INTERNATIONAL CULINARY FESTIVAL “BULGARIA WELCOMES THE TASTES OF THE WORLD” BEGAN IN BURGAS

The International Culinary Festival “Bulgaria welcomes the tastes of the world” began in the Bulgarian Black Sea coastal city of Burgas on 14^th of May. Chefs from 8 countries will present the specifics of their cuisines and visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy exotic foods and try unfamiliar drinks. The festival is held in partnership with Bulgaria’s Ministry of Tourism and aims to promote domestic tourism.

Bulgaria’s Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova and ambassadors from 17 countries attended the opening of the event and tasted variety of foods from India, Mexico, Romania, Venezuela, Sweden, Israel, Denmark, Poland and Bulgaria. The diplomats were fascinated by the Bulgarian lyutenitsa (a spicy relish of vegetables including tomatoes. peppers, carrots, eggplant, onion, garlic, black pepper and vegetable oil), Bulgarian cheeses and wines. Bulgarian visitors queued for Mexican tortillas, Romanian hams and salami and took the recipe for Danish croissants.

Bulgaria’s Minister of Tourism said she expected a successful tourist season this summer and the idea to familiarize visitors with foreign cuisines would attract more tourists to restaurants at the resorts. The new website of the ministry, which offers an online register of the tourist attractions in Bulgaria showed strong interest by tour operators. She added that since it was lunched 9 months ago, there were 2,800,000 visits.

In the next weeks the Festival “Bulgaria welcomes the tastes of the world” will go on in other Bulgarian cities including Plovdiv, Veliko Turnovo, Rousse, Varna and will finish in Sofia at the end of May.