On the night before I left Sofia, my friends Vassy and Lubo kindly invited me to their apartment for a home-cooked Bulgarian meal with four of their own friends. It was also a chance to see Toncho (short for Mark Antony, the Roman politician, and don’t ask me why), an 18-year-old Siamese cat who is famous for eating anything. His favorite food, though, is cucumber, and I was eager to him eat the stuff.
This, then, counts as the final documentation of my Bulgarian noms.
First, Toncho. Here he is with Lubo and then me. Doesn’t he look good for an 18-year-old cat? He’s very spry and friendly, and shows no obvious signs of decrepitude.
Toncho has his own wooden comb engraved with the initials of his full name. He likes to be combed on the cheeks and pate, but also enjoys having his ears massaged and gums rubbed with your hands:
As Vassi prepared salad for dinner (she’s the cook in the family; Lubo can cook only one thing: pancakes), Toncho stood around hoping for a bite of lettuce or other vegetables:
Here are photos of Toncho eating a cucumber, which was bought especially for the occasion. But be sure to see the video below, as he emitted unearthly howls while waiting for the vegetable:
Man, does that cat love his cukes!:
And the video I made, showing the cat howling for and then nomming cucumbers. Listen to the noise he makes!
As for our own dinner, it was delicious and copious (qualities of most Bulgarian food). Lubo and I first went to the local liquor store to buy wine for dinner, and we also got, on the advice of a reader, some apricot rakia, which was very good. Here’s the store’s selection of rakias, which are liquors distilled from various fruit (usually grapes). Apricot rakia is on the bottom shelf, fourth from the left.
For dinner, we started with an appetizer of prosciutto wrapped around a Camembert-like cheese, which was great, accompanied by a nice salad:
Vassy then offered up a huge plate of the Bulgarian speciality banitsa (a filo-like dough filled with Bulgarian white cheese), made according to her mother’s recipe. Doesn’t that look good? It was.
The main course was stuffed zucchinis, peppers, and tomatoes (I had the latter two as I cannot abide zucchini [and anyone who reproves me for that will be BANNED]). The filling was minced meat and rice. Delicious, and the leisure fascists will be pleased that it is also healthy. All this was washed down with rakia, beer, and a fine malbec.
Dessert consisted of chocolate “Ebola cupcakes” (the sprinkles are supposed to represent viruses, I think) made by two of the guests:
For postprandial entertainment, Vassi helped Toncho play air guitar (and air drums), and I made a video:
Many thanks to Lubo, Vassy, and the many Bulgarian friends I made on my short visit. I had a great time and recommend the country to those looking for a special European vacation, and the Ratio meetings to those scientists who want to popularize their craft in a country whose people are hungry for science.
Mark Antony wasn’t a Roman emperor.
Thank you for your brusque comment. I’ve corrected this.
“I cannot abide zucchini [and anyone who reproves me for that will be BANNED]”
I would never presume to reprove you for any matters of taste, but wonder if you have ever tried it grilled or dry-roasted? Zucchini sliced length-wise and grilled is a cat of an entirely different color.
I also like zucchini in any form. Cooked and sprinkled with Parmesan? Mmm-mm. But I am the only one in my family who does. So I am zucchini-less.
Yup – parmesn, a little butter, and onions. Yum.
🍠 Best I could find!
Eggplant, perhaps, which I like even better!
Curious. Those are generally despised as well. How do you feel about… Brazil nuts?
I like all those things – are brazil nuts considered yucky too?
Love Brazil nuts! You?
The nuts are widely considered awful, according to every opinion around me. But I like them.
“Any form” might be going too far. The simplest way of cooking zucchini — slicing it into thin rounds and microwaving it — turns it to tasteless mush.
Zucchini and other summer squash really want dry heat — e.g. grilling, roasting, or sauteing — to drive off moisture and concentrate the sugars.
I have always maintained that vegetables taste better in French. Who wouldn’t prefer courgette to zucchini? Not to mention aubergine to eggplant.
There are dialects of English (including I think in England) where “aubergine” is also used.
I think the Brits say both aubergine and courgette.
I like Jerry’s turn of phrase here. You really understand his revulsion. If he can’t abide it, then I don’t think he’s going to like it no matter what. 😀
Like the old joke:
“Good thing I hate zucchini! Because if I liked it, I’d eat it, and I hate it!”
(Which I’ve always loved for its beautiful logic, which almost reaches the level of Sophisticated Theology (TM).)
Sounds Marxist.
Grouchy Marxist, not Economic Marxist.
Karl always did seem a bit grumpy to me, though.
b&
Or indignant (with good reason – the working conditions in English factories at the time were appalling).
Jerry oughta’ve learned by now that if he brings up a food he detests he’s gonna get a ton of recipes from readers:-)
Strangely enough, the people next to me at a pseudo-burrito restaurant at Denver Airport are discussing their dislike of squash as we speak!
Grilled zucchini is good. There’s something about it that adds a sweetness to paella that I haven’t found with other veggies.
Stir fried zucchini (or cucumbers) are good with shrimps, garlic and ginger w/ a tiny splash of lite soy sauce and sessame oil. I find they’re like tofu — tastes good with other stuff; takes on the flavour of other stuff.
And grilled asparagus w fresh rosemary and a little olive oil is to die for.
Kinda hard to screw up asparagus, though.
b&
Yup- one of the three heavenly As: asparagus, artichoke, avocado.
I’ve got the first two in the ‘fridge right now. I would have gotten an avocado or two at the same time, but they didn’t look too good.
b&
I haven’t had great luck with avocados in the last month or so. Usually the Costco bagfuls are very dependable, but not the last two batches. Maybe something to do with the Calif drought.
Could be. And, if so, it could be the tip of the iceberg…if California doesn’t recover from the drought, we could very easily see national food shortages, and not just of luxury items like avocados….
b&
Depressing thought
I like zucchini but wouldn’t reproved anyone for not liking it. To each their own: I detest apple pie and celery and would need a gun held to my head to make me eat them.
Well no one likes apple pie with celery. Yuck! 😉
Apple-celery pie isn’t out of the question. Rhubarb is, after all, a kind of celery (broadly construed).
Really broadly construed.
Celery, broadly construed.
LOL!
If “broadly construed” encompasses 120,000,000 years of evolutionary divergence, sure!
b&
Ha ha ha ha ha.
I originally wrote “celery and apple pie” but reversed it so pie was after apple and before celery just to avoid this sort of joke. 🙂
I never used to be a fan of zucchini, mushy and tasteless but in its enlarged form as vegetable marrow (diameter 4 inches) grilled on the barbeque along with the steak I find I enjoy it very much.
Jerry, you don’t say why you dislike zucchini, is it the taste or the texture? The ability to taste bitter things is extremely variable and I know many people who loathe things, that others find tasteless or love, because they can taste flavours the rest of us can’t. My son says peas are so bitter they ruin an entire dish, and my brother says the same thing about cucumber.
I too dislike peas. I find their taste strong and they overpower a dish unless they are in a samosa or something. I’ve had dogs that also dislike peas & would pick them out of food.
I find that older zukes can get quite bitter.
Zucchini flowers in tempura is probably the nicest way, but I’ve often used the fruit as the predominant ‘green’ in Thai green curry.
An absolutely delightful post. Love you like the brother I haven’t got. You tell the most amazing stories.
Sub
Love the cat! And, yes, he looks very healthy and sprightly for eighteen years old.
And the banitsa looks great.
Wow, I would have thought that Toncho was a good few years younger than 18, maybe 10 or 12. Very alert and clear-eyed for an oldster. It must be all of the cucumber and air-guitar!
Good looking noms too. 🙂
* maybe aged 10 or 12. Oops.
Our beloved family cat, Chin-chin, was bonkers for cantaloupe. Just hearing one being sliced open would send her running upstairs, crying for a snack. So we would feed her the seedy pulp. That stopped when we discovered a few dozen baby cantaloups growing in our lawn….
We also had a cat that was bonkers for cantaloupe. I had thought he was unique in that, but perhaps it is more common than I thought.
Our current aristocat has an inordinate fondness for Cheerios (plain only, please). She will open the pantry door, find a box of cheerios, drag it out into the open, tear it open, and nom her some Cheerios. Leaving the mess for us servitors to deal with, of course.
I have no plans for zucchini in my garden. It’s not so terrible in a succotash, but the damned plants are so prolific that a single one would produce a ten-year supply for me — and then the neighbors would hate me as I tried to foist the surplus off on them.
I do have to wonder, though. Zucchini and cucumbers are pretty closely related. Has Toncho tried zucchini?
b&
Give your neighbors this and they will love you (if that’s what you want):
Zucchini Bread
3 Eggs – Beat until fluffy
Add & Mix:
1 Cup oil
2 Cups of sugar
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
2 Cups grated Zucchini (w/ skin)
Sift & Add
2 Teaspoons of baking powder
1 Teaspoon of salt
3 Cups of flour
3 Teaspoons of cinnamon
1 Teaspoon of baking soda
Add: 1 Cup nuts optional
2 – 9 x 5 Loaf Pans @ 350° 45 – 60 minutes
or
1 – 9 x 5 Loaf Pan and the rest as muffins @ 350° test middle muffin ~ 25 minutes
We had harvests that required freezing the gratings and/or the baked bread if it wasn’t given away.
Thanks for the recipe, but zucchini bread has never done anything special for me. Pleasant enough, not something I’d turn down, but not something I’d go out of my way to make, either.
…but, on the subject of cucurbits…I will be planting kabocha squash, which truly is something special. It’s the size of a cantaloupe. It has a smooth skin with alternating dark and light green stripes top to bottom. It has a firm orange flesh and is the ideal substitute for pumpkin. The Japanese go crazy for it in tempura and for excellent reason, but you’ll never make a pie with pumpkin again after you’ve made one with kabocha. Or, roast it like you would a pumpkin or butternut squash.
b&
Chocolate zucchini cake is remarkably good. Doesn’t taste like zukes at all and is very moist.
Chocolate anything is remarkably good. But, even so, why adulterate perfectly good chocolate with zucchini?
However…thinking back to that other post of mine about kabocha…a kabocha pie would be very good with some quality melted chocolate lacily drizzled on top….
b&
I have chocolate zucchini recipies as well, but not as good as the bread recipe above…note the 2 cups of sugar…it is a pleasant meal for breakfast, lunch or after dinner desert.
Mmmm mmmm good!
Cucumbers are the same. We once buried ourselves in cucumbers from a garden we built in New Mexico years ago. We made every kind of pickle we ever heard of, and some I never had. We had cases stashed everywhere, and forced them on anyone who came near. Poor neighbors. There were some mighty fine pickles though.
Hmmm…I am rather fond of dill pickles. Too many pickles would be a problem I could probably put up with for a season or three.
b&
I had a good friend in college who was sort of a guerilla gardener. She would grow way more zucchs than she could eat, and after all of her friends were saturated with the things she would leave grocery bags of ’em in unlocked parked cars.
Oh, man…that’s almost as evil as leaving banjoes and violas in unlocked cars!
b&
Toncho eats most vegetables to be honest – the stuff he doesn’t like are citrus fruits, because of the bitter taste or squirting bit, I guess.
Zucchini he doesn’t like much raw (eats a few then stops – not the case with cucumber), but he mistakes them for cucumbers and goes nuts too.
Toncho likes Red Hot Chili Peppers too, there are a lot of vegetables going on here!
🙂
Seems like the only fair solution is to always have a cucumber handy when preparing zucchini…or, better still, ditch the zucchini and stick with cucumber….
b&
Maybe Baihu would like some.
Not bloody likely! And he’d likely extract his due pound of flesh from me personally if I dared insult him so….
b&
I adore the flowers on young summer squash, dipping them in batter and then frying them, though I usually put the vegetable on the compost pile. Summer squash fritters are OK, especially if the squash is salted & drained well and very favorable ingredients are added like Parmesan, hot pepper flakes, etc.
That banitsa ROCKS as does Toncho.
I had an SPCA cat, Oswald, that looked like Toncho – he was supposedly a Burmese, with the coat of a siamese but the body habitus of an ordinary cat. He was an absolute pig and weighed 18lb when we adopted him. He’s long gone to the happy hunting grounds, and now we have two scrawny, slinky siamese inherited from my mother (also in the HHG). Completely different creatures to Oswald, and possibly misclassified as cats, at least behaviorally.
Lovely stuff. Nice people! Toncho does look amazingly good.
I’m totally with you sir: I don’t like zucchini. I can eat it but never savor it. Don;t care for the look of it, the taste, or the texture.
I love zucchini but hate cukes.
“There’s no accounting for…”
I can’t stand zucchini or most other squash. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover Mexican gray squash (looks like a short, fat, light green zucchini). It is not eaten raw, but is excellent in soups or calabacitas (squash sautéed with fresh corn and green chiles).
Toncho is lovely.
I put up with zucchini under protest most of the time, but if it’s blackened on a bbq or in a pan it’s ok…
Toncho has identical colouring to my Siamese KoKo but he doesn’t like cucumbers but goes nuts for prawns.
He San be asleep at the back of the house but as soon as I open a package of prawns I turn around and there he is.
A coworker moved to a small town in Maine years ago and wrote back about a crime wave there, where people were urged to lock the doors of their cars. Otherwise, they wound up with bags of zucchini in the back seat.
Interesting to read food, travel and cat stories rolled into the one post. 🙂
I have to agree with you. I’ve grown and eaten so much zucchini since my childhood that I have banned it from the limits of my farm.
This must be the annual “We all hate zucchini, but let’s hug anyway” club meeting, I think. So it may come to you as a shock that I love zucchini, and I guess many of the club members haven’t tried decent one yet. Try Italy.
What a beautiful noise he makes! Takes me back to childhood when we had chocolate point, seal point and lilac point siamese cats (named Tamsin, Pia and Alfie), all baying for crisps (US chips).
I need to get a kitten……
….and another kitten.
Almost impossible to avoid “that kind of joke” on this site, David:-)
I’m not keen on courgette. The reason being that when cooked it seems to have a taste of fish (I like fish, but not when it looks like a squishy vegetable).
The answer is to either :-
Fry it in very hot olive oil with LOTS of pepper and then serve with balsamic vineger.
or ..
Soak it in olive oil and bake it in a very hot oven with lots of pepper.
Then it’s OK.
I still much prefer deep-fried aubergine though …
Toncho, by the way, is NOT a Siamese cat! He is clearly a Tonkinese and of the Natural Mink variety.
Siamese cats have more slender bodies and are more angular in the face – notwithstanding Toncho’s advanced age – and they do not come in the natural shade nor the mink pattern. Tonks were originally cross bred from Siamese and Burmese, but have been their own recognized breed since the 50s.
Sorry for being uppity. I’m a long time Tonk fan and felt that you were doing good ol’ Tonch a disservice. 🙂
Bob Larys
Portsmouth, VA
I’ve honestly never heard of that breed, though I’ve had him for 18 years 🙂 Does sound likely.
He used to be a quite slimmer like 5+ years ago though (newsflash: he really likes food).