Since moving from Iowa to Pittsburgh a year and a half ago, Jim and Susan Graham have been sampling the region's ethnic offerings.
On Saturday, the Greenfield couple stopped by the Bulgarian-Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center in West Homestead for the opening day of the center's most popular fundraiser -- Soup Sega!, which means Soup Now!
They bought creamy mushroom noodle soup, spicy tomato with dill dumplings soup, and cheeze banitza, bite-size cheese strudels filled with feta and cottage cheese.
Saturday was the start of the nonprofit organization's 13th sale of takeout homemade soup and other foods. The sale is held four days a week and runs until the first week of May.
David Harabik of Munhall plans to stop in weekly for the foods he said he cannot get anywhere else: meatball noodle soup and spinach banitza.
Other soups made from traditional Bulgarian recipes include gluten-free Balkan bean; vegan white bean; spinach and rice; lentil; and potato leek.
A popular vegan soup is spicy African yam, which contains yams, peanut butter, onions, carrots, tomatoes and garbanzo beans.
Other foods for sale include gyuvech, or beef stew with cabbage, green beans, carrots, potatoes, okra and other vegetables; pulneni chushki, or stuffed peppers; yagni, spanak I oris, or lamb with spinach and rice in a savory sauce; and cherry/apple strudels, or layered phyllo filled with a cherry/apple/walnut mixture with cinnamon.
The sale funds about 75 percent of the center's operating costs of roughly $1,500 per month.
Organizers hope that next year customers will be able to dine outdoors in a garden. They plan to create one on 20,000 square feet of adjacent property the organization recently acquired through a $150,000 Community Infrastructure and Tourism Fund grant from Allegheny County.
The center also was awarded $250,000 in state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program funding, which requires $250,000 in matching funds. Once secured, that funding will be used to construct the garden and a cafe and gift shop at the center building and install a parking lot on the newly acquired land.
Center president Patricia French of Mt. Lebanon, whose parents were co-founders of the center in 1930, said she envisions a daily food sale once the garden opens, with dinner served on weekends.
It was her idea, while brainstorming for a new fundraiser in 1998, to hold Soup Sega!
"I had no idea it would take off like this," she said.
The sale is held 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Bulgarian-Macedonian center at 449 West 8th Ave. The cost of soup is $7 per quart, or $3.50 per half quart. Food items range from $5 to $7 and can be ordered via telephone or online. Weekday orders should be telephoned in advance. Payment is by cash or check only.
More information on the fundraiser and the center: 412-461-6188, 412-831-5101 or www.bmnecc.org.
