This past weekend I did and tried a few new things. I went to the <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2012/01/29/pernik-and-the-surva-festival/" target="_blank">Surva Festival in Pernik</a> and saw Kukeri dancing. This as I've already recounted was pretty wonderful. I also tried slanina.

I'm not one to turn down new things so I tried it but I don't think I am a fan.

<a title="Newspaper wrapped slanina by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6793907095/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7023/6793907095_6e924b376b_z.jpg" alt="Newspaper wrapped slanina" width="576" height="384" /></a>
What's slanina you ask? It's piece of lard covered in a mixture of Bulgarian spices called chubritsa. I am not sure how the process of covering a square of lard in churbritsa works exactly. I mean how do you press the spices into the lard while keeping the lard semi-rectangular in shape? But there you have it that's slanina.
<a title="Bulgarian Slanina wrapped in newspaper by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6793916253/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7175/6793916253_f89a7fb8fe_z.jpg" alt="Bulgarian Slanina wrapped in newspaper" width="576" height="384" /></a>
The slanina was served on a plate in long fairly thin slices. You can apparently just eat it with a fork. I was told: it just melts in your mouth <em>and</em> don't chew it. Um,<em> okay?</em><!--more-->I was also told that slanina is kind of like bacon but only the fat. In my mind this description falls a little short of its mark. Bacon is usually crispy and hot. Slanina was neither of these things.  Then again I am living in a bacon-less country so I can't be too harsh.
<a title="Slanina: Lard and Churbritsa  by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6793919807/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7141/6793919807_1fcca08491_z.jpg" alt="Slanina: Lard and Churbritsa " width="576" height="384" /></a>
The good news is that you can also eat  slanina on bread. The preferred method of slanina and bread consumption seems to be to sort of fold the bread around the slanina. I think that the bread makes the slanina much more palatable.
<a title="Rather too thick slices of Slanina  by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6793922853/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6793922853_05e678779a_z.jpg" alt="Rather too thick slices of Slanina " width="576" height="384" /></a>
Of course, I ate some. I didn't love it but I didn't hate it either. I think that I have a bigger problem with the idea of it than the actual dish. The idea being: you want me to eat a slice of lard?

Really it's not that much different than butter but it's harder for me to get my head around it.

Apparently, no one noticed that I wasn't a huge fan because among other things, I ended up with my own newspaper wrapped chunk of slanina.  It's in my fridge now still wrapped in newspaper.