A Simple Christmas Eve Family Celebration In Bulgaria

Christmas here with Galia’s family in Yambol was a simple affair with no gimmicks attached. The plan was to have a family get together on Christmas Eve and just talk, eat, drink and dance, bit not necessarily in that order. Four generations of family were all together in one place by 9:00 Christmas Eve and the food and drink was being dipped into.

Christmas is very economical here ijh out household, I don’t think it would be much different if we had money either as the habit of not wasting money is instilled into Bulgarian souls here. As a couple of examples is the fact that we don’t exchange Christmas cards and most of the food is homemade during this season with the majority stocks that have been grown from the summer and autumn. It makes so much sense to be like this/. To me sending Christmas cards was always done in the main just for the sake of it and to not send one was made out to be criminal. This was the only reason many were sent not to be made to feel guilty.

Shopping at Christmas and crowds leading up tot Christmas just doesn’t happen here. To me this is such a great thing to experience and my thoughts are always on my past and the rush and bad tempers and the stress and the commercial rut that the UK is in. It is hard not to get that past and the mayhem of this out of my head even after quite a few Christmases here.

Decorations at this festive season are at a minimum and what we do put out are used year in year out. We just have a simple Christmas tree is a simple half a metre tall plastic affair, which never ages in the ten years it has been used here. It is just as effective each year without lights. No fancy ceiling and wall decorations, just two little Santa Clause figures hanging from a couple of cupboard knobs, that’s it.

Food at this time of year is not that much different form our daily meals. Dishes for the Christmas Eve family celebration consist of vegetarian dishes up until midnight when the meat dishes come out. We all came with out own dishes, which made up the seven different dishes of the night. Seven different dishes on this particular night is traditional although it can be extended to nine or eleven. Apart from the traditional baked bread, the sweet boiled wheat dish and mushroom (in place of mince) filled sarmi (stuffed vine leaves) all the other dishes are regular finds on our kitchen dining table. To me this home made food from homegrown products is a special celebration every day in any case. The difference is the company and occasion, which makes it even more special.

This is a time for all generations to get together as the eldest member of the family starts the celebration off with a speech. Baba at 85 was the eldest and did the honours. She was then handed the flat bread and broke off the first piece then passed to on to every person there. We all hoped to get the buried 20 stotinki coin that gave good luck for next year, guess who got it – Yes me. I felt quite guilty denying all these Bulgarian their luck.

The evening was now rolling with fun and laughter all round aided by lashings of rakia (all three varieties of homemade). Then the dancing started and the gifts made to the children. Not gifts that you expect. These were little gifts of little sweet snacks and some fruit (and apple and an orange) in a little plastic bag. The children of the family were more than content with their gifts, which were gracefully accepted from another older member of the family. The older members of the family are seen with great respect here and again this is so rewarding for me to watch each year.

Dancing, eating drinking and of course talking with the volume on a never crescendo throughout the night continued. Midnight came and the meat was served. This was simply sliced salami and the end of the traditional fasting from meat (just the day for us but puritans from the 5th December.)

We finally left at 4:00 in the morning with Baba being supported on both sides by Galia and myself, I think we both needed her support to be quite honest. Home was only 400 metres away as we arrived and all slept like a log after a heart warming occasion that could and did bring a tear to my eye.

This is how Christmas should be celebrated, with family, tradition upheld and simple food, drink and respect for everyone, something that I am still getting used to here after all the Christmases I never really looked forward to in the UK.

Finally Got A Job In Bulgaria Again

Thank you all for all your comments regarding my last post. There is a burning inside me that wants to spill all that happens here but it is being held back by time. It is something that I thought I would have lots of here - this is not the case right now. Far from being a rat race, things just take far longer to do here than in my previous life and trying to acclimatise with this is still something I am trying to fight, although never as much as I used to.

After being made redundant here back in 2007, it is with relief that I have now found local work here at the minimum Bulgarian wage (around 18 BG Leva a day.) I am now otherwise occupied for over 40 hours a week sweating out with other labouring non-English speaking Bulgarians. I am very lucky indeed, as many people here do not have any work at all here. It was found through the family grapevine and social connections, without this I would now probably be on a plane to the UK with borrowed money for the flight and find myself homeless and jobless there.

So as it stands now I am working as a labourer full time. It is physically demanding and I’m totally knackered at the end of the day, (which I really love for some strange reason,) but now have a living here where a contribution to the family budget can be made. I certainly feel less guilty eating the food that is constantly laid on the table. After work it is working on the farm, even in the dark and weekends still at the village of Skalitsa maintaining the farm there (without Internet connections.)

The time spent blogging now is maybe an hour or two at the most prior to hitting the pillow for some well earned sleep. Somehow the pressure to fit things in this time is making blogging stressful trying to cram everything in. For now all I can do is keep things ticking over and that’s what I will try and do. This is being written in a rush at 6:00 am prior to setting off to work at 7:00 whilst eating a banitsa and drinking Ayran.

A Passion For Rakia Making Amongst Food Galore In Bulgaria

Grapes are in full swing in Bulgaria right now. The pickings are taking place all around the country for wine, rakia and of course eating. Not a day passed right now when we don’t get grapes presented to us from friends, family and neighbours. Every bunch of grape received is of course the best grapes in Yambol!

Rakia houses are running at full steam right now and you can see a trail of smoke on the horizon as the kazans (distilling systems) had been expelling smoke all night from the wood that supplies the heat. All this of course well worth the effort as this year’s grape rakia will be ready to drink by November when the pig slaughtering season starts – I can’t wait as my own grape rakia process had started last week with 150 kg of Yambol grapes now fermenting away. This is on top of the 40 litres of Yambol sliva rakia already in store and being drunk daily right now. You might want to check out The Rakia Site if you are interested in this wonderful spirit.

Food is coming in from all angles. Tomatoes aubergine and peppers have been flowing out beyond the stocking that has filled out freezer to bursting. Cabbage and leeks (which are the third succession of crops this year) are ready to eat now and will be picked and stored by the end of November.

No pictures unfortunately as my camera is still waiting to be replaced and the offer of 100,000 Entrecard Card credits and $20 for a replacement still stands. My Yambol Daily Pictures site just can’t function without one.

Food In Bulgaria - World Blog Surf Day

Well World Blog Surf Day has arrived and the theme is food. This is something that is a passion for many bloggers and I’m sure we’ll get some tasty post surfing around the word today.

I have written many post on food and would have found myself rewriting what I have already covered. With this in mind I have decided to take and extract out of my book that was published recently and use that at the material that basically covers my finding of food in Bulgaria.

(A big thank you to Sher @ http://sheroffthebeatenpath.blogspot.com/ for all her work organising this world blog surf day)

- Living Off the Bulgarian Land -

Food here in Bulgaria is something else — every day a new experience is to be had in Bulgarian cuisine. I must say that it helps tremendously that my partner is Bulgarian and cooks like an angel, but that aside, the Bulgarian friends and neighbours still tickle my taste buds at every opportunity with their own cooking. Since coming here there hasn’t really been any moment where a pang for supermarket branded food has called out. No Twiglets, Mars Bars, baked beans or even sherbet fountains with the liquorice sticking out felt needed or wanted. In fact nowadays the only thing I can remember about these foods is the horrible aftertaste! Those who have been here eating natural Bulgarian food for long enough will know exactly what I mean.

Every few weeks someone asks, ‘I’m coming over, what would you like me to bring for you?’ It is very difficult to think of anything, even after really thinking hard. So these kind people usually bring over some English teabags, Cadbury’s creme eggs or a bottle of whisky; many thanks guys, and I mean this most sincerely, but these are then actually used for English guests that come round, so very useful anyway. This is not being ungracious, but just speaking truthfully about how things are now.

Here in Bulgaria, most produce comes straight out of the village homes, most of which are not just homes but smallholdings. Food comes from a variety of sources, mainly grown from the rich, dark, fertile land. This produce also feeds chickens, cows and calves, goats and sheep, ducks and geese, rabbits and peafowl, to name a few. Back in the village of Skalitsa where I live, there is no need for supermarket shopping. Occasionally food is bought from the supermarket, more out of habit if I happen to be in town, but usually from my local village shop that provides everything I need: bread and flour (both made and milled in my village), sunflower oil (locally produced), salt and sugar. Local honey is more often used for sweetening than sugar. Filo pastry is also sometimes bought for the homemade banitsas — the recipe for the unique Skalitsa banitsa is further on in the book, but there are other pastry variations of the banitsa throughout Bulgaria. Last but not least, beer: making your own beer is not entertained, as it would never touch the quality that the Belgian brewery owners achieve here. You just can’t improve on perfect beer.

I can’t say there is much else needed. As much wine, rakia and liqueur as I could ever wish for is all locally produced in the village or on my own farm. Sunflower seeds are gathered from the field adjoining my land, and as long as it is for personal consumption there is no problem with this; in fact, the mice in the field eat more than any villager. They are dried (some salted) and stored in airtight, recycled plastic food boxes. Chickpeas are grown and stored in the same way; sweetcorn is grown or again taken in from fields and dried (but not used for animal feed — that wouldn’t be right if taken from the co-operative fields) and fried in oil to make popcorn: another treat from the garden, flavoured either with honey or salt before popping. So there’s your little variety of snacks to accompany your drinks.

All the cheeses and yoghurts are homemade. All from natural ingredients. Walnuts are gathered and keep for up to a year for use in cooking. Walnuts baked in honey are another Bulgarian food legend, and also used as another accompaniment to drinks. Almonds are harvested, with shells you can remove without nutcrackers; ever tried that with a supermarket almond? Fresh figs are preserved in syrup. There are melons galore, both the honeydew and water type; the latter makes a marvellous jam to be eaten all year round. Strawberry jam used for cakes and for milkshakes is a summer taste second to none. Apples, pears and sliva can all be stored in boxes or bottled in syrup and kept for up to six months. My last apple, eaten in April this year, was almost as good as it would have been picked in October the year before. And it was sweet and tasted like an apple!

On occasion non-Bulgarian guests visit and sometimes turn their nose up at some of the food offered because it’s not like the food they’re used to buying in shops. You may well be surprised at how many say that! This is the only other reason that supermarkets are frequented, to cater for the need of these occasions. No offence is taken at this point; it’s not their fault, it’s the system they have grown to rely on. All the produce that is not in season has been either frozen or bottled, and supplies take us through the winter and spring. This is not a chore — the garlic and onions are plaited and the tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and pumpkins boiled for bottling on the outside wood-burning contraption. Everything is done slowly and very systematically. When it comes to doing anything like this in village life there is never any panic or rush with the long day ahead. Why do we, on the other hand, still try and hurry things to get them done as quickly as possible all the time?


With all this food to hand, including most meats and a range of poultry and dairy products, you can make anything you want from the ingredients. Even beef can be grown, bought or bartered for in the village. Everything and more is grown here compared to the UK. So what’s the problem there? Nothing, it would seem — the problem in the UK for many is the culture of buying convenience food rather than growing your own. How many have a garden where produce can be grown? Most people. The climate here helps a lot, but what makes it work here is the way of life and the homegrown food culture, which left the UK some 40-50 years ago. You come to Bulgaria and take a big step back in time. I’m always amazed at how the simplest ingredients can turn out to be another memorable meal. Just a sliced young marrow fresh from the garden, dipped in flour and fried until brown, then served hot topped with homemade yoghurt. It was that simple, but the result was something very special. Everyday another taste or recipe is laid out and enjoyed; it really is going back to basic ingredients and enjoying them for what they are. How often is this forgotten, bowing to commercially processed foods made for you from a point of ease and laziness? For convenience, the process squeezes out the taste of natural foods with chemically enhanced products as the replacement, and this becomes the ‘taste of the norm’ for the weekly consumers. Food regulations introduced is understandable to protect health, but it has gone to extremes and the very chemicals that are meant to protect such as preservatives, flavour enhancements and added colouring, etc. is just as bad if not worse for our long term health.

It is quite strange that most village folk don’t have a choice of shopping for food over growing their own food; they simply can’t afford it. If they could afford to and had a choice the convenience foods are there, waiting in the wings, ready to pounce for profits, which is the name of the game. The new generation of Bulgarians is making its way to becoming part of the American and Euro fast food brigade. The traditional horticultural activities carried out in villages throughout Bulgaria may end up being restricted to commercial dimensions, as they were in the UK so many years ago. I am grateful and privileged to have the opportunity to experience Bulgaria as it is now.

There’s one old wives tale that I continually hear, concerning eggs. The chickens I keep are totally free range, with access to all-natural food in the big yard and greenery from the waste organic vegetation, and a supplement of natural wheat to call them home in the evening. Nothing could be more free range than these chickens. So when someone says, ‘Oh, I tried some free range eggs and the colour of the yolk was so deep in colour, it was orange,’ I’m a little dubious. Do you have a picture of this apparently fresh free-range egg now revealing its sensuous lush orange yolk, just waiting to melt in the mouth after being lightly fried in a little oil and laid on a bed of the softest white buttered bread you could imagine? Looks good? Tastes good? Doubt it! This is not true; the colour of free-range eggs is usually just plain yellow at best. Battery and commercial egg producers (other than the chickens themselves, of course) use colour additives in the feed to produce a more deeply-coloured yolk, which is what the consumer wants and gets — supply and demand. So the chicken may be described as free-range but what are they given to eat? Market research has found that the yellow yolk doesn’t sell as well as the darker orange-tinted colour. Next time you go to a town supermarket and buy eggs, even so-called free-range ones, see how orange the yolk is; you know why now.

I am still a lifetime away from getting my produce up to the standard of my Bulgarian neighbours: the learning goes on all the time. It is clear that the attitude to food in the UK is that convenience food rules. This is not from the point of choice, many just don’t get the choice with their hectic work related lifestyle and a bygone age of daily family table meals. Even if home cooking does happen, ingredients that are used are sourced from supermarkets and also grown in a rush, furthermore hardly ever locally produced and only remains fresh from preservative processes. The difference here in Bulgaria is the food is local, fresh. Along with the culture, the climate, the slow pace of life that been inbred over many generations, you will find that the food grows faster than the pace of life.

Sourced from "Simple Treasures In Bulgaria"
Copyright © Martin Miller-Yianni
ISBN 978-0-9559849-0-7
www.amazon.co.uk

Your next port of call is now at http://vedatc.blogspot.com/ Vedat has been living in Turkey from birth (1988). Now, he is living in Poland studying at Lazarski University as an exchange student. In his own words he, "Loves writing in blogs!" It should be an eye opener to many who read it.

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Anastasia Ashman is an American cultural producer based in Istanbul, and is a creator of Expat Harem, the anthology by foregin women about modern Turkey. Her Tweetstream focuses on women, travel and history and she shares resources for writers/travelers, expats, Turkophiles & culturati of all stripes. There is an open invite to follow her on twitter. Her account is: Thandelike

Christmas Eve Celebrations in Bulgaria

Christmas Eve is the biggest celebration in the Bulgarian calendar and so it was this evening in Yambol town. Having been through a few Christmases here in Bulgaria now, both in town and country, I look forward to Christmas rather than holding my head in my hands from the stress. There is absolutely no rush, no pressure and certain no pretence as families gather for the Christmas Eve celebration around the country.

Traditions still hold fast here, even though pressures from an invading western influence are now firmly in the veins of the country and will increase and spread as each year passes, for now, we have evaded the consumer Christmas that is the norm for millions of people worldwide now.

The traditions are many and would take quite a detailed account to cover all customs that we when though, so I have just put some basics that when on in Yambol this evening, so simple, community based and spiritually uplifting for all. There is never any point where the meaning of Christmas leaves our minds throughout the celebrations as the symbols of Christmas are in the presentation and food that is before us all evening (and a big chunk of the morning).

Before we left we had to make sure we took out slippers, again this is normal here taking your own footwear as guests in other Bulgarian homes. We gave the small gifts to each other before we left, as in practical Bulgarian tradition is actually more practical rather than dragging them to another apartment.

The food in the main is all home grown and prepared by hand with non-meat factor being the tradition this evening. Fast from eating meat prior to midnight is expected, however this has been watered down slightly as before the fasting of meat would have been over a period of 40 days, this just doesn’t happen here now and for most it is just for the day or for a few days.

Just as we left, it started snowing with all the food in carrier bags it his was bad timing and by the time we got there we looked like a crowd of snowmen entering the bock and left a big puddle of water in the lift as we left arrived on the fifth floor and the warmth of our hosts.

All home produced food consisted of:

Cabbage and bean stew
Traditional Boiled Wheat
Boiled Potato and Leek salad
Cauliflower and carrot pickle
Raw Leek sliced
Gherkins
Walnuts
Peanuts
Bread
Wine
2 Litres grape Rakia

Later on, still before midnight though:

Tikvanik (pumpkin banitsa) and Apple Sponge Cake

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With all this home grown and made food/drink, it was only the bread and peanuts that were purchased!
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Before any food or drink consumes the eldest member of the family, Baba in this instance, had to say grace with as all stood up to attention. There were many Icons of Christ as a permanent fixture on the wall in the apartment and these were focussed on during this short, but important beginning of this evening. Once the formalities were over the evening unfolded.

Normal in Bulgaria is the TV on in the background, used for music background rather than anything else. Talking, laughing, eating, drinking, dancing went on and on and on until 4:00. In fact the food was so good and plentiful that we didn’t even bother to get the meat dishes that are normally served after 12:00. We all had a joyous Christmas Eve where it is just simple pleasures that remain the most important factor, that’s what makes it so special.

It was Christmas Day treading the Yambol streets back home a few hours before sunrise all arm in arm going at Baba’s pace. Family bonds are wonderfully strong here and this was felt throughout the evening with the biggest Bulgarian celebration of the year.

The Answer is Always Food in Bulgaria

Thanks to all those who sent get well messages.

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Whenever I am ill, for whatever reason, unless suffering form malnutrition of course, I lose my appetite. Either I don’t eat at all of very little; it’s just the way I am illness just make me lose my appetite. Being ill is rare for me anyway so the abstaining of food doesn’t happen that often, well actually it is never allowed to happen here in Bulgaria with the food driven society, in a country called the bread bucket of Europe. Every couple of hours there is food pile driven your way by Baba, it has been well documented since I have been here.

So with my slipped disc, there is another move along the Bulgarian learning curve. Whatever your disposition, food is the answer. Whether your fit or ill you have to eat and eat lots and often if you are a man. It is a constant battle fighting off food every minute of the day. The longer I go without food the more intense the food fight becomes, how ironic that this continuous food being making me mentally ill!

This morning two or three times an hour, every hour, I get approached with food on a plate that I had already said I don’t want and then there is a little sulk as it gets taken away again. Later in the morning another tactic, I get a peeled and sliced apple handed to me.

I say, “Thanks you very much, but I don’t feel like food right now.”

The comment replied was, “It’s not food it’s an apple!” I laugh and it hurts.

It is almost like being force fed but not quite there; it gets to the point where I get angry as the effort it takes to keep refusing is immense and with back pain always there my temper rises slightly into a nervous laughter just like after the apple comment and laughter really hurts when you have a slipped disc.

Surely it would be better to just accept the food and be done with it is what I sometimes think. The pressure to take this route is tremendous and would solve everyone’s frustrations expect mine, after all, it is my choice whether to eat or not. Or is it?

The whole idea by trying to get me to eat, I know, is to try and get me better They firmly believe that eating lots of food is the best route to take when you are ill, evenif you are overweight. This is understandable and I know that they are 100% behind trying to the best they possibly can for me, unfortunately they don’t just have a difficult patient, but an English one.

4 Eggs

It is the lack of free thought and doing things that make sense that caught me by surprise on this beautiful weekend in Skalitsa with Galia and Poliya her cousin. They came here after work on Friday evening joining up with me for a weekend of total relaxing with music, food. drink and dance.

It was Saturday evening when Poliya started to get together all the ingredients needed for a meal of baked rabbit and potatoes with honey based pancakes. It came to pass that everything was there, yes, including the rabbit that was caught and skinning in Yambol, except for the eggs. She presumed because we live in the village with chickens everywhere you look that eggs needn’t have been bought for this weekend. She was almost right but I had used the last two for the Skalitsa Banitsas I made earlier that morning, and were they delicious.

So, no eggs and the shop just a stone’s throw away could I go and get some. This was such a simple request but brought about a major rethink about how most of us have been controlled by the commercialism and how you think.

I asked how many eggs she wanted but the only reason was to find out whether I should buy 6 or 12 eggs. Poliya said that she only wanted 4 for the pancake dish so the question was answered; I was to get half a dozen as I started making my way down to the shop.

It was only 10 metres down the road and walking amongst all the free range animals, running, grazing or flying when a sudden though from this English head of mine. Why the hell do I want to buy six eggs, Poliya only want four for the recipe? Then another thought can to mind. What would happen to the other two eggs? I knew exactly what would happen to them, they would remain in the fridge for another week until another egg based recipe, in each case more than two would be required and anther six would be bought!

Why buy six! It was a life of being brought up on marketing standards, eggs come in dozens, and in England you can’t buy less than six! That is ridiculous, what a fool am I to fall for this time and time. In Bulgaria, if I want one egg I can buy it, that is normal.

With this I bought four eggs brought them back and another step forward into freethinking and away from institutionalised ways

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http://skalitsafarmhouse.weebly.com
http://therakiasite.com
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