The Wonderfulosity of Cheese, Part 7: Bulgarian rhapsody

Today we embark in a new direction for our exploration of the world of tasty cheese.  Yes, we are talking about sour crumbly cheeses, of which there is but one
widely known type: feta.  But not just any feta: Bulgarian feta.

(This was actually intended for a couple of days ago, but I was having technical problems.)

I was alerted to the existence of Bulgarian feta cheese in a conversation with someone hailing from some obscure Eastern European principality.  I think it was called Bulg...ravia?  ...oria?  Can't remember the name of the country.  (Just kidding, M. P.)  Anyway, when I mentioned my love of cheese, we got down to discussion of eastern cheeses, and I mentioned Greek feta.  Now, up to this point, I had been conditioned to believe, perhaps by Greek propaganda, that the only correct feta was Greek feta, and the rest were inauthentic imitations of it.  After all, the European Union itself denies the existence of non-Greek feta.

Not so, apparently.  My friend waxed eloquent (just like one waxes cheese!) about the superior merits of Bulgarian cheese over its Greek equivalent.  And I resolved to see this for myself.  Alas, the only way to get Bulgarian cheese was to order it over the Internet.

Not so, again!  For I was shopping the other day at a local halal grocer, and I came upon imported Bulgarian cheese in one of the fridge cabinets.  Naturally, I immediately purchased a block of it (which is quite a bit). 

But now for the part you've all been waiting for: the taste.  It is quite unexpected.  I was used to Greek(-style) fetas, as I said.  And yes siree, this was QUITE a bit stronger, to say the least.  More sour and sharp, with a slight aftertaste of...bitterness, maybe.  Just a hint.  And in terms of texture, smoother, but still crumbly.  My friend from the mysterious "B" country claims that his people find foreign fetas to be surprisingly bland, comparatively.

It took a bit of getting used to.  But now I'm used to it, and I even think it's quite good.  With stronger cheeses, see, you often get more bang for your buck, and this was actually quite affordable in the first place, at least compared to a lot of the aged hard imported cheeses.

Anyway, I tried it on pizza and it worked well.  And I tried it in a salad.  Pretty good too.  Under the fold, I give a recipe for a very simple salad.  Quick and easy!

Ingredients:

Some lettuce (red or green leaf preferred)
Some Bulgarian feta cheese, crumbled
Some spicy beef soujouk sausage, sliced and quartered
Minced garlic to taste
Oil, olive or canola
Vinegar (I use Asian rice vinegar)
Some croutons

Note that I don't give quantities.  That's because I rarely ever measure anything.  It's all "to taste."  The instructions are: shred the lettuce into as small pieces as you like, and mix everything together.  It's surprisingly tasty, if you manage to get the quantities right.  But that's totally your job.  You can add sliced olives if you like---I did, and it was pretty tasty.

Comments

[Nate]

hi Mandos,
I really love your cheese posts. I need to read them over again though, as I've decided recently that I want to get to know cheese better and have opinions and stuff (after this, wines...). Do you have any advice on how to get to know cheese generally? Since I'm overly bookish, anything you'd recommend I read on the subject? I just bought my first decent hunk of parmesan this week, and some really, really expensive pear mustard to go with it. Worth every penny, though, cuz it's so good. I also got two other cheeses whose names escape. One's unopened still, the other's a really nice variety of ... gouda maybe? It goes great with apples.
take care,
Nate

[Mandos]

Actually, I have no book-learnin' on this matter of cheese. I just go to the supermarket, pick one out that looks and feel interesting, and eat it in various contexts (over pasta, toasted, grilled, on crackers, microwaves, plain, etc, etc).

Sometimes I google up the origin and nature of a cheese I didn't buy that piqued my curiosity---and then buy it later. On occasion, a meal at a restaurant inspires me to find out about its cheese components.

In general, I find that while cheap generic cheese is not always bad (in the case of Swiss cheese, often quite good around here), sometimes more expensive cheese can be quite cost-effective. Less of it goes a longer way, often.