Bizarre Foods BG: Chicken Hearts

Like I’ve mentioned before, winter is back in full force here in Bulgaria. The snow melted just enough the other day to coat the entire road and sidewalk system with water, which then promptly froze again. The plus side to this is that I get to ice skate everywhere. The downside is that I don’t know how to ice skate... But hey I can learn. This is just one of the activities occupying my time here in Preslav as I wait for spring to roll around. However, I think another activity I've taken up is more blog-worthy.

In the States on one of my favorite channels, the Travel Channel, one of the shows I would watch often was Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. On his show, Zimmern travels around the world and dedicates each episode to a certain country and the food that the people there eat. The twist is that he only goes for what we would consider to be the most bizarre, but might be considered normal in that country. Bulgaria is full of these interesting little treats, and most of them are available in my town. I have therefore taken it upon myself to try all of these crazy foreign foods at least once during my time here (for the purposes of integration, of course). This is the first installment in a series about bizarre foods in Bulgaria, and I think it’s a pretty good one.

Chicken Hearts. I have long known that they have them, but have often wondered if they are edible. This question was finally answered when I came to Bulgaria, where they can frequently be found on restaurant menus (and often hilariously mistranslated into English as "hards"). This includes a restaurant here in Preslav that is right up the street from me which I have begun to frequent. Now when I go to this restaurant, I usually go for their chicken soup, or chicken and rice, or any number of more traditional chicken dishes. When I saw the hearts on the menu, I was at first repulsed, but over time became strangely drawn to them. At this particular meal I decided to take the plunge and order some to try on the side.

When they arrived at the table, I was actually kind of surprised by the look of them. For some reason, I didn’t actually think they’d have the appearance of actual hearts, but lo and behold, there they were. They were split in half probably to facilitate cooking, but this particular preparation seemed (creepily) to really show the structure of the hearts: ventricles, atriums, and all…

I sprinkled some lemon on them and popped the first of the bite size morsels in my mouth. The first thing I noticed was that it was really chewy. The next thing I noticed was that it actually didn’t have a lot of flavor to it. What was there kind of reminded me somewhat of chicken liver, which I have had many times before, and there was a slight gaminess in the flavor as well. Aside from the intense chewiness, which admittedly was a bit unsettling, the flavor was pretty tame, although in my opinion this is one part of the chicken that doesn’t actually taste like chicken.

Overall it was just kind of neutral experience. Once I got over the appearance, it wasn’t so bad. I don’t think I’ll voluntarily order it again, but I wouldn’t shy away from it if it was offered to me at some point. I've had much worse, and I'll be sure to write about those experiences for your pleasure (and probably, amusement) soon.

Until next time…