This blog is the last of a trilogy of articles about St Nicholas Day or Nikolai Name Day in Bulgaria. It is more of a picture blog as the event as the day came to a climax in the evening. and not a anyone called Nikolai in sight. This is no excuse for having a family gathering and a party here. As always in Bulgaria the family and food plays a major part on these occasions less than three weeks before Christmas.
I was honoured to be given responsibility and take charge of the fish, which wasn't the traditional carp due to the cost. We had bought another cheaper freshwater fish called a tolstolop. It was to be prepared salted and barbecued on this warm and sunny December day.
The fish was the main course, before that the women were preparing a meze type of starters that will see us through a few hours of talking before the tolstolop fish was served up.Starting form the top working round clockwise, let me take you through the table of food prior to the fish being served:
Lettuce and Yoghurt Salad - A simple Bulgarian lettuce in December grown under glass, oil salt and vinegar added place plain yoghurt, simply delicious
- Pig Skin - Galia's son had been to a pig slaughtering earlier today and had brought some of the skin that had been scolded and scraped. It was just salted before eating.
- Skalitsa Salami - Home made salami from another pig slaughter given to us from our neighbours in the village.
- Sweetcorn and Gherkin Salad - Plain sweetcorn from home grown cobs and homegrown gherkins that had been preserved in salt/vinegar water a couple of months ago.
- Green Tomato, Cauliflower and Carrot Pickle (centre) -Again, all home grown vegetables that had been preserved n salt water a few weeks ago.
And to accompany the meals, dark beer from Sofia and homemade Yambol rakia along with Yambol produced orangeade. The only non-Bulgarian food in the table were the coated peanuts.The main course fish was superb and the whitest fish meat I have every seen, it was swimming in crystal clear pollution free reservoir waters some 5 kilometres away from Yambol 48 hours earlier!
It was a very long day but only because this year is fell on a Saturday. Next year is is on a Sunday so big family meal with all the traditions surrounding will happen again. A beautiful soul stirring day that hopefully will never be diluted with commercialism.
Martin the food looks absolutely delicious. Washed down with the homemade fire water, can't be bad. Why is carp so expensive? Here they farm a similar freshwater fish, does that happen in Bulgaria? I get the impression you or the family caught your feast.
ReplyDeleteCarp isn't expensive to an outsider, but put a cost on it with someone on a single Bulgarian wage coming in as we are, it is. It work out at around 8 leva (£3.50) a kilo is fresh from the nets or double that bought in town from a shop. For a small 3 kilo carp, thats 24 leva, well over a whole day and a half worth of wages. We netted the tolstolop fish at 3 kg and paid 20 leva, this still amounts to one day's wage. It is a luxury food item here unless fished and caught from River Tundzha that runs throught the town. Many Bulgarians just have to settle freebie fish and rice handed out in the church, which is what we saw hundreds walking out with in plastic bags.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't catch the fish, but bought is by the side of the reservoir which was selling freshly netted fish for this special day.
looks like a goodtime was had by all.
ReplyDeletethat fish dish looks interesting.
do you plan on possibly doing a blog on how it's made, and what keeps it so white like that ?
happy holidays to you and yours
Hi Re Ausetkmt,
ReplyDeleteThe fish recipe is not needed as it is just barbecued with a little salt sprinkled over, that's it! The fish tasted great on its own, it didn't need any disquising with additional flavours.
Tom and Barbara, remember them from the TV series The Good Life starring Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal. Living off the land, home grown produce and eggs from your very own chickens. There's a certain romantic feel about country life, grandma preparing tea, the kids chasing the dog in the fields and their mother embroidering a new tablecloth, as her husband returns laden with freshly caught fish. The food looks really nice and it must have been a great day. I forgot to mention grandad, drunk, fast asleep and snoring in the spare bedroom, sounds about right.
ReplyDeleteYou are very perceptive Hoo Don. I looked up to Richard Brier's character as Tom as my all time top hero during the 80's. I knew that it could never be achieved in the UK though. In a time of punk rock, drug and alcohol, self suffiency and living the good life for real was always going to be a dream (without funds to buy that life of course!) Today I feel that this has almost been acheived, but immersing oneself into a poverty stuck community that have to live like that, not by choice. Strange, but some peoples' dreams are others' nightmares.
ReplyDelete