First festival of the rural cuisine “The Flavors of yesterday”
On August 29, 2014. at the main square in Sekirovo residential district, Rakovski town, Bulgaria, held the first festival of the rural kitchen ” The Flavours of yesterday”, organized by the non-profit organization “Local Action Group – Rakovski”.
The festival is part of the ”The Flavours of yesterday – Valorisation of culinary heritage“ project, funded under measure 421 “Interterritorial and transnational cooperation”,Axis 4 – Leader under the Rural Development Program 2007 – 2013. The lead partner in the project is the LAG Rakovski and partner – Austrian “Elsbeere Wienerwald” LAG, whose members were official guests of the festival. The delegation consisted of 13 people – the LAG team, mayors and local leaders from the territory of the Austrian LAGs, including 11 municipalities with a population of 30,000 people. They prepared the traditional cabbage strudel with breckina fruit.
The Festival of rural cuisine “The Flavours of yesterday” is a showcase for the presentation of the process used to recover the traditions and gastronomic features of Rakovski Municipality, where the largest contribution to the preservation of culinary traditions comes from the adult population (women over 55 years), which have the knowledge of the ancient local recipes.
The delicious dishes with pre-cooked local specialties were presented in 20 tents, so that all attendees to see and taste. Among them were both traditional Bulgarian dishes, such as stuffed peppers, beans with leek, sweet pie (banitsa), pumpkin pie (tikvenik), etc., and unique local recipes like stew with chickpeas, “nadutichki”, salad pie, “gizik”, “bazlami”, “goushi”, “tava chorba” soup, Momino selo cheese cake, “maslenitsa” and many others.
One of the attractions of the festival was the heroic pan made of 78 kg. special stainless steel with a diameter of 150 cm and a height of 20 cm, with the help of which were attacked Guinness years ago. It was enough to be prepared and distributed 450 portions of kebab traditional Bulgarian dish with chicken and vegetables. There were housewives who were preparing pancakes on live for all who chose to attend the traditional rural cuisine festival.
The visitors to the festival were able to immerse themselves in the depths of culinary delights with the help also of local dance and singing groups.
Festival “The Flavours of yesterday” was attended also by manufacturers in the region that showed various food products.
In 2015 a network of producers and restaurateurs will be started – a local network and transnational network, supported by a quality regulation (code), which will jointly discover and preserve knowledge, traditions and skills related to food as a valuable element of historical and cultural heritage of the entire territory of Rakovski Municipality.
