Vafla of the Week: Troya (Троя)
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
You're in your local shop after a long day reading your friends blogs, op-eds and most importantly not saving Bulgaria. The only thing that can make you feel better is the refreshment of a tasty vafla. Over course you want to buy the blue borovets vafla, but upon reaching into your pocket you find you only have 25 stotinki, leaving you 5 stotinki short of the cost of a borovets. It's times like these that you remember why the Peace Corps is so hard. You need a vafla to recover, but your plan of a borovets has been shattered... Suddenly, not knowing what to do, you begin to feel like you are back in the mid-nineties on an episode of "What Would You Do?" and Marc Summers is standing right behind you.
"Wha-wha-wha-what would you do?" Beg outside for 5 stotinki? No! You are a Peace Corps volunteer, you will not rob your community for your own guilty pleasures. Get it together, you know just what to do. Don't panic. Scan the vafla display to find one in your budget. Don't be disheartened by the row of costlier vafli. Keep searching, until... wait, what is that? Is that a 25 stotinki vafla? What is that brand?
That brand, my friends, is Troya, or Троя in Bulgarski. And this is what you reach for when 5 stotinki or 2.5 euro cents short of a blue borovets in Ani's magazine:
While a bargain, it does not come without compromise. For that 5 stotinki you lose out on 17 grams of vafla from the blue borovets (55 gr v. 38 gr). Still, sometimes you may not want all that borovets has to offer, and in that case you should go home. Other times you may be in the situation above in which you have no option but to buy the Troya, and in which case survival trumps economics. For scale, here it is next to a standard length martenitsa:
And the back:
The first thing I noticed upon inspection is that the chocolate layer is a little thin on top (visible in top picture). I could almost see through it to the vafla. This made me skeptical on the first bite. However, upon chomping away, I found a delightful consistent flavor. (sadly I forgot to take a ridiculous shot of me eating the vafla). Not as rich as the borovets, but then, what is? Certainly not Mike Huckabee after spending all that money on a failed campaign. Having tried other pricier vafli I have to say for the cost this is a mighty fine vafla. Not too filling, not too rich, but with a good blend of chocolate, wafers and heaven leading to a very satisfying vafla.
As you can see in the legally obtained promotional image above, Troya sports a standard 4:3 wafers to chocolate layers ratio, not including the chocolate shell. The layers are thin, and it's kind of like a wider obiknovena vafla with a thin coating of chocolate.
What's that Huck-ster? Ahh the label, right:
A fierce red package and all caps lettering might make you think it's some kind of energy bar or road flare. 100 grams of this vafla gives you 538 calories, I'll let ROCKY HEART tell us how much 38 grams will give you since George Vaflington can't count.
The package has a handy label telling you where to open it. Since this was for Science I opened it carefully in a different spot since I didn't want to tear the label. Still, this is a nice feature for our vafli impaired readers out there.
"вафла със страхотен вкус (phonetic: Vafla sus strahoten vkus) (direct translation: Vafla with horrible taste) (more accurate: vafla with an awesome taste)" This slogan, including all the translations (lie) is on the side of the package. I enjoy the slogan, mostly because I love the bulgarian word СТРАХОТЕН - if only because it doesn't translate directly. It's like how we say "dragons don't exist" and actually mean "dragons exist everywhere, especially in the hearts of the believers".
SUMMARY: Good taste, good bargain, intimidating label, all adding up to a "vawfully good bargain" or a solid 8.435 on the vaflometer.
vafli broke,
George "misses "What would you do?"" Vaflington
PS If you are wondering about the reflective inside, I contacted the company and discovered that the reflective foil interior is designed so that vafla consumers can line their roofs with the foil in order to signal to dragons in the high heavens that we still believe and will offer safe haven to any dragon that lands on our shiny roof. Try it.
Posted byThomas at 12:01 AM
Labels: dragons, marc summers, Mike Huckabee, Vafli
since it has now recieved a favorable review by ol' george, i will now consider purchasing a troya vafla for consumption. previously i had just though they were road flares shelved in the wrong aisle. hmm. who knew