Shkembe chorba, the typical taste of Bulgaria

Shkembe chorba, the traditional Bulgarian hangover cure.

Shkembe chorba, the traditional Bulgarian hangover cure.

We already gave you some tips and tricks to get rid of your hangover. But every country has its own traditional dishes to make the process go faster. We like to give you a taste of the international anti-hangover cuisine. In this episode we present you the Bulgarian cure. A very simple tripe soup, but when mixed with enough chili pepper and garlic extremely tasty. Shkembe chorba is surprisingly effective to help you back on your feet after a hard night of partying.

Any hangover cure from Bulgaria must be a effective, because the nights (and days) in this country can be brutal to the untrained stomachs. The people of this Balkan country will always find a good reason to drink and we’re not talking 1 or 2 glasses drinking. Bulgaria has some excellent wines and beers, as well as spirits like mastika and of course rakia. Every Bulgarian has at least 1 family member that produces his own liquor and the alcohol percentages can go well up to 60 percent.

And if the drinking at home isn’t enough, the average Bulgarian loves to go out and party. Every weekend the chalga (popular modern folk music) clubs and the more traditional mechana’s are completely packed with people looking to dance, flirt and of course drink like no tomorrow. So when the day after does appear, an effective cure for hangovers is a very valuable thing. And even though some people are not really into tripe meat, shkembe does work like a charm.

Ingredients:
½ kilo tripe (meat from the side of the calf’s stomach)
1 cup sunfloweroil
2 cups fresh milk
1 teaspoon paprika powder
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly diced
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
dried hot chili pepper mix

Ingredients:
Boil the cut up tripe for about 30 minutes, add oil, milk, black pepper and paprika and boil for another 30 minutes occasionally topping up the water. The more you cook it, the better it will taste.
Combine the salt, garlic and vinegar in a separate cup, let it soak for about an hour. Serve this mix with the soup, as well as a second cup with mashed hot chili peppers. With these two cups you can bring extra flavor to the tripe soup.
The tripe soup is traditionally best eaten with beer or rakia.

Micky Bumbar

Check out more tasty hangover cures from around the world

Advertisements

5 thoughts on “Shkembe chorba, the typical taste of Bulgaria

  1. Pingback: Ciorba de burta, a Romanian tripe soup that cures hangovers | Lords of the Drinks

  2. Pingback: Georgia, an excellent destination for alcohol tourism | Lords of the Drinks

    • Ah that’s a good one actually. Gonna try that next time I will prepare shkembe.
      Cheers,
      Micky

      LikeLike

      Reply
  3. Pingback: Historian concludes: “While they drink rakia, the Bulgarians are invincible” | Lords of the Drinks

Leave a Reply