Vafla of the Week: The Eco-Vafla
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Feast your eyes on this:
Right there is what you might call the "obiknovena vafla" or usual vafla. Another term might be, "old school vafla" since it is vafla in its simplest form with no fancy coatings. To me, however, this is the Eco-vafla. What does the Eco stand for? Economical and Ecological, of course.
Since blogs are all about blatantly forcing your own agenda on the world, I will start with the ecological side. This vafla is the most environmentally friendly vafla because it has no plastic wrapper that will sit in a landfill for a million years, kill sea gulls and make babies cry. The packaging I received it in is the very paper in which it rests. Here is a more detailed shot of the vafla's wrapper:
The wrapper there is mostly for sanitary reasons. When I bought this vafla, the shopkeep picked it out of a bulk box of vafla, wrapped it in the paper and handed it to me.
This paper is reusable and recyclable. I can use it to scratch down vafla inspired haikus or drop it off in one of the town's recycling bins. Why is this significant? Because, although very nice and superb at sealing in freshness, the normal plastic wrapping of vafla is not recyclable (at least not normal recycling -- to my knowledge) and worse still, many locals enjoy littering the streets with these very vafla wrappers. This kills me knowing that they will end up in a water source, then get to the ocean, then kill a sea gull, make a baby cry and never bio-degrade.
When the wrapper of the blue borovets vafla gets me down, but not enough to stave off my vafla temptation, I often reach for the Eco-vafla. It is also the most economical vafla I know of because one vafla costs only ten stotinki! That's 10 for a lev and 20 for a euro! What a deal!
Agenda pushing aside, on to the testing.
Here is a shot of the flavor layers:
That's four layers of wafer and three of chocolate. This ratio leads to a good amount of heaven. Last week's entry had the same ratio, but with a whole chocolate shell around it, leading to a 5:4 chocolate to wafer ratio, plus the chocolate on the sides, which adds exponentially to the heaven. It's important that the vafla ratio always lead to an odd amount of layers. Just like giving out an even amount of flowers is considered a tremendous insult in Bulgaria (mostly true), so to is it an insult to give out, produce or consume a vafla with an even amount of layers (less true).
Since this vafla is the closest to sugar wafers, I tried dissecting it to see if the layers could be removed like on sugar wafers. This proved impossible and ended up with me crushing some of my vafla. :(
On the bright side, this experiment proves the difference between vafli and sugar wafers. The *heaven*. Obviously there is something greater - something more divine - holding the layers of vafla goodness together. That, my friends and followers, is the heaven. If you don't believe me, ask Mike Huckabee.
On the taste, this is a mighty fine obiknovena vafla. Not as good as the borovets obiknovena vafla, but that is the gold standard which I will review another day. There was something nutty in the chocolate filling. Perhaps they use some hazlenut or something. That or Finetti.
The only down sides are that this vafla can lead to a lot of crumbs and, depending on how long ago the bulk box was opened, might not be fresh. Fortunately, since it's a great deal which many Kresna vafla enthusiasts cash-in on, I've never found my vafla stale.
If your local shop doesn't engage in this practice, I dare you, my fellow Bulgarian PCVs, to ask them to do so. I don't want you to do this to promote the ecology or economy of such a vafla, I want you to do it because it would be painfully awkward to try to make such a request in Bulgarian.
OK. Dares and agenda aside. This is a dandy vafla, and on my new arbitrary scale, I'll say it's "Vawfully Good!" on taste "Vawfully Perfect!" on ethics.
update: Due to complaints from "someone" I will add a numeric score for the obiknovena vafla. We'll say that "Vawfully Good!" on taste and "Vawfully Perfect!" on ethics translates into a 9.000000001
Vafli Yours,
George Vaflington
Posted byThomas at 11:00 PM
Labels: Mike Huckabee, Vafli
Thomas,
I just wanted to let you know that if I come to visit and am in any way, shape, or form disappointed by your Vafla I will seriously consider ending our friendship. You may be able to redeem yourself by continuning to label posts as "Mike Huckabee"
Love,
Chuck Norris
Two critical points. One: you did not have "old school" in Bulgarian for those of us who are still reading this blog. Two: you did not give a final 1-10 rating for this specific type of vafla.
Finetti flavored vafli? That may be the best idea ever in the history of best ideas.
Thomas, I will have you know that I think of you every time I see a Vafla wrapper. You have opened my eyes to the vast variety of vafli products there are in Bulgaria. I am up to the challenge to try them all! Thanks for giving me the courage to explore.
your faithful reader,
Daring in Dupnitsa