÜK, Former Turkish Ambassador

"The Mahaloto Restaurant has an attractive ambience, particularly in the summer, with a simple and welcoming atmosphere in its courtyard. The interior is like a wine cellar transformed into three halls and decorated with old knick-knacks and furniture. Unlike so many other places, the menu is only about four pages long, but the content is very satisfying. The Caprese salad is particularly appetising, as are the steaks and chicken dishes. The chocolate mousse is also worth trying. There is a separate menu of the day and the staff are very friendly."

MICHAEL GEIER, Former German Ambassador and Slow Food Movement member

"Bulgarian cuisine is fresh (the salads!), delightful (kavarma) and very sociable, but it was born before calories were counted. Since my arrival from low fat East Asia, tight jackets and split trouser seats have tormented me! In the meantime, I'm reading Bulgarian cookery books. I have to decide which of the many tempting Bulgarian wines to offer friends on a cold winter's night in Germany, along with photos of our travels in this beautiful country."

ALEXANDRA DIMITRAKOPOULOU-BRANNIGAN, Greece-Ireland

"Pastorant instantly became a favourite restaurant in Soﬁa. Salads and pasta were simple, homey and very tasty. Top marks to the tiramisu. Decoration was feminine, cosy, romantic and gloriously mismatched. Staff are easygoing, friendly and efﬁcient."

JEANETTE VISSER, South Africa

"A little jewel in the centre of Sofia is definitely L'Etranger. This French restaurant has a carefully selected menu which will definitely suit all tastes. The Bulgarian custom of starting a meal with a fresh salad and rakiya followed by one of their excellent wines contributes, of course, to the spirit of togetherness. A custom which will always bring back good memories."

TOVE SKARSTEIN, Former Norwegian Ambassador

"I love that every menu in Bulgaria begins with a list of various salads, including the Shopska as the consistently common addition. Main courses usually offer meat, but as a Norwegian, I generally go for fish. I have learnt that a salad starter is a must. I skip the rakiya, which is too strong for me. I often joke with Bulgarian friends that drinking rakiya is such a necessity as it helps to kill the germs in the salads, but they usually don't find it too funny!"

JILL SHARER, USA

"Every city has its classic watering holes. New Orleans has Café Du Monde, Los Angeles has Phillipes French Dip Sandwiches and New York has The Oyster Bar. These are places that have been around for generations – where locals remember their first culinary experiences as childhood rites of passage. Thanks to 45 years of Communism, there are scant few of these classic restaurants here in Sofia. The Czechoslovakian Club (15 Krakra St) is one of them. My favourite thing here is actually a side dish. It's a doughy, bread-like, dumplingy thing called knedly. I also like the stewed pork with sour cabbage. It's not a light meal but it's worth the calories. Be sure to come here hungry and be prepared to leave very full."

MICHAEL WELLNER-POSPISIL, Former Director of the Czech Cultural Centre in Sofia

"Hambara bar has a discreet entrance without a sign. Walk through a tiny alley and you'll see a door made from rough wooden planks. If it's closed don't hesitate to knock or, better still, bang on it with your fist. The diners on the other side who are waiting to be seated will open it for you. The interior is lit only by candles and above the toilets you'll see a sign that says, Redaktsiya, or editing room. The toilets alone are worth seeing. Because the bar is so discreet, only regular customers come here, intellectuals mostly, or musicians, artists, and art lovers.

DIVYABH MANCHANDA, Former Indian Ambassador to Bulgaria

"Whenever I am asked about the Indian restaurants here, I give cautious replies. There are four in Sofia which come to mind: Taj Mahal, Koh-i-Noor, Saffron and Gurkha, where Indo-Nepalese cuisine is served. As you know very well, the job of a diplomat, particularly of an ambassador, involves the serving of the cuisine of their country. So, in our house, which is resplendent with Gayatri's acrylic and water colour paintings, we always serve Indian meals to our guests, like poories, channas, basmati rice, tandoori chicken, pao bhaji, pakoras, samosas, and for the sweet part gajjar ka halwa and several kind of barfee."

TSUNEHARU TAKEDA, Former Japanese Ambassador to Bulgaria

"Most of all, Bulgarians like sushi and tempura, particularly fried prawns. I have also been curious to sample the newly opened Japanese restaurants here and I have been among the first to try them out. When I arrived in Bulgaria, there wasn't a single Japanese restaurant and now there are several. In Sofia I would recommend as the most delicious SASA and Hamachi. They serve tasty sushi and tempura and I hope they will continue to keep up the authentic Japanese taste."

CHRIS NOLAN, Ireland

"In spite of being well known and always busy, Olive's is a place I would like to recommend. They have a wide range, very international. I especially love their Norma Jean Burger, their diced fried potatoes with spices, their Olive's salad and their grilled peppers. Both the portions and the prices are very reasonable. Service is first-rate and they speak English."

BERTIL ROTH, Former Swedish Ambassador to Bulgaria

"Motto is blessed with a very central location. The restaurant is very trendy and mostly patronised by younger people than me, but I very much appreciate the pleasant garden for simple summertime lunches."

JAMES SPRINGER

"My favourite, upmarket restaurant in town – at least for lunch – would be Checkpoint Charlie. Why? Well, first, it's very close to my office, and it has a fantastic lunch menu with no exorbitant prices and a very mellow atmosphere – just right for unwinding after the stress of work. But, it also has a great ambience at night when there is often entertainment accompanying the excellent food. All my meals there have been well prepared, tasty and served in a professional manner."

Issue 99-100 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria

VAGABOND FEATURES

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DIVYABH MANCHANDA

DimanaT — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:45:24 +0000

DIVYABH MANCHANDA

by Divyabh Manchanda; photography by Anthony Georgieff

DimanaT Mon, 12/20/2010 - 12:45

The Ambassador of India rediscovers Bulgaria, particularly the cuisine

My dear Ambar and Kumkum,

Greetings from Sofia: a place you have been to, briefly and only once, 24 years ago, during your extensive travels around the world! As for me, I am here for the second time in my career on my eighth assignment abroad. The first time was as a first secretary in 1988-1990, a time of crucial political and socio-economic changes in Europe and particularly in this region. The effects of those changes are still continuing today.

So, the first question that pops into my mind – still, even after being back for slightly over a year – how has it all changed in the last 20 years? How quickly has it changed? Has it really changed? In your last email, you particularly asked, as a gastronome of repute, about the changes in the cuisine. So, I will attempt to list our experiences in this fascinating field.

Well, the last time I was here, the shops were almost empty throughout winter. We had to drive to Pirot in Serbia (then Yugoslavia) or, if we had more time, to Thessaloniki in Greece to get the essentials. Now, of course, particularly since Bulgaria joined the EU nearly four years ago, everything is available throughout the year and people sometimes come in from surrounding countries for supplies.

In my opinion, Bulgarian cuisine is one of the best in Europe. This is like my fond saying about the land's charm: simple but delicious(ly) beautiful! While 20 years ago there were few restaurants worth going to, today there are hundreds of excellent places in Sofia itself... so we are just making a beginning!

OK, OK: I'll get straight to the point instead of rambling on! Bulgarians are avid salad eaters! When you enter a house you will find the table already laid with several types of salads. My favourite is the one with pink tomatoes with grilled capsicum and parsley sprinkled on top. I had the best one at a tavern on our drive to Troyan. The sarmi, stuffed vine leaves, are also delightful. This is basically a dish of Turkish origin, so I tried some at a Turkish restaurant in Sofia where they also served other salads, like bulgur, and excellent kebabs and grilled food.

The soups are my favourite: vegetable, pork, mixed – all of them. A particularly soothing one in summer is tarator, prepared from yoghurt, cucumbers, garlic, walnuts, dill, vegetable oil and water. It is served chilled. Local variations may replace yogurt with water and vinegar and omit the nuts or dill. I have tried several variations and have liked them all.

The main course: our choice is a little limited because we do not eat beef or veal, but Bulgarian pork is some of the best in Europe. The children are brought up on this: their vision of a celebration is clouded if there are no pork chops! I also noticed that they have this dish with lemon, as we do with fish. I tried it and found it simply adds to the flavour and the taste. Lamb (not goat) is another favourite here: mainly grilled, St George's style. Of course, in this category the mouthwatering Bulgarian casseroles, like the kapama, are beyond compare ‒ but they do require a lot of time to prepare in the oven. Many Bulgarians will hoot with derision if told that you have not yet eaten musaka: minced meat and potatoes with a covering of yoghurt and eggs.

Before I get to the desserts (or my choice of them!), I must mention the fresh bread which accompanies most meals. My choice is simid – eaten with honey or sharena sol (salt with herbs) and parlenka (with garlic or butter). Incidentally, if a restaurant smells of fresh bread, I take an instant liking to the place! Unlike Indians, I notice the Bulgarians eat sweets sparingly: that perhaps explains the svelte figures the young girls have! Since I have no such figure problems, being on the verge of obese, I have tried out some sweets and have particularly liked the roasted pumpkin with walnuts and the sutlyash (rice boiled with sweetened milk, spiced with cinnamon). There is, of course, the world-famous baklava as well as the tulumbichki, the latter reminding one of Indian gulab jamun. I personally also particularly like munching on homemade salzitsi.

The salad is traditionally accompanied by grape or plum brandy called rakiya – potent stuff – and the best one I have discovered is the Slivenska Perla 12 year-old. However, one of these is enough for me. And how could I (Ambar, my apologies!) have forgotten to mention the excellent wines that Bulgaria has always produced? They apparently just don't do enough PR for the produce! The red wines are more popular here, with several songs dedicated to their praise. The wines I prefer and serve at meals (I always serve Bulgarian wines) are Katarzyna and Santa Sarah (the Chardonnay of this vineyard is particularly superb). The meals are finished off with old brandies – Black Sea Gold 33 year-old or Pliska 15 year-old.

Whenever I am asked about the Indian restaurants here, I give cautious replies (none of them apparently have Indian cooks, I believe: though their cooks have been trained by Indians). There are five in Sofia which come to mind: Taj Mahal (11 11th August St, phone 987 3632), Koh-i-Noor (3 Han Asparuh St, phone 0882 532 541), Ramayana (5 Arsenalski Blvd, phone 0884 609 982), Saffron (Studentski grad, François Mitterrand St, next to bl. 42B, phone 0896 179 986) and the relatively new Gurkha (Lozenets, 56 Tsvetna gradina St, phone 0884 939 100) where Indo-Nepalese cuisine is served. As you know very well, the job of a diplomat, particularly of an ambassador, involves the serving of the cuisine of his country. So, in our house, which is resplendent with Gayatri's acrylic and water colour paintings, we always serve Indian meals to our guests. Recently at the Diwali day celebrations (5 November), we served a variety of Indian dishes and snacks: poories, channas, basmati rice, tandoori chicken, pao bhaji, pakoras, samosas, and for the sweet part gajjar ka halwa, several kind of barfee and some of the sweets I mentioned above.

Some of the excellent restaurants which Gayatri and I have visited offer a wide variety of scrumptious adventures. A few traditional ones – Edno vreme (the Borisova Garden, next to the Ariana lake), Hadjidraganovite kashti (75 Kozloduy St, phone 931 3148) and Vratata (Lozenets, 13 Kokiche St, phone 0889 235 866) even have ethnic folklore music and dance. The first one, which I have only recently visited, has subsequently welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, hosted there by the Bulgarian PM. The more modern but still traditional ones, like Pri Yafata (28 Solunska St, phone 980 1727; Iztok, 40 Rayko Aleksiev St, phone 971 3078) and Prikazka (6 Kopernik St, phone 700 007), Cactus (20 Hristo Belchev St, phone 986 7431; Lozenets, 2 Pope John Paul II Sq, phone 865 7420), Krim (17 Slavyanska St, phone 988 6950), Grozd (21 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, phone 944 3915) and the Clock House (15 Moskovska St, phone 932 7595) concentrate on good wines and food and are great for taking guests to. Then there are the casual drop in places like Zhadnata Lamya (2 13th March St, phone 964 0640) and Limoncheto (45 Sevastokrator Kaloyan St, phone 959 0192) in Boyana where we have dropped in for delectable fare with a few friends after outings in and around Sofia.

So, enough of this build-up! Do try and make a visit to Sofia during our stay here!

Yours, Divyabh

Issue 51-52 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria Bulgarian food

VAGABOND FEATURES

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MY OWN CHOICE: MICHAEL WELLNER-POSPISIL

DimanaT — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:17:44 +0000

MY OWN CHOICE: MICHAEL WELLNER-POSPISIL

by Michael W. Pospisil*

DimanaT Sun, 03/01/2009 - 11:17

Of Bond, butchers and Bulgarians

To better explain my relationship with food and gastronomy, I should briefly describe my life. For the first 24 years of it I lived in the country then called Czechoslovakia. For a young man the terror of Communism was unbearable. The regime definitely did not support anything so unproductive and "bourgeois" as fine dining. At the time everyone was happy to find anything at all in the shops, so it was impossible to plan meals. When I asked my mother what we would have for Sunday lunch, she retorted that she had no idea what our butcher had been bribed to hide under the counter this time.

As for restaurants, there were plenty of them around. Most were taverns, though. In other words, places where food was only a necessary complement to beer. Everything tasted the same wherever you went, the bar aromas ubiquitous and indistinguishable from one another. The number of exceptions was tragically small, and even these could keep up their higher standards for no more than a few months.

My mother, who taught me to cook, was an extraordinary chef. She could, even in those hard times, cook creative and delicious meals. I should mention that she had lived in a Mediterranean country and never lost her curiosity about original approaches to cooking, which she considered – quite correctly! – an art. She used to buy every cookbook she could. A large number of them actually found their way to our shops, but most of the recipes included ingredients you would be extremely lucky to find, even under a shopkeeper's counter.

Very soon I became frustrated with life in that gastronomically–stunted Communist country. I decided to leave. I entered a marriage of convenience with a citizen of the free world, but it was one which became the real thing, since I have now been living with my wife for 28 years! Marrying was one of only two ways to cross the border, and the more comfortable option if you didn't feel like shooting your way through like a James Bond. This "legal" way was also more advantageous mainly because I could return to my home country whenever I wanted to. Well, it wasn't quite that simple, but still... Even my parents could visit us from time to time. So, why am I telling you this? The point is that I was able to pack the car to the gunwales with delicacies so that our Prague table became a rare haven for Czech epicures. A place where, notwithstanding the totalitarian regime, you could even eat oysters.

The country of the free world I am referring to was France. There can be no debate about it having one of the most sophisticated cuisines in the world. I've always claimed myself to be a "gastronomical emigrant," having arrived from a land of Czech pubs. I've been saying this for 28 years, though nowadays I'm not sure if the joke wasn't actually true. I started uncovering the secrets of gastronomy's "promised land" to such an extent that, having worked on French TV, I became the writer and director of a series exploring regional food specialities.

Slowly, I also began to discover and try to understand French wines. The cellar of our Paris house began to fill up with wine bottles. I stopped the collection at a thousand, to allow time for the wine to mature. Twice a year I would buy a large number of bottles and carefully place them into our cellar at the proper temperature and humidity, though I was careful to add a few just for daily consumption.

Marie-Paule, my French wife, is an excellent cook, and teaches me a great deal. She has been in Bulgaria with me now for more than a year. Together, we are fighting the gastronomical challenges here stemming from the huge differences between French and Bulgarian cuisine. From the first moments we spent in this country, whose deep roots connect me, we have been observing, open-mouthed, the relationship Bulgarians have with their food.

I'll give you a few examples. We invited some Bulgarian friends over for a meal that Marie–Paule cooked. She tries her best to find the best ingredients. Like my mother long ago, she had to substitute everything with something else. The result wasn't always the sort of dish achievable in France but still, it was still nevertheless, mmm… Among the many things she tries to do is always to serve food at the correct temperature, to bring out the best in a meal. For this reason she warmed up the plates in the oven first. Once the table was set, gorgeous aromas wafted from the serving plates. Our guests hesitantly ate a single forkful, offered praise… and then lit a cigarette, or two or three. The food was cooling and, only when it was completely cold and the butts laid aside, did our our guests start to eat! Marie–Paule was bewildered, but I understand it a little better, having been raised in Communist Czechoslovakia.

Or… different company, different dinner. In the great effort to broaden the gastronomic horizons of our Bulgarian guests, we bought a variety of French and Italian cheeses from the excellent Elemag shop in Kozyak St in the Lozenets district and the good delicatessen on Tsar Osvoboditel, directly opposite the Italian embassy, to round off the meal. The richly–laden cheese platter was laid on the table. One of the diners, asked if he liked it, retorted, "I don't care. For me, there are two kinds of cheese – yellow and white. Kashkaval and sirene." What can you do? There is no way you can make everyone happy.

I have a feeling that Bulgarians rarely break out of their shell of conservative tastes and lack of curiosity about food. People say about the French they live to eat. About Bulgarians I would say the opposite. Whose fault is it? A couple of hundred years of Ottoman domination, which brought one of the finest culinary traditions in the world, or the decades of Communist drabness as epitomised by Steak Antoaneta and the like? The joy of eating has evaporated through the years. Yet I am still an optimist. The openness to the world, travel opportunities, and gradually increasing standards of living might help improve the situation. We are already seeing some steps in this direction, and not just in Sofia.

I can illustrate the point with an experience I had last autumn in Plovdiv. I stayed in a perfectly restored old house, which is now the Hotel Hebros (51 Konstatin Stoilov St, near the Balabanov House in Old Plovdiv, phone: 032 260 180, 032 625 929). Everything, down to the last detail of furnishing and décor, breathes history. This year's Indian summer allowed me to have lunch in the hotel garden and admire the architecture of this 19th Century bourgeois house and its façade decorated with beautiful frescoes. As for the food, I was pleasantly surprised by the pheasant roll–ups and delicious vegetable soup. The menu doesn't contain many items, which tends to be the mark of a good kitchen. It shows that the chef doesn't pull ready–made dishes out of the freezer. The food was prepared simply and with fresh ingredients. Sophistication lies in simplicity, the correct and subtle mix of basic flavours, and in quality ingredients. Hotel guests will delight in everything from the pleasant setting to the nice atmosphere to the epicurean delicacies.

I was also lucky to visit Varna's Paraklisa (8 Yoan Ekzarh St, phone: 539 735; 0899 131 155), where my friends and I enjoyed some excellent old Bulgarian cuisine. The congenial owner, Penka Mihova, has also written an interesting recipe book containing the secrets of preparing traditional Balkan specialities.

In Sofia, my favourite restaurant is Egur Egur (18 Sheynovo St, phone: 946 1765). Its Armenian specialities, a cuisine somewhere between Bulgarian and Lebanese, are delicious. It has a pleasant, retro style environment with clean and neat table settings with cloth napkins, and shining white tablecloths. The serving staff are very attentive. It is, in short, a calm oasis in the very centre of the city.

For a quick, quality lunch I usually go to a small restaurant, Checkpoint Charlie (12 Ivan Vazov St, phone: 988 0370). Its stylish interior design evokes the Berlin Wall and Communist era. Diners sit at tables covered with paper settings containing images from the Bulgarian Communist newspaper Rabotnichesko delo. The famous photograph of a German soldier desperately running from East to West Berlin dominates the inside pages.

Although all this raises bitter memories, it does not negatively affect the menu. On the contrary. The traditional Bulgarian dishes are tasty and simple, and if you find kyopoolu on the menu, you should order it immediately. Recently at a social event, I very much enjoyed the good quality catering and found out later that Checkpoint Charlie had prepared it. My only criticism is that the meat in gravy with mashed potatoes was cold (probably to please the Bulgarian palate). I would recommend they heat the food, a simple matter that would transform this fodder into a tasty meal… Well, maybe next time.

If you feel like having some good Bulgarian food without a high price tag, try the Divaka pub on 6th September St. It is a renovated in the Austro–Hungarian architectural style house with a garden and cellar. The waitresses are helpful, smiling and neat. The tripe and chicken soup served with bread are flawless. On a couple of occasions I was involved in heated debates with my friends when I suddenly noticed my watch said it was 3 am. Yes, Divaka is open 24/7! So if you need some good food in the early hours of the morning, you know where to go.

From there, if I leave early enough, I go directly to Hambara bar on the same street. It is has a discreet entrance without a sign. Walk through a tiny alley and you'll see a door made from rough wooden planks. If it's closed don't hesitate to knock or, better still, bang on it with your fist. The diners on the other side who are waiting to be seated will open it for you. The interior is lit only by candles and above the toilets you'll see a sign that says, Redaktsiya, or editing room. The toilets alone are worth seeing. Because the bar is so discreet, only regular customers come here, intellectuals mostly, or musicians, artists, and art lovers. Every Wednesday a great violinist, Itsko Fintsi, plays, accompanied by pianist Vasil Parmakov. Quality guaranteed!

My friend Georgi Lozanov, one of the regular Hambara visitors, once invited me to a little tavern called Kandahar (4 Evlogi Georgiev Blvd, phone: 865 2535), just past the canal. As he says, it's a kvartalna krachma za vsichki kvartali, which translates as something like "a quarter pub for all quarters." This is the place to taste real Bulgarian fare. The grill is outdoors all year round, and an elderly woman works at it adroitly. The owner of Kandahar, a former chef from the Czechoslovakian club on Krakra St, buys fresh produce daily and keeps a careful eye on his guests to ensure they are satisfied with their meal. In contrast to most of the Bulgarian mehani you find in every guidebook on Sofia, Kandahar has retained the quality of its dishes. I recommend svinsko sas zele, or pork with cabbage, yahniya, or stew and especially kebapcheta, or meatballs and lovely turshiya, or pickled vegetables.

If you just feel like having a good beer, you'll find the best, including Czech food, in the café of the Czech Cultural Centre, Café–Gallery Prague (100 Rakovski St, phone: 981 4033). It is the only place in Bulgaria where you can get a draught Bernard with no preservatives. The beer comes from a small private brewery in the Czech town of Humpolec. In my opinion, it is the best beer in the world after the famous Pilsner Urquell. It comes in both light and dark varieties. Or try something typically Czech – ask for these two mixed together and get a "cut beer."

Bon appetit and na zdraví!

*Michael Wellner-Pospisil is director of the Czech Cultural Centre in Sofia.

Issue 30 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria Bulgarian food

VAGABOND FEATURES

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MY OWN CHOICE: ELISABETH HORNUNG

DimanaT — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:13:16 +0000

MY OWN CHOICE: ELISABETH HORNUNG

by Elisabeth Hornung*

DimanaT Thu, 01/01/2009 - 13:13

Whether in or out of Sofia, clean air is the best eating companion

Sofia is a town to discover. I like that. There is not just one shopping street, only one quarter with clubs and bars, and one area with fancy restaurants. Most of Sofia's good places to go to are hidden in tiny streets and in slightly shattered-looking houses.

When I arrived here I had no idea about Sofia's fancy places. It took me about half a year to discover one of my favourite ones: the Apartment (68 Neofit Rilski St). As the name suggests, it is a big flat, with high ceilings and cosy sofas. You get your beer or – and I highly recommend it – himalayski chay, or Himalayan tea, in the kitchen, and it feels as if you were at a friends' place. But Sofia has two "Apartment" places, and they are located close to each other. I haven't been to the second yet, probably it is good too, but it sure took me quite some time to find the himalayski chay Apartment again.

Then there is the wonderful café Dvete fukli, or the Two Showoff Ladies, (14 Karnigradska St, phone: 986 32 70). I discovered it wandering around the centre in the very beginning of my stay. In a way it is the opposite of the Apartment, and I imagine a Bulgarian grandmother's place might look like it. Dvete fukli offers all the advantages that go together with a grandmother: delicious – and huge! – sweet and salty pancakes, fruit salads, waffes, great coffee – they offer even a kind of latte macchiato version – and service that makes you feel taken care of. Mmmh. Talking about cafés, I also quite like the Coffee House (1 6th September St, phone 986 66 12). From the outside it looks rather low-key, and you might even think it's closed. But step inside and have a hot drink. There are two really friendly and colourful relaxed café rooms (one for smokers and another for non-smokers, though not properly separated). And the staff are welcoming and cordial.

When I meet up with colleagues for lunch I often suggest going to Checkpoint Charlie (12 Ivan Vazov St, phone: 988 03 70). It is separated into two halves, East Berlin and West Berlin, which are decorated accordingly. Since sometimes there is live music in the evening, it has got this trendy but still refined atmosphere, which I enjoy a lot. As well as the food I would recommend also the chocolate mousse dessert. (One is enough for three people, especially if you have had some of the rich pasta meals before.) For a good Bulgarian lunch, I usually opt for Pod Lipite, or Under the Linden Trees, (1 Elin Pelin St, phone: 866 50 53) or Pri Yafata, or At Yafa's, (28 Solunska St, phone: 980 17 27). But Sofia also offers the advantages of a cosmopolitan capital, so you can have it all: sushi in the Sushi Bar (18 Denkooglu St, phone 981 84 42), tajine and couscous in the Moroccan restaurant Annette (27 Angel Kanchev St, phone 980 40 98), really exotic Korean food at the Korean House (34 Elemag St, phone: 963 03 65), French cuisine in the Brasserie (3 Raycho Daskalov Sq, phone: 980 03 98). Motto (18 Aksakov St, phone: 987 27 23) offers a mixture of Bulgarian and international food, and boasts a wonderful garden in the backyard. Go there in summer, but make sure to book a table in advance, as it is always crowded. then there are two places which I especially like visiting because they are in some way typically German: Bitburger (20 Stefan Karadzha St, phone: 981 9665), which provides a beer garden as well as good German beer and sausages, and the Dream House (50A Alabin St, phone 980 81 63). The latter is a vegetarian restaurant, again hidden in a backyard, and with the vegetarian cuisine it offers it could well be located in any bigger German city: many Germans just love vegetarian and healthy food – according to a survey, one out of four carrots consumed by a German was produced ecologically.

Each foreigner will soon notice that there are quite a few restaurant and café chains here in Bulgaria. One might sneer at them, arguing that there is no such thing as a good chain; but every now and then I drop by at one. I like that Bulgarians have built up their own chains – it's not Pizza Hut, it's Ugo or Happy; or Onar, a chain that offers, among other things, Greek-Lebanese cuisine. Of course we now have Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Onda. So for me, going to one of those places is not just going to a chain restaurant, but going to a Bulgarian chain restaurant. Service is usually quick, and they offer a variety of Bulgarian and international food. There is one thing, however, that Bulgarian chains – and also other restaurants – might wish to work on: a more effective separation between smoker and non-smoker areas. I usually am not so particular about this, but when I have my meal I'd rather have clean air.

Talking about smoke I would like to write some words about Sofia's night life. Which is a bit of a challenge actually, because when you go out it is usually together with other people and it is dark and then, no need to mention that, night life places are at least as hidden as are cafés and restaurants. But without night life Sofia is for me incomplete, so I did my best and called up friends of mine to check some favourite names and locations. There is, for example, the bar Hambara, or the Barn, (22 6th September St). My friends and I, however, call it the "Candle Club," as there is no artificial light in it at all, only candles. It is located in an old barn – indeed a resourceful and intriguing choice of place – but mind your step lest you fall down the stairs! To meet foreigners I would recommend Murphy's, an Irish pub (6 Karnigradska St, phone: 980 28 70). If the evening is not supposed to end after a beer or two, there's definitely no lack of music clubs in Sofia. My favourite is My Mojito (12 Ivan Vazov St, phone 089 549 06 91) where a mixture of house, party hits and funk is played. I also quite like Biblioteka, or Library, (3 Raycho Daskalov Sq, phone 980 03 98). If I have guests young in mind or in age and eager for experiencing a party culture different from the one in Germany, I take them to Studentski grad, or Student's Town, and eventually, depending on their merrymaking spirit, to a chalga club.

The better part of the last six years I spent in Heidelberg, in southwestern Germany. It is a wonderful town, with a beautiful historic central area and full of students from all over the world. At first sight it is an "easy" town, with an obvious shopping street (Hauptstraße) and next to it a nightlife street (Unterestraße), maybe both a bit crowded with tourists. Nevertheless, to find the good places to shop, to party or to eat you'll have to discover them for yourself. It's the same here: If all those very special places, be they trendy or cosy, were well signposted and easy to find, it would probably subtract of their merit. I like adventures and I like Sofia, and that's what makes them my favourites.

*Elisabeth Hornung is the head of the Culture and Media Relations Department of the German Embassy in Sofia

Issue 28-29 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria Bulgarian food

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MY OWN CHOICE: TOP CHOICES 2008

DimanaT — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:21:19 +0000

MY OWN CHOICE: TOP CHOICES 2008

by Ani Ivanova

DimanaT Mon, 12/01/2008 - 15:21

Dining options in Sofia and beyond seem to suit more and more tastes

Whether you're a newcomer or a veteran expat in Bulgaria, you'd have noticed it already – the local wining and dining scene, in the cities at least, is anything but short of places. Perhaps Bulgarians' die-hard habit of unwinding among friends, salads and rakiya has a lot to do with it. It also explains the huge numbers in restaurants on week nights. What Vagabond's group of diners outlined in 2008 was the diversity of choices on offer despite any expectations to the contrary. Well, Sofia is not New York and it still lacks international dining staples such as a Thai venue, yet here, too, you can find just the right venue for your mood and taste – from the traditional and the sophisticated to the ethnic, the family-run and the inventive. Follow into the footsteps of our diner's and – who knows! – you may discover a hidden gem.

The expat diners' list is topped by the usual suspects in the genre, the traditional Bulgarian restaurants. It's easy to tell them – the foreigners there usually outnumber the locals. Even if this sounds a bit touristy, they offer the experience you may want to show your visiting family and friends. Pod Lipite, or Under the Linden Trees (1 Elin Pelin St, phone: 866 5053); Vodenitsata, or The Watermill (Dragalevtsi, by the cable car, phone: 967 1058); Manastirska Magernitsa, or Monastery Kitchen (67 Han Asparuh St, phone: 980 3883); and Pri Yafata, or At Yafa's (28 Solunska St, phone: 980 1727) are all famed for good reason: well-cooked traditional Bulgarian dishes, high-standard service and very good value for money. Pri Yafata seems to have an additional advantage: its musicians; their repertoire covers the entire globe ensuring sing-alongs and dances.

Vagabond's diners are equally impressed by Sofia's classic restaurants: old-timers that have made it through several decades and generations. Krim, or Crimea (17 Slavyanska Street, phone: 981 0666, 988 6950); The Czechoslovakian Club (15 Krakra St, phone: 441 383); Lebed, or The Swan (83 Samokovsko Shose, phone: 992 3045) and the Vkusnoto kebapche, or The Delicious Kebapche (20 San Stefano St, phone: 946 2027) continue to attract a steady track of visitors – including dignitaries and the artistic world – who savour the lamb, the knedly and beer, the fish and, well, the delicious kepabche.

Similarly, in a country where consistency is a problem, it is an achievement to have a handful of restaurants that have stood expat diners' test of time. These include Otvad aleyata, zad shkafa, or Beyond the Alley Behind the Cupboard (31 Budapest St, phone: 980 9067), perfect for both mekitsi on a Sunday morning and a wedding party; Chepishev Restaurant (27 Ivanitsa Danchev St, phone: 959 1010), offering a delicious lunch after a walk in Boyana; Dani's (18A Angel Kanchev St, phone: 0898 535 355) for its sandwiches and cappuccino; Grozd, or Bunch of Grapes (21 Osvoboditel Blvd, phone: 944 3915) where one enjoys a meal among local patrons; and notably Egur, Egur (18 Sheynovo St, phone: 946 1765, 0896 668 302 or 10 Dobrudzha St, phone: 989 3383, 0896 668 301) for the superb Armenian dishes and wine.

Those with a penchant for discovering new places must already be familiar with some of the more recent arrivals on Sofia's restaurant scene. Pastorant (16 Tsar Asen, phone: 981 4482) has become a favourite – fresh salads, tasty pasta in a homey atmosphere. The restaurant at Diter Hotel (65 Han Asparuh St, phone: 9898 998) has been singled out for its touch of class and Chicken Stroganoff; Les Bouquet Restaurant at the Les Fleurs Boutique Hotel (21 Vitosha Blvd, phone: 810 0800; www.lesfleurshotel.com) has delicious food in romantic surroundings. The Chef's Restaurant (on the road to Samokov, phone: 0896 723 222; www.chefs-bg.com) has found the right way to blend the Mediterranean kitchen and the Bulgarian cooking style.

Strange as it may sound, but this Sofia-centred piece on restaurants cannot go without international food. Described as a jewel, the French L'Etranger (78 Tsar Simeon St, phone: 983 1417) has a small menu but a dedicated team of followers; both La Capannina (Nikola Vaptsarov Blvd, Maleevi Tennis Club, phone: 962 8683 or 9 Narodno Sabranie Sq, phone: 980 4438) and Osteria di Sofia (32 Hristo Belchev St, phone: 987 0999) get the thumbs up for their lovely Italian food; and the Hungarian soup at Pri Latsi, At Latsi's (18 Oborishte St, phone: 846 8687) makes people book in advance.

If you're looking for a Soho-styled venue, head for Motto (18 Aksakov St, phone: 987 2723), equally good for lunch with friends or just cocktails among the stylish folk. Alternatively, go to the Red House Café (15 Lyuben Karavelov St, phone: 988 1888) for a plate of cheese and wine in a black-and-white setting.

Curry cravers have highlighted Taj Mahal (11 August St, phone: 987 3632) and Ramayana (5 Arsenalski Blvd, phone: 963 0866) for their curries and chapattis. Ouzo and fresh Mediterranean fish lovers now have Kumbare (14 Saborna St, phone: 981 1794) and Elea (127 G. S. Rakovski St, phone: 987 0339). TM Restaurant (34 Yuri Venelin St, phone: 989 12 12) is described as one of the best for Turkish-style cooking, coffee and sweets.

Fancy venturing outside the sophisticated venues? Then don't miss the colourful eateries and chains of pizza places such as Ugo and Olive's, where local crowds enjoy the food amid hearty conversations. Sofia also has its handful of unpretentious but worthy ethnic eateries. The Middle Eastern fast-food joint Baalbek (4 Dyakon Ignatiy St) has an upstairs small seating area for a quick lunch of hummus, warm pita and a Fatoush salad. Other well-kept secrets include Istanbul 2000 (104 Kiril i Metodiy St, phone: 931 6026) – located in one of the oldest parts of town, behind Zhenski pazar, or Women's Market, it is worth a visit for the fantastic salads, kebabs and the breads that come out of a wood-burning oven. Just around the corner is Ege Türk Lokantası, where some inventive gesturing will get you amazingly good home-made Turkish food.

Our diners pointed out that finding out your own dining gems is part of the pleasure of living in a foreign country. For a start, explore your Sofia neighbourhood and you are likely to find small, family-run, lesser-known venues that rival the famous ones in terms of quality dishes and friendly ambience. Indeed, the same is true for places outside Sofia – most hotels in the countryside will offer home-made dishes that are first rate just because the chef uses home-grown ingredients and follows recipes that have stood the test of time. If you're unsure where to start, our diners recommend the Moravsko Selo Bio-hotel near Razlog (The Predela area, phone: 0898-621-765); the former residence of Communist leader Todor Zhivkov in Arbanasi (Hotel Arbanasi Palace, phone: 062 630 176); or the restaurant in the Astraea Spa Hotel in Hisar (68 Ivan Vazov Blvd, phone: 0337 633 11); Blagoevgrad's Varosha Restaurant (10 Bistritsa St, phone: 0888 363 006; www.varosha.net); Odeon Hotel and Restaurant in Plovdiv (40 Otets Paisiy St, phone: 032 622 065; www.hotelodeon.net); as well as La Famiglia in Varna (1 Bregalnitsa St, phone: 052 610 290).

Given the variety of places highlighted by expat diners throughout the year, they seem to have had a good time experimenting with food and drink outside home, just as locals do all the time.

Issue 27 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria Bulgarian food

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MY OWN CHOICE: SWISH SWISS

DimanaT — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:14:08 +0000

MY OWN CHOICE: SWISH SWISS

by Andre Gribi*

DimanaT Sat, 11/01/2008 - 16:14

Eating out is a tough but pleasant job if you know how to find the right place, consider your mood and are sure about the reason for going out

I came to Bulgaria as a hospitality industry expert, and gastronomy is an important aspect of my work. People hire me to open their hotels, provide consultation for their tourism projects or simply for my opinion on various matters. Clients rely on my professional help, which is based on the international experience that I have gained working on many different projects and at my own restaurant in Switzerland (www.restaurantpalace.ch).

Bulgaria, however, is different, and that is probably the reason why the expats who stay here enjoy it so much. Rules, behaviour and social expectations in Bulgaria are unlike those in Central Europe. So coming here and expecting to implement "our" style of service, French cuisine and table manners, makes life hard and the restaurant venture possibly unsuccessful. Finding the right concept somewhere in between these two cultures makes for a highly inspiring job.

For three years I have been travelling to Sofia almost every week, but I have only cooked Fondue three times for my friends. I do not use my kitchen very often, because I have discovered many wonderful places to eat and drink at. I enjoy the variety of restaurants depending on their food and atmosphere, as well as on my mood, my time and my company.

As my office and apartment are in central Sofia, I often choose restaurants in the area. For a quick lunch, I like Pastorant (16 Tsar Asen St, phone: 981 44 82; www.pastorant.eu). There you don't feel like you are in a restaurant, but rather in a mother's kitchen. The menu is not huge, but they make sure everything is always fresh. Prices are middle of the road.

For Sushi, I go to Sushi Bar (18 Denkoglu St, phone: 981 8442; www.renecatering.com). They have a non-smoking section, which is very innovative, but you are mostly alone there. The menus start at 10 leva and go up to 35 leva.

A friend introduced me to Your Place (5 Stara Planina St, phone: 0878 175 343). I was surprised by the fresh food and the good taste the menu showed. Now I go there very often. Price and quality are absolutely perfect despite the location (in a passageway). Try the Brie Duville and the homemade Tiramisu or Crème Brulé. You will love it!

For business meetings, I often go to the classy Metropolitan Restaurant. It has a lot of space, a non-smoking area, and, most importantly, excellent food. They are innovative, too: different teams of chefs prepare various international menus.

In the evenings, I mostly go to some very informal Bulgarian place where people eat when they want, smoke during dinner and nobody cares whether the waiter serves from right or left. This is where you find happy Bulgarian faces, and I would not like to miss this experience.

Pod Lipite, or Under the Linden Trees (1 Elin Pelin St, phone: 866 5053; www.podlipitebg.com), is very popular, and you can find lots of foreign visitors there. I like the place because it stays authentic and the soft music programme complements the lovely atmosphere.

If you want to show your visiting friends an overview of Balkan music and Bulgarians eating in big groups around a table – sharing big portions on huge plates, that is – and if you'd like to show them a different world, I have a place for you. On the first night when friends of mine arrive I take them to Veselo selo, or Happy Village (in the Borisova Garden, phone 963 2311). Note that the music programme starts at 10:30 pm and you should forget any discussions you'd like tohave at this time, as it will be too loud. It may be a bit touristy, but I like it.

As a gourmet I also like the fine dining, for which I choose the Les Bouquet Restaurant at the Les Fleurs Boutique Hotel (21 Vitosha Blvd, phone: 810 0800; www.lesfleurshotel.com). Delicious food, excellent service and a very special ambience make this restaurant worth going to. The price-to-quality ratio is very good and it's the perfect place to discuss business or for a romantic meal

But my biggest surprise, and one of the best restaurants I've ever been to, is Chef's Restaurant (phone: 0896 723 222; www.chefs-bg.com). The two Bulgarian chefs have a great deal of international experience and have indeed found the way to blend the Mediterranean kitchen and the Bulgarian cooking style. The restaurant is located on the way to Borovets, 17 km outside Sofia. Delicious food and great atmosphere with a fire in the middle of the restaurant make it the best restaurant in Bulgaria. Make sure to book!

What I miss in Bulgaria is the knowledge of wine, and also the wine culture. The opening of a good bottle of wine is a procedure, and you should do it with a feeling. The guest should be able to taste the wine, and not only the first bottle. At many restaurants both staff and guests lack the education in the field. I hope this will change soon.

In Blagoevgrad I found a restaurant where the wine is an important selling point. The Varosha Restaurant (10 Bistritsa St, Blagoevgrad, phone: 0888 363 006; www.varosha.net) with an exclusive interior and a fantastic wine cellar is worth a visit. The tasty food and the explanations of a wine expert are a great experience. The hotel also offers first-rate rooms at affordable prices.

Another good address is the Odeon Hotel and Restaurant in Plovdiv (40 Otets Paisiy St, Plovdiv, phone: 032 622 065; www.hotelodeon.net) where the TV star/cook Ivan Zvezdev presents Bulgarian and European specialities. If you want to taste cooking on a high level, don't miss this venue.

After dinner I like the Sinatra Piano Bar in Lozenets (5 Arsenalski Blvd, phone 0886 101 078). If they don't know you, it's not so easy to get in (especially on weekends), but the programme is absolutely great.

There are more places to recommend, and I am sure that I will find many more in the future.

*André Gribi is CEO of Kohl & Partner Sofia EOOD, Tourism Consulting International (www.kohl.bg) and Swiss Tourism Management, Sofia (www.stm-bg.com).

Issue 26 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria Bulgarian food

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MY OWN CHOICE: CHRIS NOLAN

DimanaT — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:05:49 +0000

MY OWN CHOICE: CHRIS NOLAN

by Chris Nolan*

DimanaT Mon, 09/01/2008 - 12:05

Find out the diamonds among the mid-range Bulgarian eateries

Chris Nolan*

I believe professional chefs like myself have a different eye to your average punter when we go to a place to eat. We watch the hygiene levels, the presentation, the value for money and, crucially, the service, to judge if this is a safe place to go to. Having trained in one of the top training colleges in England, and having worked in top hotels and restaurants in Dublin, one thing I can say about restaurants in Bulgaria is that standards can slip, as service levels and particularly presentation are often poor. It is as if the standard truism of food preparation, drummed into us in college, that people eat with their eyes, is unknown in many places here. The good news is that there are some gems, and I am delighted to get an opportunity to talk about some of my favourites.

Having lived here for nearly two years and being a frequent visitor for about four years before that, I am fairly well acquainted with what Sofia and Bulgaria have to offer: a multitude of cheap eateries, quite a lot of mid-range places and a select number of expensive ones. The diamonds are to be found in the mid-range places, as I have not been particularly impressed with the expensive ones. If I have family or friends over from abroad, I always like taking them to the traditional Manastirska Magernitsa, or Monastery Kitchen (67 Han Asparuh St, phone: 980 3883) which takes its inspiration from all the monasteries dotted around Bulgaria. All the recipes, and there are a staggeringly huge number of them, come from these monasteries. In fact, that is the one criticism I have of the place – their range is so large that when you find something you like you have forgotten what it was by the time you get to the end of the menu! I always tell people: when you find something you like, stop, and order that. Service, normally the bugbear of Bulgaria, is impeccable here, very friendly, and the staff all speak good English, so you have no worries on that front. You get a large basket of home-made bread replete with spices when you sit down, and the atmosphere, with both winter and summer gardens, is just right. I can especially recommend their home-made desserts, but everything is fine – salads, main courses, grills – and all are presented very well. With prices being reasonable, it is the perfect place to treat friends to some genuine Bulgarian cuisine.

Also on Han Asparuh St is the Diter Hotel (65 Han Asparuh St, phone: 9898 998), which has a nice restaurant in the basement. This has a touch of class and is perfect for a romantic, intimate dinner. I have had their Chicken Stroganoff there a few times and can strongly recommend it. They have also got a very pleasant garden area and overall the atmosphere, the quality of the food and the presentation are superb. It is one of the as-yet undiscovered gems of Sofia, although I fear the publication of this article may change all that.

In spite of being well known and always busy, Olive's (12 Graf Ignatiev St, phone: 0894 Olives) is another place I would like to recommend. They have a wide range, very international. I especially love their Norma Jean Burger, their diced fried potatoes with spices, their Olive's salad and their grilled peppers. They do nice chicken dishes and they also serve pastas and rice dishes with everything presented in good taste. Both the portions and the prices are very reasonable. Service is first-rate and they speak English. I love their décor with all these old signs having comments on them. It is a good place for going out, knowing that the food will be tasty and the atmosphere and service excellent.

I must make a distinction, however, between the restaurant on Graf Ignatiev and the one on Vasil Levski (75 Vasil Levski Blvd, phone: 0885 Olives). In the latter the service is nowhere near as good, I don't know why, as the atmosphere and the food are fine.

Another, possibly surprising, place I can recommend is Fancy Restaurant in the City Center Sofia mall (2 Arsenalski Blvd, phone: 963 4480). It is on the floor with many restaurants so you won't miss it. Now, if you are going out for a nice meal, a shopping mall doesn't spring to mind. Here, though, tasteful décor, attentive service and excellent food can make this a good choice even for a romantic night out. I can really recommend their Slow Beef which, coming in at under twenty leva, makes it an even better treat. Served with a superb jus, it is worthy of any of the more expensive restaurants around Sofia. They also do a beautiful salmon there and their presentation is among the best. It is an Italian restaurant so there are plenty of pizzas and pastas along with tasty salads. It is a pity in some ways that it is in a mall, because it doesn't strike you as a place to go out for a night. But don't let that put you off. At night, with the lights on outside, it can feel as cosy as anywhere you can find. It is a little more expensive than some I have mentioned, but well worth it.

If I am looking for a nice meal without any pretensions, I go into any of the Ugo chain dotted around Sofia quite a bit, and I have never gone wrong. It is cheap and tasty and as good as many of the more expensive places.The value to be had in Sofia is in finding that restaurant in which the food is good, the atmosphere nice and the service faultless, without paying a premium price for that privilege. It can be done, certainly in the places I have listed. Standards do need to come up in general and if I am ever asked to do a piece on places not to go to, I would be very happy to oblige; there is no shortage of such places in Sofia. Luckily there are also enough little gems to make the city an enjoyable place to live and eat in.

*Chris Nolan is an Irish chef living in Sofia and just about to launch the first ever bagel restaurant and take-out in Sofia on 18 Stefan Karadzha St

Issue 24 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria

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MY OWN CHOICE: TABLE MANNERS

DimanaT — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:33:11 +0000

MY OWN CHOICE: TABLE MANNERS DimanaT Fri, 08/01/2008 - 15:33

Life and food can be as good in Sofia's urban retreats as in the country's green spots

by George Dedopoulos

My two years here have taught me you can have a very good time in Sofia – because time in Bulgaria runs smoothly. The size of Sofia is manageable and all the urban problems like traffic, noise, pollution and so on, are under control.

There are two things that I particularly like about Sofia. I like downtown, including the fact that the majority of the buildings there aren't renovated. The very old neighbourhoods have a spirit – a special character as opposed to the new areas and developments. And of course, I like the mountain and the proximity of it – in a 10 minute drive you can be in a mountain that is 2,290 m, or 7,513 feet, high and is the biggest national park in the Balkans. What is more, Sofia is among the very few cities where you can get to the mountain by crossing a forest that starts from a downtown park.

In-between visits to the museums, galleries and churches, I enjoy the traditional Bulgarian eateries everywhere in Sofia. The skara, the banitsa, the bean soups, and the pink tomatoes are always excellent, and so is the sarma. I'd find it hard to single out the best venues, but the following are a few of my favourite choices.

I always enjoy La Capannina next to the Radisson (9 Narodno Sabranie Sq, phone: 980 4438) for the location, the quality of the food and the waiters. I can frankly recommend the Niçoise salad, the tuna steak, the spaghetti – particularly when the female chef is there – and any one of the delicious desserts.

I also love the garden of Egur, Egur (18 Sheynovo St, phone: 946 1765, 0896 668 302) and the garden of Beyond the Alley, Behind the Cupboard (31 Budapest St, phone: 983 5581). All the Armenian dishes at the former are good, but I often just go for the eggplant salad and the mini kebapche.

Speaking of kebapche, I really enjoy the ones sold in the streets. The ones at the corner shop in the Borovo open-air market are unbeatable – the best I've had in Sofia. I wish I had a similarly good address for banitsa, but I'm still looking for it.

For sandwiches, I go to the best delicatessen in Sofia, Dar ot Bogovete, or Gift From the Gods (Bellisimo Business Centre, 102 Bulgaria Blvd, phone: 854 8686/7, 17 Cherni Vrah Blvd, phone: 866 2004).

Although I don't have time for lunch, I enjoy the Vinobar (7 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, entrance from Rakovski St, phone: 0898 535 355) at any time of day. Besides the excellent atmosphere, what amazes me there is the skill of the cook in his tiny kitchen. If he does the sarma, vine leaves stuffed with meat and rice, I always have it.

I also like Dani's (18a Angel Kanchev St, phone: 987 4548). It may be small but it has a great atmosphere. You eat your delicious soups, salads and sandwiches sitting at the single big wooden table with the other diners.

Right next to it, there is a small coffee shop and patisserie that I never just pass by – 100g Sladki (18a Angel Kanchev, phone: 0886 226 266). They have the best sweets and again, they have atmosphere. If you happen to be around the Radisson, try the mother venue there (100g sladki at Radisson Hotel, phone: 980 18 17). It is easily the best sweet shop in town with freshly made cookies and chocolate.

If you're looking for a good upscale restaurant with traditional Bulgarian food, go for Chepishev (Boyana, 27 Ivanitsa Danchev St, phone: 959 1010). This may come as a surprise, but I recommend the Panorama Restaurant at the top of the Kempinski Hotel Zografski (100 James Bourchier Blvd, phone: 981 0963) as the place to taste Bulgarian caviar. It's a little known fact that this country produces caviar of outstanding quality.

Living in Sofia is good, but stepping outside is where you discover the true Bulgaria. Bulgarian mountains are amazing – all of them. I personally think the soul of Bulgaria is in Stara Planina. Out there, I feel not only the beauty of nature, but the authentic and genuine Bulgaria, the pure Bulgaria. Any ventures outside Sofia have been gratifying in one more aspect – all the small, family-run hotels are very decent and they offer fantastic food. Not only is it homemade, but it is made from prime ingredients. The quality of the fruit and vegetables is excellent, mostly because the production is still not heavily industrialised. As a result, they still have taste as opposed to elsewhere in Europe, where the bananas, melons and the tomatoes all taste the same.

I love Veliko Tarnovo – the old city and the Tsarevets fortress have an amazing beauty. It's the best place in Bulgaria by far. My other favourites are Troyan, Chiflika and the surroundings, and Arbanasi. When in the Tarnovo area, I go to the former residence of the Communist leader, Todor Zhivkov, in Arbanasi (Hotel Arbanasi Palace, phone: 062 630 176), sit at the terrace, have simple food like a salad and a schnitzel and take in the magnificent view of the Tsarevets fortress.

When I'm by the coast, I try to get to venues that are close to the beach – with one notable exception. In downtown Varna, I had the best pasta in Bulgaria at La Famiglia (1 Bregalnitsa St, phone: 052 610 290). This fantastic place is run by a Bulgarian who used to live and work in Italy as a cook, but returned to Bulgaria and opened his own place.

To appreciate life, you needn't go to extremes. Simple, fresh and well cooked food in an atmospheric place work fine for me.

Issue 23 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria

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MY OWN CHOICE: OFF OFF OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

DimanaT — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:32:33 +0000

MY OWN CHOICE: OFF OFF OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

by Jill Sharer

DimanaT Tue, 07/01/2008 - 15:32

Bulgaria has some extremely well-hidden food & drink - usually smoke-filled - spots that even a health-conscious Californian can dig

The first time I came to Bulgaria, I entered via the dusty no-man's land between Giurgiu and Ruse. Standing all alone on the edge of Romania, I watched as shifty-eyed travellers shoved contraband cigarettes into their luggage and trekked down an unpaved road towards the border. From my vantage point, Bulgaria did not look terribly inviting.

Since then, my view of this country has changed dramatically. I've spent so much time here over the past three years that I now consider it my second home. And for me, feeling truly comfortable in a place involves eating like a local.

As a native of Los Angeles, I've always had a love for the less travelled spots around my city. The small ethnic restaurants with exotic dishes and the time-worn greasy spoons that are part of the history and folklore of LA are my favourite haunts. Here in Bulgaria, I've been introduced to Sofia's version of this restaurant genre.

Every city has its classic watering holes. New Orleans has Café Du Monde, Los Angeles has Phillipes French Dip Sandwiches and New York has The Oyster Bar. These are places that have been around for generations - where locals remember their first culinary experiences as childhood rites of passage. Thanks to 45 years of Communism, there are scant few of these classic restaurants here in Sofia. The Czechoslovakian Club (15 Krakra St, phone: 441 383) is one of them. Opened in 1892 as a social club for people with Czech or Slovak ancestry living in Sofia, the non-political club is often the first stop for Czech and Slovak dignitaries passing through Bulgaria. As the manager explains, they stop here for lunch, then they go to the embassy. Housed in an elegant turn-of-the-19th-century building, the club has two dining rooms - one for members and one for non-members; at least that was the theory. Now one is for smokers and the other is for non-smokers (guess which one is always full and which one is usually half-empty!). The décor of the non-members room has changed very little in the past 50 years, and neither has the menu. During Communism they served imported Czech beer here – a very rare treat at the time. My favourite thing here is actually a side dish. It's a doughy, bread-like, dumplingy thing called knedly. It has the consistency of an unbaked bagel and looks a bit like uncooked bread. It's served beside several hearty meat dishes. I also like the stewed pork with sour cabbage. It's not a light meal but it's worth the calories. Be sure to come here hungry and be prepared to leave very full.

Another rare old-timer is Vkusnoto kebapche, or The Delicious Kebapche, (20 San Stefano St, phone: 946 2027). It's an apt name for a place that serves just that. It doesn't look like much from the outside, or the inside for that matter, but the food is always great if not a bit simple. Basically it's all about the grilled meat and always has been. My fiancée has ordered the kebapche here for more than 40 years! The thing I love most about this little gem of an eatery is the familiarity of its patrons. A tiny neighbourhood restaurant it may be, but it is a regular dining spot for Sofia's creative community. Artists, actors, theatre people and filmmakers all come here for a little skewered meat and conversation. Located just a block away from the studios of the Bulgarian National Television, there are a lot of famous Bulgarian faces to be seen here. Sitting outside on a warm spring day, which I highly recommend as the smoke inside can be unbearable, you really feel like part of the city.

Just around the corner from my house is Vagabond Restaurant (5 Svetoslav Terter St, phone: 944 1465). It's another place where I know everyone and feel right at home. Situated in a quiet residential neighbourhood, it might be a little hard to find but it's worth the hunt. The restaurant is made up of several rooms in an old house, each one painted with colourful frescos. A few of the little rooms have fireplaces. On a cold night, I love to come here to sit beside the fire and eat stuffed grape leaves, they're the best I've ever had. That's not the only amazing thing on the menu here. They also have a dish called pelmeni, which is a sort of pasta stuffed with meat, the Russian answer to tortellini. It's so authentic that the owners have it prepared by an old Russian lady in the neighbourhood.

On the other side of town is my favourite Turkish restaurant, Istanbul 2000 (104 Kiril i Metodiy St, phone: 931 6026). Walking there, the only foreigners you see are usually clutching their bags tightly, which is always a good idea in this part of town. To get to this tiny café tucked away on a small street behind Zhenski pazar, or Women's Market, you traverse some of the oldest streets in Sofia. One of the few neighbourhoods to survive American bombs during the Second World War, the crumbling buildings here give you a clue as to what this city looked like pre-war. Sadly, the owner of Istanbul 2000 says that few foreigners venture down here after dark: “They're just not used to the drunk Gypsies and the occasional fist fights like the Bulgarians are.” If you come while the sun is still up you should be fine. The menu here seems a bit like traditional Bulgarian food but it's not. The spices and cooking techniques are very different. They have kebabs and salads but there's no pork on the menu and less yoghurt. They also make a fantastic sort of Turkish pizza in a wood-burning oven. Though the menu may look extensive, they've often run out of many things. It's a testament to the owner's commitment to fresh food prepared correctly. For example, he doesn't serve Turkish coffee any more. He didn't feel his staff were skilled enough to make it the right way. Now that's dedication I want to see displayed by as many Bulgarian restaurant owners as possible!

Just around the corner from Istanbul 2000 is Ege Türk Lokantası. What this little hole-in-the-wall lacks in décor it makes up for in great food and colourful patrons. The first time I ate here, I read the menu – a few items listed on a chalkboard - beside a very large Turkish man with a full set of gold teeth and a neck draped with thick gold chains. He looked like a man who could eat anywhere he wanted to (who'd stop him?) and he chose to eat there. As it turns out, he picked a great place. Though Bulgarians would classify this as “fast food”, it's nothing like the fast food that Americans are used to. Yes, it's prepared fast, but everything here is fresh and home-made. They have a wood-burning oven in the back where they make fresh bread and grill meats. The musaka is amazing and the meatballs on a tile are divine. This is one of those places that feels like a real find. We once asked the waitress if they get many English-speaking customers. Apparently, they get a few English speaking Arabs every so often, but very few, if not any, Brits or Americans. There is no English menu here nor are there any English speaking waiters or waitresses. So come ready to do some creative gesturing and pointing to get what you want.

On Sundays back in Los Angeles, I like to take long drives up the coast for lunch. The Sofian version of the same thing involves venturing up Vitosha Boulevard and beyond to my favourite Sunday lunch spot. Vodenitsata, or The Watermill, (Vitosha Park by the Dragalevtsi cable car, phone: 967 1058), may look like a typical Bulgarian tourist trap with every Balkan knick-knack imaginable on the walls but it's much more than that, it's part of Sofia's past. Located half way up the street, this large restaurant sits beside a chair lift that operates round the year. After a long day spent skiing I would stop here for the house speciality: a steaming bowl of polenta covered in butter and white cheese. Although I think the polenta is great, I'm happy that they now have a much larger menu. In fact, the menu is so large it looks like a book. You can get just almost any traditional Bulgarian dish here, and most are amazingly good. If you want to get a feel for how it used to be, take the chair lift up and walk back down. The surrounding forests haven't changed a bit.

When I want to feel like I've really out of town without going too far, I venture out to Brezite, or The White Birch Trees, (1 Raztovarishte St, Bankya, phone: 997 8993). It's roughly a 45-minute drive up into the mountain. Just like the name implies, the restaurant sits amid a grove of beautiful white birch trees with a large outside patio along a well travelled road. In fact, Brezite is the Bulgarian version of a roadhouse. Just like any good roadhouse worth its salt back in the United States, it attracts bikers, car clubs and day-trippers from all over. The last time I was there I shared the patio with the Citroen car club and a wedding party from a distant village. Part of what draws people here is the drive itself. The road winds through picturesque villages, past shepherds with their goats and small herds of grazing cattle. Once you arrive, it's all about the home-made sheep's yoghurt: a rare find outside of remote villages. The tarator, or yoghurt-and-cucumber cold soup, here is unlike anything you'll have back down in Sofia. They also grill meats in an outside oven and have a long list of delicious salads. It's well worth the beautiful drive.

Just like any foreign country, there are things here that just don't appeal to American tastes. For example, the brown mushy drink called boza tastes to me like something someone's already chewed up and spat out. Another example of that is the Bulgarians' love for parts of an animal that we wouldn't normally consider fine eating. Organs and innards that only make their way to the American table in the form of a hot dog are delicacies here. One such dish is a thing called drob sarma. It's rice, greens and herbs mixed with lamb's livers and various lamb innards. Normally, this is a bit exotic for me, but at Kandahar, a small family owned restaurant near Levski Stadium, (4 Evlogi Georgiev St, phone: 865 2535), they make a version of this that I absolutely love. There, drob sarma comes as a side dish with roasted lamb that is also amazing. I love to have it in the spring when lamb is in season and you can sit outside away from the smoke. The surroundings are simple and the garden small, but the drob sarma is reason enough to try Kandahar.

As much as I like all things Bulgarian every so often I like a taste of home. Not being much of a fast food eater, Pizza Hut or KFC just won't do the trick. When I'm feeling a bit homesick I like to go to The Red House Café (15 Lyuben Karavelov St, phone: 988 1888). Located in the basement and garden of The Red House Gallery, the café here feels like something you'd find in New York or San Francisco. You can get a plate of French or Bulgarian cheese and a nice bottle of wine. But its not really the food here that reminds me of home, it's the atmosphere. Red walls and the patio with black, red and white tables give it that East Village feeling. What I really like about it is that it's like a little home with a large dose of Bulgarian charm. It's a nice mix of Bulgaria and the United States, just like my life over the past years.

Issue 22 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria Bulgarian food

VAGABOND FEATURES

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MY OWN CHOICE: A SOURCE OF SUPREME JOY AND PLEASURE

DimanaT — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:11:36 +0000

MY OWN CHOICE: A SOURCE OF SUPREME JOY AND PLEASURE

by Tove Skarstein

DimanaT Sun, 06/01/2008 - 14:11

A frugal Norwegian finds Bulgarians very Mediterranean in terms of food, drink and habits

Tove Skarstein

One of the nice surprises after moving to Sofia was discovering it as a vibrant city, where finding a nice, affordable place to eat or drink was never a problem. I was expecting to find the cuisine was heavy and high in fat, like the food in most Central European countries, yet Bulgarian food is quite different. It is always made from the freshest seasonal ingredients. Like most great gastronomy, Bulgarian food is influenced by the neighbours. There is white cheese, similar to Greece, grilled meat as in Serbia, roasted and stuffed vegetables like in Turkey, and stew-like dishes from Hungary. My Bulgarian friends tell me that most of the words for food in Bulgarian are Turkish, and true to that, Turkish seems to be the most dominant influence. However, none of these other countries boast yoghurt as delicious, fresh and creamy as in Bulgaria.

In many ways, Bulgarians remind me of Mediterranean folk, where food and drink in the company of friends and family is a source of supreme joy and pleasure. People from the North are usually more frugal. We eat to live and not vice versa. Moving to Sofia is an efficient cure for that.

I love that every menu begins with a list of various salads, including the shopska as the consistently common addition. Main courses usually offer meat, but as a Norwegian, I generally go for fish.

At first glance the choice of fish can be disappointing. The Scandinavians appreciate big fish from the cold waters of the Atlantic, prepared in a simple and natural way. The best sorts, of course, are the ones we catch ourselves whilst at our summerhouses by the sea. I have, however, come to enjoy the seasonal offerings from the Black Sea or Greece. Trout is also very tasty, especially the variety served at the mountain lodges when you go hiking.

I have learnt that a salad starter is a must. I skip the rakiya, which is too strong for me. I often joke with Bulgarian friends that drinking rakiya is such a necessity as it helps to kill the germs in the salads, but they usually don't find it too funny!

Another pleasant discovery was the excellent quality of Bulgarian wines. I'm ashamed to say that the choice of Bulgarian quality wine in Norway is not good, meaning there could be a huge potential to boost business there! As I don't represent a wine-producing country, I have all the opportunities in the world to serve good Bulgarian wine at lunches and dinners in the embassy. Like Bill Clinton, I favour the Mavruds.

My working days are quite busy. If I go out with guests for lunch, I often choose Balgari, or Bulgarians, (71 Knyaz Dondukov Blvd, phone: 843 5419), which is very close to the embassy. It was previously a private townhouse, and in the summertime the garden retains the wonderful aura of the Roman baths. Inside, the walls are covered with old photos of pre-Second World War and family portraits. I must admit that I prefer to look at the photo of King Boris than the one of “Herman Göring”! My best choices there are the crêpes with spinach, followed by the grilled octopus, which is always fresh and tasty.

If I go out on my own, or just want a quick and tasty bite on Saturdays, I go to Akademiya, or The Academy, (1 Shipka St, phone: 988 5505), just across from the Gallery of Foreign Art. The customers are mostly intellectuals and artists. Few foreigners go there. The terrace is shady and cool in the summer and best of all; dogs are allowed. I usually go for the potato salad with garlic and parsley, and a glass of local beer. If it is a very hot day, I take the tarator, which is a cold soup of yogurt and cucumber. Very healthy and refreshing!

At the weekends I walk my dog in one of Sofia's many parks. The Borisova Garden is the one closest to my home. When I want to rest, I sit in one of the many cafés, where I always find another dog lover to talk to. Dog owners can easily communicate without talking the same language! Even the humblest cafés or kiosks in the parks have something to offer. When in Sofia, do as the Sofianites do: order a good coffee or a glass of local beer accompanied with one or two kyufteta.

Sometimes, I use a day off to catch up on what is going on in the numerous galleries and museums. It is tempting to take a break at the café behind the National Gallery, Toba&Co, (6 Moskovska St, phone: 989 4696) and feel surrounded by the young intelligentsia, but only outside in summertime. Inside, the music is far too loud and the waiters are not very keen to turn the volume down. The Margaritas are nicely done, but you have to insist to get your change back. As a principle, it is up to me, not them, to decide the tip.

As I'm a bit lazy, I have a tendency to go to places closer to home. I also prefer to walk, as it's quite risky to cycle here. On Saturday evenings, I might also drop in to Chay vav fabrikata, or Tea House, (11 Georgi Benkovski St, phone: 0888 431 007). I go there for the good music and the cosy atmosphere.

Another place close to my house is Grozd, or Bunch of Grapes, (21 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, phone: 944 3915), which is the Bulgarian answer to the local French brasserie. The food is excellent, the prices reasonable and the clientele is mainly Bulgarian, which is always a good sign. My guests from Norway love this place. The yoghurt is just heaven. Add a couple of walnuts and a spoonful of honey and you have a fabulous dessert. Also, the service is impeccable.

If I'm invited out for dinner and the host leaves the choice of venue to me, I often opt for Otvad aleyata, zad shkafa, or Beyond the Alley Behind the Cupboard (31 Budapest St, phone: 980 9067). I went there for the first time when one of my staff got married. I like the authentic atmosphere and the garden looks fantastic when lit up with lanterns in summertime. The building, from 1923, is located in the old part of Sofia - my favourite area - although it does need serious rehabilitation. I rely on the EU structure funds for that job. I love the smell of mekitsi there, which is served with either cheese or powered sugar.

Bulgaria is a truly multiethnic society although not in the Western sense. Many Armenians found a safe haven here after the persecutions at the beginning of the 20th Century. They were allowed entry to Bulgaria thanks to the Nansen passport, which is now replaced by the UNHCR laissez-passer for refugees. Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian scientist and statesman. He was the first High Commissioner for Refugees and he dedicated the last 20 years of his life to the cause of the Armenian people, without succeeding in getting them a homeland.

Finally, if you have never tried Armenian food, don't miss the opportunity in Sofia. Go to the restaurant Egur, Egur (18 Sheynovo St, phone: 946 1765, 0896 668 302 or 10 Dobrudzha St, phone: 989 3383, 0896 668 301), owned by the jazz singer Hilda Kazasyan. Here, the traditional Armenian dishes are superbly prepared. If you want to go for the safe choice, you can also get excellent French food. The place offers loads of vegetarian options in addition to the Caucasian kebabs and a good selection of vintage wines. It is well worth trying an Armenian wine. The desserts are divine, but very rich in calories so try to restrain yourself! Be prepared, however, to spend your money, as this is among the more expensive places in town.

Issue 21 My own choice Eating out in Bulgaria

VAGABOND FEATURES

My own choice

TOP 100: MY OWN CHOICE

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DIVYABH MANCHANDA

The Ambassador of India rediscovers Bulgaria, particularly the cuisine

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MY OWN CHOICE: MICHAEL WELLNER-POSPISIL

Of Bond, butchers and Bulgarians

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MY OWN CHOICE: ELISABETH HORNUNG

Whether in or out of Sofia, clean air is the best eating companion

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MY OWN CHOICE: TOP CHOICES 2008

Dining options in Sofia and beyond seem to suit more and more tastes

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MY OWN CHOICE: SWISH SWISS

Eating out is a tough but pleasant job if you know how to find the right place, consider your mood and are sure about the reason for going out

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MY OWN CHOICE: CHRIS NOLAN

Find out the diamonds among the mid-range Bulgarian eateries

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MY OWN CHOICE: TABLE MANNERS

Life and food can be as good in Sofia's urban retreats as in the country's green spots

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MY OWN CHOICE: OFF OFF OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Bulgaria has some extremely well-hidden food &amp; drink - usually smoke-filled - spots that even a health-conscious Californian can dig

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MY OWN CHOICE: A SOURCE OF SUPREME JOY AND PLEASURE

A frugal Norwegian finds Bulgarians very Mediterranean in terms of food, drink and habits

Add new comment

Bulgaria has some extremely well-hidden food & drink - usually smoke-filled - spots that even a health-conscious Californian can dig