Recipes from the Black Sea

From the gastronomic point of view, the Black Sea is a link between the Middle East and central Europe. On its western and northern shores the cuisines to be found reflect influences from both directions, as well as certain indigenous traditions. Mighty rivers flow into it, and its salinity level is therefore only about half that of the Mediterranean; and this is one reason why its marine fauna is less varied than that of the larger sea with which it is connected by the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, and why there has been more emphasis in the littoral countries on cooking freshwater fish than seafood. (I was told in Bulgaria that in the 1930s the average consumption of seafood per capita per annum was only 200 grams!) However, the people of the coast and the fishing ports have their seafood recipes, of which a small selection follows.