Stara Zagora Province sits in the middle of the Thracian Plain, and the local table is built on what that plain grows: tomatoes, peppers, sunflower, grain and the sheep and cow dairy that Bulgaria is known for. The private jet menu begins in those fields. The inflight menu can open with a shopska salad of tomato, cucumber, roasted pepper and sirene, packed cold with the dressing apart, or with a plate of lukanka and cured pork shoulder sliced for the tray.
For private jet food, the Province gives us banitsa, the filo pie with sirene, which travels as a hot item and finishes in the galley oven, and kebapche and kyufte, the grilled minced-meat fingers that come out of the drawer ready to plate with lyutenitsa. Bulgarian yogurt with walnuts and honey is the easy cold dessert. These are the local specialities we pack as private jet platters and gourmet inflight meals, with private jet snacks of dried fruit, nuts and rose-flavoured sweets for the cabin.
Local specialities here are simple and honest rather than fussy, so the Stara Zagora menu stays short and clear. Tarator, a chilled cucumber and yogurt soup, is the summer inflight menu item that needs no oven at all. In winter, a slow lamb or chicken casserole in a clay pot travels well for private jet food on a cold ramp. Whatever the season, the private jet menu for the Province is labelled by seat and by restriction.