site.bta"Little Bulgaria" in Utrecht

For a few years now, there has been a Bulgarian shop on the shopping boulevard "Amsterdamsestraatsweg" ("Road to Amsterdam") in Utrecht, one of the major cities of the Netherlands. Its owners, Daniela and Anton Antonov, who came to the Netherlands in 1999, have named it "Little Bulgaria". 

Sold here is everything that can be found in a supermarket in Bulgaria. Most clients are Bulgarian: some driven by the desire to buy something native to eat, others by nostalgia because here they can meet compatriots. A Bulgarian radio station is always playing.

Bulgarians come not only from Utrecht, but also from other Dutch cities, and not only from nearby.

"Cheeses, milk, prepared salads, and sausages are the most sought after," Daniela told BTA's Iva Tontcheva. While she is at the checkout, Anton is in the back of the shop, where there is a bicycle repair workshop. At least 50 people a day pass through "Little Bulgaria," and as many as 100 on weekends.

Bulgarians say they come for the yoghurt and the filo pastry, others for the raw-dried meat delicacies sudzhuk and lukanka. "Everything is good here, it is Bulgarian. I like Bulgarian spices, red pepper," says a middle-aged man. He came to the Netherlands five years ago to earn money. There are at least 80 families in Utrecht from his town alone. 

According to official statistics, there are several thousand Bulgarians in Utrecht and over 60,000 in the Netherlands. The country is also a very popular destination among Bulgarian students: the quality of education is good and the price is acceptable.

The owners do their best to bring goods from Bulgaria to "Little Bulgaria" that buyers have told them they value. That is how they have ended up with at least 14 types of white brined cheese and just as many types of yellow kashkaval cheese.

"Almost every day there is someone who comes in to order something," says Martin, the Antonovs' son. "It's impossible because there are so many goods in Bulgaria. But we manage to have a new product almost every week." After many people kept asking for carp, the owners have recently succeeded with these supplies as well, although it is not easy.

Many people come for the freshly baked banitsa and milinki, which are delivered daily to "Little Bulgaria" from the only Bulgarian bakery in Rotterdam.

Displayed on the shelves are jams, waffles, candies, onions, sunflower seeds, walnuts, spices, sauerkraut and pickles, even clay pots for cooking. Traditional holiday products are also available, such as martenitsas [good luck charms] for March 1 and dyed eggs for Easter. Everything is like in Bulgaria.

It was not easy to make a Bulgarian shop in Utrecht. On the one hand, there are a lot of requirements from the authorities, the costs are not small, there are a lot of excise duties, explains Martin. And on the other hand, it is difficult to attract and retain clientele. You need a serious initial investment and it takes a long time to recover it, he tells BTA.

But things have apparently gone well for the Antonovs. It turns out that "Little Bulgaria" is also visited by Dutch clients. Most often they are Bulgarians' spouses. They buy whatever Bulgarians buy: cheese, sudzhuk, lyutenitsa [Bulgarian chutney]. There are also "pure" Dutch clients and one of the goods they are looking for is... Bulgarian beer. Martin's explanation is that Bulgarian beer is good, and it is cheaper than in Dutch shops.

Is something missing from "Little Bulgaria"? "We miss Bulgaria itself," say several of the Bulgarians who come here.