Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Bulgaria is a small Balkan country that gets little attention. On a visit in 1990, however, Linda Joyce Forristal fell in love with both the country and its food. In Bulgarian Rhapsody, she painstakingly presents Bulgarian cooking, placing emphasis on many of its full-flavored and colorful vegetarian dishes, though popular meat dishes are included as well. The Bulgarian kitchen is heavily influenced by Mediterranean cooking, not a surprise since the neighboring Turks occupied it for 500 years. Greece is also a neighbor, along with Romania and Yugoslavia. Bulgarians favor the slow cooking of stews and soups. They use fresh vegetables, particularly tomatoes, sweet red peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and potatoes. Stuffed grape leaves, phyllo pies, and mousaka--the Bulgarian spelling--will be familiar. Forristal offers a meatless mousaka made with zucchini and several kinds of plakiya, stews that are vibrant with tomatoes and onions, similar to dishes you find in Greek restaurants. The gyuveches are baked stews that resemble their Romanian counterparts. The typical meatless one made with string beans, tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, red and green bell peppers, and zucchini, resembles a ratatouille. The one made with sausages and red peppers is much simpler. If you enjoy discovering new dishes, tutmanik, a quickbread made with cheese, and Baked Peppers Stuffed with White Beans are alluring. The potato salad seasoned with oregano and paprika is also different from the usual. Do ignore one technique Forristal uses: peeling roasted peppers under running water washes away much of their flavor. Better to leave a few charred specks of skin than to do this. --Dana Jacobi
Customer Reviews:
Review #1: Very impressive!
2009-05-16 
I am Bulgarian and my wife is American. This book did wonders in bridging the gap between the cultures. Linda has managed to capture the spirit of my culture and express it through food, stories and traditions. My wife has cooked Bulgarian meals using this book and I swear some of them could put my parent's and grandparent's cooking to shame!
Very authentic, highly recommended for anyone who is interested in Bulgarian culture/cuisine and/or wants to introduce it to a loved one/friend.
Review #2: Nice recipies
2008-11-24 
Covers a lot of famous Balkan recipies. However I found a few really strange dishes that do not really fall under traditional Bulgarian food, such as 'Meat and Eggplant pie' or 'Golden Milk pie'. I lived in Bulgaria for 10 years and have never even heard of such dishes. But overall this book includes some very yammy recipes and I would recomend it to anyone who loves food.
Review #3: Excellent book
2008-10-09
This is a great cookbook with detailed descrptions of the most popular Bulgarian dishes and all the needed US ingredient substitutions.
Review #4: Bulgarian Rhapsody
2008-03-18
We loved the color pictures of the food, people and places included in this wonderful cookbook. We also enjoyed the history and folklore mingled in between the recipes. AWESOME!
Review #5: Delicious Food
2008-01-15
I am of Bulgarian descent, so this review happens to be slightly biased, however, I find this book to be fantastic! It is full of easy to follow recipies and photographs of nearly all the dishes. If you love to cook and enjoy trying new foods, this is the book for you! |
Home
