Traditional Bulgarian cuisine

and its place in Art and Literature

Bulgaria has been an agronomical country almost throughout its entire history.

As a result of that, a big part of Bulgarian culture is connected to growing crops and livestock production.

The main culture of which bread was made was

wheat. Bulgarian painters and authors are representing that in their

works.

One of the greatest Bulgarian painters is Vladimir Dimitrov the

master. In 1935 he drew his amazing painting

“Harvesters”.

“Harvesters” by Vladimir Dimitrov the master

Ivan Angelov is another painter

in whose artworks we can find the motive of a

hard-working Bulgarian

woman.

The woman was not only a helper on the field, but a tutor. She was habituating her

children to love and respect the bread, as it was a synonym of survival.

From a very early age children were raised with myths and legends, stories and folk tales. Bread is a commonly used topic in them too.

One of the favorite tales of Bulgarian children is the Honey Pita.

Although this fairytale is written in a naïve way, there is no Bulgarian child (and not only a child) who doesn’t know the song: “I’m the sweetest pita, I’m the cutest pita…”

Another famous Bulgarian character is called “Clever Peter”.

Sava Popov is the author of the stories about him – stories in which the poor servant always manages to make a good meal thanks to his creativity and sharpness.

Aleko Konstantinov is popular with his stories about Bay Ganyo. In this work is satirized every negative sight of Bulgarian character. Self-irony and honesty are what make this book and movie so realistic.

“We Bulgarians don’t sit on the table without something spicy”

» Bay Ganyo

But we also like to finish with something sweet…

Elin Pelin’s story “The roast pumpkin” identifies very well the taste of Bulgarians: simple, but real. The character of this story is tortured by the dilemma whether to confess that he loves pumpkin, which at that time was thought to be a loudly meal or to keep his good name in front of his boss.

Regardless of social status, hospitality is a very important characteristic of Bulgarians.

When there is a guest in the house everything should be prepared for them. We can see that represented in the last scenes of the movie “Villa zone”.

The End

Prepared by Iva Aleksieva XI “b”