The best-preserved part of the Bulgarian Black Sea side – its northernmost end up from the town of Balchik, is for hermits who have a taste for fine food

The northernmost end of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast might not be the end of the world, but it surely looks like it. And that is precisely where its charm lies. Beyond the contemporary Bulgarian urbanism, this is a territory of wind, pre-industrial mini-installations for oil recovery, poppy and sunflower fields and migratory birds – one of the calm stretches of the Via Pontica – the route along which the storks and swallows fly back to Northern Africa in September.

In Krapets, the last settlement before the Durankulak crossing point into Romania, the swallows’ population exceeds that of people by at least 100 times, even if we count the tourists. The birds’ favourite forum is an electricity pole in the village, where at least several thousand of them gather every evening before the sun sets. This particular swallows’ square, which is actually located on the crossing of two human streets – one paved and the other unpaved, isn’t the only one in the area. The Durankulak Lake to the north and the Shabla and Ezerets lakes to the south are the best places in Bulgaria to practice the quiet sport of bird watching.

The area north of the town of Balchik up to the border with Romania isn’t to everyone’s liking. Which is a great joy to those who do like it. These are people who easily give up some luxurious experiences – such as an open-air jacuzzi filled with rose leaves or tile-covered steps that go into the sea, in favour of other types of splendour, such as quietness, calm and preserved nature.

The good news in recent years has been that these people’s stay in the area no longer needs to be entirely eremitic; At least when it comes to food. Wild nature and good cuisine aren’t splendours that often go hand in hand in Bulgaria, but here – curiously enough, things are starting to seem precisely that way. And if you ask us, it would be better if the area’s “improvement” stops at that. It is quite enough that one can start from the Romania border and head south, stopping here and there for some kind of pleasure, until reaching Balchik, replete with food and appeased.

The northernmost point from which a possible culinary route could begin is the Durankulak Lake. A necessary, and thankfully a restrained, display of civilization in the area is the Zlatna Ribka ("Gold Fish") restaurant, located a kilometre off the international E87 highway.

Standing about 20 metres away from the water, in front of a small wooden quay that goes into the lake, the restaurant could have been The Place to Eat Fish. It isn’t, but it still shouldn’t be overlooked. There are some things one needs to get over – the clay dwarves in the grass, the stuffed Victorian birds on the walls and the fact that – paradoxically, the venue has no tables that are fully in the open air.

But don’t let that give you a bad impression, because these shortcomings are minor – this is in fact a good restaurant.

Besides being in an impressive location, its food is well prepared. The fish soup is served with the typical for the area lyutika – a spicy sauce that tempts you to devouringly spread it over a slice of bread instead of mixing a modest spoonful of it into the soup, as you are supposed to.



Other impressive dishes are the crabs and the over 10 kinds of golden-brown fried fish – both of the Black Sea and the fresh water variety. The tarama –a fish roe salad, is good as well, and the other salads are fresh. A usual finale to a lunch in the place, for some, is a drive through the sunflower fields and for others – an eye-to-eye sit-down with the frogs along the quay.



Several kilometres away from here is perhaps the emptiest beach of Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, that of Krapets. Unguarded, and correspondingly not cleaned up, it somehow presents one the last chances of hanging out by the sea in a 1980s kind of style.



From time to time, the sea waves throw out dead dolphins. But, as compensation, it is also possible to observe the games of those who have manages to avoid the fishing nets and have survived, in spite of the long-lasting and shameful actions of all the Black Sea countries towards its fauna.

Krapets also has a restaurant – the only hotel in the town, Yanitsa, has opened up a grill on a strengthened and well-maintained part of the coast, which until recently faced the danger of a landslide. The restaurant, unfortunately, shines mostly with its bad hygiene, so it is really a last-resort kind of place.

Another trap awaits people with a taste for good food in the next village to the south, Ezerets. The sign on the road points to Divata Patitsa (The Wild Duck), but even the furthest of associations with The Fat Duck are purely scandalous. As you travel inward, through the village, and then by some stone fences, slightly reminiscent of those on the Mediterranean islands, expectations begin to grow. And quickly crumble, as soon as the restaurant’s neon sign shines and the waiters appear, dressed in uniforms like those of fast food restaurants.

Last time we went, the tables were arranged, to quite an effect, around a very active construction site, the watermill wheels were supplemented by a horrible band, unavoidable like a falling bomb, and the kitchen’s glass display showed scandalously greying defrosted sausages in Styrofoam plates. The food as a whole was like them. It remained unclear why the restaurant was labelled as a “hunting and fishing” one, since its only catch – and a poached one at that, were its clients.

Either way, it’s not hard to leave Ezerets behind, since the wild pleasures of Yailata and Kaliakra are ahead, as are those of the Dalboka mussel farm. If you haven’t been here to experience the pleasures of jumping off from the rocks, wandering around the windy natural parks, making out shapes in the bizarre forms of the rocks and searching through the caves for secret signs, you have surely missed out on a part of your childhood.

So, in order not to miss some of the pleasures of adulthood, you simply must stop by Dalboka, about 5 kilometres away from the town of Kavarna, because it is actually The Place to Eat Mussels in Bulgaria. From the deserted road, you take a turn towards the mussel farm, following the sign, and suddenly the innocent-seeming alley turns into a bobsleigh track. If you ride along it without resistance, it will quickly slide you down to the sea, towards which a beautiful – and quickly approaching, panorama is revealed. Along the coast at the bottom, two venues fight over the hordes of incoming clients, exploiting the fame of the first mussel farm in Bulgaria. The correct one is the one on the right, as you descend the hill towards the coast, and it is trying to beat the competition with a sign pointing to the Mussel Farm (“Към Мидената ферма”).



Having the look of a tavern and its concept too - of a simple and tasty venue, Dalboka also boasts the advantage of taking out its fresh mussels from a nursery located about 100 metres from the coast. As dishes, they appear in the unlikeliest of forms – from smoked mussels on a stick to sweetened ones stuffed with apple filling; And also of jewels – the hors d'oeuvre of mussels with onion, dill and olives is called the Mermaid’s necklace. The restaurant’s menu is a mix of pop-poetry (The sea’s elements, mirages and breezes, “The Sailor’s Nostalgia,” fruits from heaven, “The Chef-Magician”) and encyclopaedic terms (the fish kinds are divided into demersal, pelagic and migratory).

But the food is excellently cooked, and a long lunch in this place is one of those experiences that feed one’s longing for the summer all year round. Faraway from any kind of construction sites, with the sea expanse stretching before you, here you truly feel like you are at the seaside. No ifs, ands or buts.

A more sophisticated alternative to the simple and tasty lunch at the Dalboka mussel farm is the Blacksearama restaurant. As the club eatery of the golf course, it is the most ambitious culinary place north of Balchik. The turn in the highway is clearly marked and leads to a diligently landscaped road, over which the flags of Bulgaria and the European Union fly. Once you pass through the guarded entry, you drive along the road to the course for a while before you see the restaurant on your left.



Blacksearama is a luxurious pleasure. Even just the look of the stone villa with wooden floors, the infinity edge pool and the sea vista have a cooling effect. With its freshly manicured grass, quietness and chilled wine on white tablecloths, Blacksearama quickly shows the advantages of its pretence. The cuisine could be labelled as original, with interesting presentation, good taste and containing curious offers (for example, the tagliatelle with vodka, salmon and capers or the quail in bacon and parmesan, fresh herbs and potato purée).



Here, the good old Bulgarian classics have gone a transformation – for example, the fried zucchini with yogurt, garlic an dill sauce have become “zucchini in tempura with yogurt vinaigrette.” The fish soup is clear, with lemon grass, ginger and potatoes (although the Asian flavours were barely discernible).

If the place has a shortcoming at all, it would be the strange language in which the Bulgarian menu is written – with literal transcriptions of English-language culinary terms. As compensation, however, its advantages are much more major: from the fact that the vegetables are produced in the grounds’ organic gardens to the most luxurious and relaxing restaurant bathroom in what must be a radius of hundreds of kilometres. In addition, the place offers a royal breakfast, which is not among the strong suits of Bulgarian culinary traditions. One option is the “vitality” breakfast, consisting of fresh fruits and freshly squeezed juice. The others include Eggs Benedict, Tuscan Bruschetta and a dish of goat cheese, pear marmalade and a sesame cookie.

Actually, starting the day with Blacksearama is an excellent idea for people who like the journey between breakfast and lunch on their days off to be a short one. Because, only 7 kilometres away, not just in Balchik, but in the splendid palace of the deceased Romanian queen, is another one of the good places to eat – restaurant Korona.



In terms of its fish menu, the place offers at least one or two types of freshly caught fish, and the choice as a whole is quite plentiful. The food is excellent (try the Burgas-style mussels, the fish soup and the grilled vegetables) and served in a way that entices the appetite. A very well selected wine list accompanies it.



As you sit on the restaurant terrace, above you stand the gardens that the Swiss gardener Jules Jany created at the end of the 1930s for the eccentric Queen Marie. Underneath is the sea. And not just any sea, but the stern Black Sea of Balchik, which warms up later, cools down earlier and is known for its piercingly fresh blue colour.



This bay is like the coast’s end point, which has been left to the birds. And to the people who prefer their company over that of pulsating speakers, pizza sold by the slice and water slides, with tourist buses parked in front of them. The sunflower fields, with their timelessness and the surreal blades of the wind turbines, end here.

And because this scenery needs a hopeful ending, there is some good news for those who are attracted by the wilderness of the windy Bulgarian Black Sea coast: Krapets, just under the Romanian border, used to boast an Internet connection. It is now gone. So is the Internet café in the nearby town of Shabla, which opened several years ago. Wireless-less, through and through.

Contacts:
Zlatnata Ribka, Durankulak: +359 898 777 072
Blacksearama: +359 884 058 666
Dalboka mussel farm: +359 878 911 377, +359 899 911 377
Korona, Balchik: +359 885 775 520

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