Project development - Balkan food - the gastronomical crossroads of Eastern Europe

Choosing food photography and integrating it into my project meant that I will be photographing something different from spaghetti and French fries. The good news was that the Balkans are maybe one of the richest places in terms of local cuisine. 

Throughout the centuries, cuisine was layered on the Balkans. First the Romans, then the barbarian tribes during the Great movement of peoples, then the crusaders, then the Ottoman turks. Combining this with the versatile climate on the Balkans - having a lot of sea and wide rivers providing for sea food and fish, mountains which can supply people with game and fresh meat (if they raise cattle), plains that would yield vegetables, fruit and grains and a lot of spices that naturally grow in the area, i can proudly say that the Balkans are one of the best places to have a treat. 

Mixing of the Mediterranean diet of the southern Balkan states and that of the ones further inland with the nomadic cuisine of the Ottoman turks led to a unique mix of flavours that cannot be tasted anywhere else. 

Co-existence for centuries led to another particularity - that most Balkan countires have similar recipes. Here is a quick example: 

The Bulgarian 'Shopska salata' which is a simple salad made out of cucumbers, tomatoes, white cheese, onion and peppers is not actually Bulgarian (here is a pic in case you don't remember how that looks like):

The recipe was invented in the mid 20th century when the national tourist operator, Balkanturist, had to come up with something with the coulours of the Bulgarian national flag and to make it easy to consume and remember. A quick research I had to do for my Cultural Studies BA showed that Shopska salata derives from two other Balkan salads - the Serbian salad and the Greek horiatiki that have the same ingredients. 

The recipe became so popular that some years ago it wa declared the most popular recipe in Europe. Still, even though it is famous as a Bulgarian dish, the recipe is much older and should rightly be deemed 'Balkan'. 

Same goes for other 'traditional Bulgarian dishes' such as the famous banitsa (another Bulgarian favourite): 

It is a traditional dish made of eggs and cheese wrapped in filo pastry. However, this thing has direct relatives in all Balkan countires - the Greek pita and the börek varieties that exists all over the Balkans are the most famous among them. The pic above shows a traditional Bulgarian breakfast on a Sunday morning - banitsa and ayran (another favorite basically yogurt, water and salt). 

So, speaking of recipes, I would rather go for Balkan recipes, not Bulgarian, since it takes a whole research to trace back the origin of each recipe. Still, there are a lot of tasty treats available so I had a wide variety to choose from.