Bulgarian Rhapsody : The Best of Balkan Cuisine

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

The book benefits very much from the rich and tastefully chosen illustrations and design. The reader will find in it fine color pictures of Bulgarian dishes, embroidery, national costumes, dances, architectural monuments.

Valuable additions to the book are Bulgarian proverbs, explanations of cooking techniques and customs which are inserted in appropriate places. Special place is devoted to such unique Bulgarian holidays as March 1st (day of the "Marteniza") and May 24 (the day of the Bulgarian culture). List of UNESCO supported historical and architectural monuments in Bulgaria could be found at the end of the book.

Linda Forristal's love to Bulgaria, its culture and people helped her create a unique book. It is much more than a cookbook: it is a book for Bulgarian style of life. I would rank it as one of the best books about Bulgaria and its cuisine published in recent years.


I re-discovered my own culture!   December 11, 1999
Petia Kostadinova (Tallahassee, Florida)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

I am extremely pleased to own a copy of Bulgarian Rhapsody. This is a wonderful book, that offers an in-depth perspective of many aspects of Bulgarian culture. Among the most valuable things about this book is the way it integrates delicious recipes and stories about Bulgaria. This is more than simply a cookbook and is a must-have for anyone even remotely interested in this small Balkan country. I promise you that after reading Ms. Forristal's book, you will fall in love with Bulgaria. This book helped me, a native Bulgarian, to rediscover certain aspects of my own culture! Thank you, Mother Linda!


Highly recommended for anyone interested in Balkan cuisines   March 25, 1999
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

This entertaining and informative cookbook is an excellent introduction to a cuisine that few Americans are familiar with. Forristal not only introduces the reader to the foods of Bulgaria, but also to the history, geography, people, and culture of this Eastern European country. If you like Greek or Turkish food, you'll also like the dishes featured in this cookbook. Forristal's selection of more than 100 recipes reflects her own preference for light, healthy--yet authentic--Bulgarian dishes that can be prepared easily in American kitchens. The emphasis is on vegetarian foods, but there are also several recipes for dishes made with meats. Separate chapters focus on traditional Bulgarian breads and desserts. The author tells you how to make your own phyllo dough for flaky pastries, how to make pita bread in the shape of a sunflower, and how to make a pudding that, according to legend, contains all the foods left on Noah's ark when it landed on Mt. Ararat. Another section on "Ceremonies and Celebrations" provides menus and recipes for a Bulgarian Christmas Eve dinner, a Bulgarian Jewish dinner, a traditional barbecue, and even a low-fat feast. Printed on high-quality paper, this cookbook contains many color photographs illustrating the recipes. Throughout the book you'll find Bulgarian proverbs, tips from Bulgarian cooks, short folk tales, and descriptions of Bulgarian customs and holidays. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Balkan cuisines in particular, international foods in general, or just healthy, tasty, home-style dishes that can be easily prepared from readily available ingredients.


I feel like I know the Bulgarian people!   September 6, 2000
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Until very recently I knew very little about the people of Bulgaria. Thus, I cannot draw on past experience or knowledge of Bulgaria in reviewing this book. However, after reading, and using, "Bulgarian Rhapsody: The Best of Balkan Cuisine", I feel better prepared to meet and understand the people of Bulgaria. This Autumn, I will have that opportunity, along with a mission team of 35 people.

In order to make our entire church feel a part of our "mission", the team sponsored a Bulgarian dinner. Seeing as no one had either been to Bulgaria nor ever sampled Bulgarian cuisine prior to this endeavor, we were all a bit nervous. I supplied recipes from Linda J. Forristal's book to about 15 people. Combined, we prepared nearly half of the recipes from the book and had the most incredible "spread" you could imagine!

The recipes are generally simple, and entirely delicious, and most require foods found regularly at most grocery stores (even in a secluded town of 17,000). We were pleasantly surprised that our mid-western USA tastebuds rejoiced so fully in these "new" foods. We all agreed that although we each had our favorites, there was nothing we didn't enjoy!

It is important to note that the author herself acknowledges a lack of use of certain widespread Bulgarian ingredients, in the recipes she has adapted. Food stuffs such as organs and even lamb, are not to be found in this book. For me, that is fine. For complete authenticity, however, those ommissions must be noted.

I understand that duplicating Bulgarian recipes is not an easy task, but according to a young woman I recently met, this book comes pretty darn close! This woman has recently returned from 6 years in Bulgaria. She told me that she, too, had this book, "Bulgarian Rhapsody..." and that she cried when she first saw the recipes for foods she had fallen "in love" with!

The recipes, as well as the sprinkling of folklore, culture, and history, make this book a definite countertop mainstay in my kitchen!


I'm in moussaka heaven!   September 15, 2001
Blah (New York, New York)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

This book has five very different but equally delicious recipes for moussaka (the best bulgarian dish) I lived in Bulgaria for a while but I lost my recipe for moussaka and was constantly kicking myself for not getting more recipes for Bulgarian dishes, but this book fills the void wonderfully. Not only does it have basically everything from moussaka to the best recipe for tarator I've seen but the recipes are also very easy to follow so even if you lack culinary talent(like me) you can still have fun and make great food with this wonderful book.

The book also contains a little bit about Bulgarian holidays and tourist attractions for those of you who don't know anything about the country.