Bulgaria: Food and the National Dish

A cuisine built on dairy and grilled meat

Bulgarian food shares much of its shape with the wider Balkans and its Ottoman-era history — grilled minced meat, filo pastry, rich vegetable stews — but dairy sets it apart more than anywhere else in the region. Yogurt is eaten in large quantities and is a point of national pride, and sirene, a tangy white brined cheese, appears on almost every table in some form, grated, cubed or baked into pastry.

The national dish: shopska salad

Shopska salad — chopped tomato, cucumber, onion and pepper, topped with a generous grating of sirene cheese — is widely considered Bulgaria's national dish. It was named in 1956 by the state tourism company Balkantourist, and its white, green and red happen to match the Bulgarian flag, a coincidence that helped it become a national symbol. It is eaten as a starter rather than a main, often alongside a shot of rakia, the fruit brandy that opens many Bulgarian meals.

Banitsa and New Year's fortunes

Banitsa, layers of filo pastry wrapped around a mixture of whisked egg, yogurt and sirene cheese and baked until golden, is Bulgaria's everyday breakfast pastry, usually eaten with yogurt, ayran or boza alongside it.

At Christmas and New Year's Eve, a special version is baked with lucky charms called kasmeti — traditionally small pieces of dogwood branch for health and long life, or coins, and more recently written wishes wrapped in foil — each meant to bring its finder luck in the coming year.

Dishes to know

Five more to recognise across Bulgaria:

• Gyuvech — a spicy vegetable stew, sometimes with meat, often cooked in a

clay pot.

• Kebapche — a grilled stick of minced meat seasoned with cumin, essentially

the same dish as the former Yugoslav ćevapčići but typically larger.

• Kyufte — a grilled meatball of seasoned minced meat shaped into a

flattened round, served alongside kebapche on a mixed grill.

• Tarator — a cold soup of yogurt, diced cucumber, garlic and dill, often

with walnuts, a refreshing summer staple.

• Sarmi — cabbage or vine leaves stuffed with rice and often meat, found

under similar names right across the Balkans.

Rakia and wine

Rakia, a strong fruit brandy most often distilled from plums or grapes, is a common opener to a Bulgarian meal, drunk alongside shopska salad rather than after the meal the way a digestif might be elsewhere. Bulgaria also has a long winemaking history going back to the ancient Thracians, and grows the native Balkan red grape Mavrud, mainly around Asenovgrad and Perushtitsa in the south.

Eating as a traveller

Vegetarians can rely on shopska salad, banitsa, tarator and sirene-based dishes, though kebapche, kyufte and many main courses are built around meat. Sharing a shopska salad and a round of rakia before the main course is a common ritual at Bulgarian meals, and joining in is a good way to start any meal the way locals do.

What to take from the table

Shopska salad and a shot of rakia is the dish and drink to start with, but Bulgaria's real culinary pride runs through its dairy — banitsa with yogurt, tarator on a hot day, and sirene cheese worked into almost everything else.