Armchair Dining on DP

Wow, I have never had a pastry with pumpkin and peanuts! Sounds fantastic!

One of my mother's favorite desserts was rice pudding with a little cinnamon sprinkled on top. I suspect that it is similar, though not exactly the same as yours looks to be a bit more "milky" than "pudding-like." I am going to Google "Bulgarian Markets" in New England tonight and see what comes up. I wouldn't be surprised to find one around Boston.

 

I highly doubt that you will find anything. Bulgarian food isn't spread across the globe. Which is sad because our cuisine is one of the most delicious on the Earth and yet, it is still less known than the Italian for example. I don't like pastа that much. Yes, we do have here too but I don't like how italians cook it. No offence anyone, please.

 

Just took a quick look and there is Six Stars Market, which is in Woburn, MA which is probably a 1.5 hour ride from where I live. They say that they are the "first" Bulgarian market in Massachusetts. There is also a European Market in Cranston, RI which is about 30 minutes away from me and they claim to have Bulgarian food (among many other countries' as well.) It's a toss up as to which one I will try first as the farther one is more likely to have the more interesting foods, I suspect.

That said, we need to start planning a little more intensely for the DP World Foodie Tour as it is clear that we need to launch it soon so that we can begin sampling all the great food that has been posted on this thread. Since crossing oceans will be involved, does anyone have an extra life jacket or two that we can put in the overhead compartments on the bus?

 

When are you planning on visiting the market in Massachusetts? European cuisine has nothing to do with Bulgarian.

 

Well, timing is tricky as I am dieting right now...a near-constant thing with me, it seems some times. However, I will eschew the place in RI based on your recommendation and focus on the one in MA. Possibly in a few weeks. Thanks!

 

Could you drop a quick line when you visit it? I'm interested in what they offer and if they are really the same as here. Thanks in advance!

 

Will do. I did find a link to a really poor website of theirs:

http://sixstarmarket.com/

Stay tuned....

 

What an awful website, lol. It requires a lot of work. Anyway, I didn't see exactly traditional food. The only thing I saw was Lutenitsa. It's basically tomato souse but with more red peppers, some even add hot peppers, eggplant, carrots and more. Nowadays, the traditional making of Lutenitsa is becoming extinct because it's all machinery-made. It's disgusting. The best Lutenitsa is my grandma's!

 

Yes, it was not a very appealing website, but looks can be deceiving. I will try to make it up there some time and perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised. Some times, these small markets will have some homemade stuff that they include along with the packaged goods.

 

So, I recently got involved with a company and one of its staff is a New Zealander who is going back to visit there tomorrow for a two-week vacation. I asked him what foods he was most looking forward to having while back home and he said:

Pineapple Lumps (a candy that @sarahk mentioned previously)

Pavlova (sic?) (a dessert)

White Bait Patties (a fish dish)

He also mentioned how different the same foods taste here versus there as the U.S. versions are chock full of preservatives while the NZ versions are just fresh food. He said it takes some getting used to going in either direction. Anyway, they sound good, so I thought that I would post it here for comments, etc.

 

I don't have much to add pertaining to the topic. I just dropped by to congratulate you on a very successful thread. It's only a year old but you have already 410 posts with over 55,000 views, well done.

 

Thanks for the kind words @Spoiltdiva. When I created it, I never really thought about it becoming as long of a thread as it has become, but I did hope to learn more about foods around the world. I have to admit that it has been, for me, a personal pleasure to both post up my favorite foods and to learn about other's favorite cuisines. Probably because I love to eat!

Some times, I re-visit the thread (starting anywhere randomly) and get hungry all over again with some of the great posts that DP-ers have put up over time.

 

So true. On my way to Russia, a few years ago, I ate at the McD at Schiphol airport and the burger seemed bigger and tasted better. Then I ate at another McD in my hometown (believe it or not quite a few cities over there have McDonalds now) and the burger tasted even more different. I wouldn't say it tasted better or worse. Just different. Overall, the beef we eat here in the US doesn't have much flavor.

 

Thank goodness that I have just eaten dinner. Otherwise, I would be ravenous, having now seen these three foods. First, the Milk Bottles: are they chewy, chocolatey, or something else in terms of texture? I am thinking that they are a very sweet vanilla flavored confection? They do look like a candy that I would really like.

The Pav also looks great and really sweet, which is a good thing. I would definitely take the chance on turning violent to sample a slice.

But, I have to add that I like seafood and these fritters look intriguing! I love to sample entirely new foods and this looks to be one. But the most fun would be if I had the wife and kids sitting at the table as I sampled them, as they would be horrified by the dish, much like you seem to be. They are always rolling their eyes when Dad tries some new "weird" food.

Back in the 1990's, I was doing a fair amount of business in Europe and went there frequently. I always tried to mostly sample local cuisine, but on longer trips, I also got in the habit of finding a McDonald's and ordering a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. I suppose that the beef, itself, tasted a bit differently in each country, but I did not notice that so much. For me, it was mostly about the grease it was fried in, the mix of condiments on it, etc. That is what I tasted, anyway. Most times, I was surprised at how much they did taste like the sandwich here in the U.S. However, I do recall eating one in the Malmo, Sweden area and it did not have the "right" taste. Too much ketchup, in fact, and it just did not taste the same.

I also understand that there is quite a difference in what McDonalds in Asia serve, by design. I think they offer sushi, etc.

 

LOL, had not thought of that. Of course, I don't think that he is even on his way to NZ yet. That's tomorrow, I suspect. I should see if I could order a bag of the above Milk Shakes and have it out on my desk when he walks back in two weeks from now.

"Lolly scramble?" Is that like an Easter Egg Hunt? Or perhaps a birthday piñata?

 

We have done piñata's a few times over the years. The last time was for my son and I think that it was a Star Wars rocketship of some type. It was pretty rudimentary and not at all "cute." "Ugly" is a much better descriptor. The funny thing with the few that we bought over the years were that they were made so strong that the kids never were able to break them apart with a bat (or anything else for that matter.) Of course, piñatas are only of interest to fairly young kids, so that is part of the issue, as well. In my experience, an adult has to get involved and rip the piñata apart after all the kids have each given it their best 3 or 4 times without success. The candy they put in them here are also bottom of the barrel. Glad we are past that stage.

 

Okay, this one goes way back; so a little history, first. The first Friendly's Restaurant was launched in a small town near where I lived as a kid in western Massachusetts. It was an ice cream/burger shop that quickly expanded around the region. My first memories of it go all the way back to the 1960's as a kid. They kept expanding and, eventually, were acquired by Hershey's (the chocolate company) and taken national. They never did well after that, in my experience, as their service turned horrible and their food offerings were overpriced. However, back in the days of the original ownership, they were a great stop and they had one of my favorite burgers, the Friendly's Big Beef Cheeseburger. It was a great burger with only cheese, mayonnaise and toasted white bread and it looked exactly like this:



It has an absolutely unique taste that I have never seen duplicated. Kind of a combination of burger and grilled cheese sandwich, in fact. One of the best, if not the best, burgers I have had and I have had a lot because burgers are one of my favorite foods. Despite the crazy cost these days, we may have to put a Friendly's stop on the DP Foodie World Tour because they still offer this sandwich on their menu. By the way, they do offer it with lettuce and tomato (Big Beef Cheeseburger Special) but that is heresy and will not be allowed on the Bus.