A Culinary Guidebook to the Eastern Rhodopes

Do you happen to know what gyuzlemi are? Have you ever tasted a rabbit banitsa or a pumpkin stuffed with rabbit meat? Have you ever eaten chicken with katmi or krukmach? Have you heart about a Rhodopean zelnik? Or about a maslenitsa?

Information and the recipes about these dishes you can find in the published in June 2012 Culinary Guidebook to the Eastern Rhodopes.

The Culinary Guidebook offers 28 recipes and typical and popular local dishes from the region of the Eastern Rhodopes.  The book provides also information about the food products and organic farms where the ingredients can be bought. A list of  places (B&B's, hotels, restaurants) where the dishes are offered to the guests is also included in the book.

The book is a result of several years of hard work by the coordinator on organic farming of the NTG Vladislav Popov in cooperation with his colleagues in the project.

The official launching of the book was during the Cooking Days with organic and local agricultural produce from the Eastern Rhodopes on 7, 8 and 9 June in Sofia and in the village of Gorno Pole, Madzharovo Municipality organized by the Dutch-Bulgarian project New Thracian Gold (NTG).  During this first ever in Bulgaria culinary event the Dutch chef Eric van Veluwen, his colleagues from the Soul Kitchen restaurant in Sofia and Betty Vassilieva from the Wild Farm in the village of Gorno Pole cooked healthy dishes prepared with organic and Eastern Rhodopean products.

More and more producers in the Eastern Rhodopes open their farms to visitors who can taste and buy fresh organic fruits and vegetables. In 2009, the New Thracian Gold project began with seven certified producers. There are currently over 37 producers who are certified or are in transition and three processors, controlled by certification bodies.

You can buy the NTG Culinary Guidebook in the office of the project in Kardzhali (47, Bulgaria Blvrd.) and in several guest houses in the Eastern Rhodopes:  The Wild Farm in Gorno Pole, Tepavitsata in Rabovo, the guest house of Dimo Karaboyukov in Popovets and hotel Armira in Ivaylovgrad.