The Truffle Rush
If the price of gold on the international market is 17.5 euro per gram, the truffles that these groups are after reach up to 10 euros per gram. Unlike the search for gold, going after truffles requires a physical exertion no more difficult than a walk in the forest with a suitable dog. Besides, the precious mushrooms tend to grow in massive lumps, weighting up to a kilogram and a half.
The discovery that the Croatian peninsula in the northern Adriatic is exceptionally rich in truffles, of course, was made by an Italian. This happened at the beginning of last century and the business in Istria has been growing steadily since, together with the price of the mushrooms on the international market.
Unlike other places in Europe, however, in Croatia it takes place illegally. The local truffle “hunters” are grateful that the government hasn’t yet calculated its losses from taxation and hasn’t made moves to cut down on the illegal trade. According to the registers, the licensed pickers of the precious mushrooms are around 500, but eyewitnesses claim that, between October and January, during the season, they might be as many as five times more than that. The fact that every single one of them raises a dog breed specialised in the search for truffles – brek, is a pure coincidence.
Curiosity Chest
Balkans
The Red and White Strings that Welcome Spring in Bulgaria and Romania
I remember walking along Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown on March 2 a few years ago, when I saw a man sporting a small ornament made of red and white thread pinned to his coat lapel. He must be Bulgarian, I thought to myself with a sudden rush of homesickness, but now realize that he may have been Romanian as well.
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Useful Reads
Bulgaria
Street without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria (2008) | By Kapka Kassabova
Danube blues
Text by Nicholas Lezard for The Guardian*
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Music
Bulgaria
The Choir that Turned England a Bit Bulgarian
One of the few constant sources of pride for Bulgarians is traditional folk music, and especially singing. But not the Oriental-beats-modified kind that often booms in nightclubs, giving their clientele the urge to jump atop tables and chairs and sway their hips around; rather the kind that, when heard, mesmerises you and gives you goose bumps, the kind that is haunting with its out-of-this universe quality, mostly figuratively but sometimes literally as well.
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs