Series: Slavka’s filo pastries
In the previous post I covered the filo pastry popular in the Balkan region. Banitsa, or banica, is the Bulgarian name for this egg & white brine cheese (feta-style) pastry sometimes also referred to as egg & cheese pie (probably because it is easier the pie lovers to relate to it). Before I go to Slavka’s banitsas’ careful creation and variations, I thought I’d talk a bit about banichka. It is the little sister of banica. Banichka is the diminutive of banica. It is the same pastry but made to individual portion size.
While banica is a social meal (one serves it at the table on a variety of occasions, at family and friends’ gatherings and celebrations), banichka is a solo snack. And it is a very popular breakfast in the region. In Bulgaria one can find them literally everywhere: in bakery stores, supermarkets, grocery stores and in the windows of small bakery/pastry booths. They are part of the buffet breakfasts in hotels and restaurants, and often are one of the few fresh-made items in the only store in a village or a small town.
Walking the streets of a Bulgarian city, you’ll see many bakery windows. They used to sell banichka, gevrek (soft pretzel) and kifla (a roll made of soft dough with yeast and usually stuffed with marmalade) for breakfast. Nowadays they also sell pizza slices and an extended variety of filo pastries and grilled sandwiches.
In my childhood one would walk to school and buy breakfast from the nearby booth or bakery window. I remember there being a booth in the basement of our school. One had to first line up outside with all the pupils of their class as all classes gathered, we’d had 15 min of calisthenics. After being allowed to enter the school, we’d rush downstairs and line up to buy our breakfasts. If we missed this one, we’d line up in the first recess.
So banichka is a very popular breakfast even today in Bulgaria. One can eat it with yogurt or with a drink that can’t really parallel anything known here – boza (a fermented malt drink made from wheat or rye, that is quite sweet and dense). You’ll find banichka of different sizes and with a variety of fillings.
That banichka is popular in Bulgaria and the Balkans is not a surprise probably to anyone who knows a bit about the region. However, I did not expect to find them all the way down under. No, not in Australia (I don’t remember seeing any there, although I didn’t particularly look). But in New Zealand! Filo pastries were literally everywhere. Usually, hand in hand with the English style Cornish Pasties and meat pies. At first, we thought Auckland is a cosmopolitan city and it is normal that someone took the initiative and then it spread to all stores, cafes and bakeries. However, we found filo pastries in every city and town we spent time in. The classical egg and cheese pie, pastry stuffed with variety of meats, with fish, with spinach, mushrooms, you name it. They serve them at cafés (we once had it with my cappuccino) and small restaurants. But the surprise was that every grocery store will have a huge variety of them. Usually at the bread section or for take out (if you want it warmed). And it is probably the cheapest food one can buy there. They had them in Picton, a tiny town by the ferry on South Island, they even had them in Kaikoura. In their grocery store. Kaikoura?! Unless you are a whale watcher fanatic, surfer, or a railway junkie as us, who in the world goes to Kaikoura? Their banichka style pastry was enviable even for someone like me that grew up in the region of its origin. Not only was banichka everywhere, the Bulgarian white brine cheese (feta) was also everywhere. Perhaps it is cheaper to import Bulgarian feta than to make cheese in New Zealand. But banichka style pastries were definitely made and consumed there en masse.
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