Food

Traditional food

Continental style of eating is most common, with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. Bulgarians eat pork, chicken, fish, or lamb with most main dishes. Grilled meat and kababs are also popular, especially in restaurants. Traditionally, the largest meal was eaten at midday and consisted of soup and/or salad, a main course, and dessert. Today, most Bulgarians have a light lunch during the work day – at a fast-food establishment, kiosk, café, or office — and then eat their main meal of the day after 7PM at home.

White brined cheese and yogurt are some of the most typical products used in Bulgarian cuisine. Many of the typical Bulgarian dishes are found in the cuisines of other Balkan nations (Turks, Romanians, Serbs, Greeks, Albanians) – salads (“Shopska”), stews (“gyuvech”, “kavarma”), sauces (“liutenitsa”), bakes (“musaka”, “drob-surma”), grilled minced meat (kebapcheta, kiufteta, karnacheta), pastry (“banitsa”, “tikvenik”) syrupy desserts (“baklava”, “kadaif”) and others.

The Bulgarian cuisine often includes spices like onion, garlic, red pepper, allspice, bay leaf. Bulgarians have typical dishes associated with certain holidays. For example sarma and stuffed peppers on Christmas Eve, kapama, banitsa with lucky charms put into the pastry and other dishes with sauerkraut on New Year, fish for St. Nicholas, banitsa and halva on Sirni Zagoverzni, kozonak on Easter, lamb for St. George and others.