Ah sirene ,this brine white Bulgarian cheese with its saltiness makes for a great couple with a tomato on a summer day .I'd say that I can tell if a certain tomato will taste ripe and red if it smells a certain way : similar to an artificial hot pepper chips flavor ,just like the one sold in Jordan ....
I remember thinking as a child that if there is any meal I would rather eat for the rest of my life it would be that of tomatoes and cheese .I must have been infatuated . I would come up with scenarios in which that would be absolutely necessary ...a task of an introverted child with an imagination running wild . In fact the first words I learnt in Arabic were bandoura (بندورة ) and Hubz (خبز) - tomatoes and bread .
Back then I had little knowledge of my middle eastern partial origin . Who knew that in the years that followed I would be discovering a whole different culture from that I grew up in Bulgaria ...
However that is a a non Shopska related tale. More to do with other salads ...
One summer visiting grandma's ,my brother and I ,went with some distant relative kids (two sibling and their cousin ) to a charming neighboring village to fish . One of our friends had a cup filled with freshly picked ,live worms for bate -I wasn't grossed up much .
I often fancied myself as a tomboy :excelling at physical skills ,thinking I would be great at using a hook -it wasn't so . Nevertheless my little brother was pretty quick to out fish us all ,I was proud ,he soon filled up his bucket .Since we were not to consume the creature ,we threw them mercifully back in the water . For lunch we went to their village house ,their mom had made small diced Shopska salad with traditional bean stew - it was a warm summer day - the table was set in the garden under the grape vines .As we were filling our tummies I thought what a wonderful thing it was we tried something completely new and how delicious is the previously mentioned combination ...
A Greek salad would be one just like Shopska but with Greek cheese and frankly said not as delicious ,or at least I think so ,from this one time I had one . What makes a fabulous Shopska ,though, is the sirene and the onions ...
The first time I went to a spa was last October ,I know I haven't lived enough,for not trying the marvels of the sanus per aquam earlier ...aside from the striking wonder of hot stone chairs being amazingly relaxing ,I had the epiphany that onions are a key ingredient in the a good Shopska.
The spa was at a crisp air mountain area with a view of a lake , near Sofia ,I enjoyed a walk aside the lake evening when I was mostly busy taking pictures and early morning when I shivered while watching the fog over the lake sweep away ....
The trip on the way back to hometown was of a bigger interest ,aside from a war time monument we saw ,there were the onions...piriform purple tunic glorious onions ,twenty of them braided together by their dried tip stems ,sold on the side of the road ...I tell you H there are no such delicious onions I have ever tasted...at home they lasted only few weeks ,before I was pining for more .
Possibly on our next meeting H ,we'll have some Shopska for lunch ,followed by our long anticipated tea party.
R
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