Where to eat BULGARIA 🇧🇬 Aeugstertal: Poushe Strudelmanufaktur

Poushe Strudelmanufaktur

Reppischtalstrasse 18, Aeugstertal

What we ordered: For two persons, one feta and spinach strudel with mixed eggplant salad and two sarma and a separate order of potato and mushroom strudel with carrot and beet salad. To drink, one coke and one sparkling water.

Cost: 50 CHF / €51 / $55

While Poushe boasts several locations, including in Waffenplatz, Zürich and even Stuttgart, the center of it all is in the tiny town of Aeugstertal on a rolling hill just outside Zürich. Beyond their own locations, Poushe Strudelmanufaktur also sells to the food hall of luxury department store Globus in Zürich.

For a brand that promotes its origins to the Bulgarian old country, we opted to venture to the headquarters for the most authentic flavor of what was on offer. We were not disappointed.

From a rail stop in the Zürich suburbs, we drove twenty minutes into the verdant countryside, through several picturesque and quite a few fabulously wealthy towns with Mercedes parked in the driveways. We were occasionally afforded a glimpse of beautiful Alpine landscapes – a great start to a unique Balkan dining experience, one that managed to stay both true to the Bulgarian character with Orthodox icons, but also modern with a dash of hipster aesthetics.

With but a few tables and cushions inside the shop, this is a spot destined for spring and summer outings from Zürich. There are several more tables outside, while inside the display cases of Poushe Strudelmanufaktur popped with color. Two display cases showcased the offerings: one focused on seasonal, savory treats and the other the sweets most think of when it comes to strudel.

Rather than the thousand-layers of pastry, Poushe’s offerings are more Danish or bun-like in character; round delectable treats that depending on your predilection can go many ways. We opted for savory as it was lunch time and personally, my sweet tooth is extremely limited to more bitter and nut-flavored offerings. We were told by the owner's son behind the counter (his mother and sisters are primarily responsible for the marketing of Poushe as a sisterhood of sorts) that a plate with a side salad was a few francs more.

The mushroom and potato strudel was a classic savory treat packed with exotic mushrooms. Given this is Eastern Europe, it is also entirely possible they have their own supplier or potentially even forage themselves. The strudel pastry itself was flaky and held everything together well while offering a crunch to compliment the creaminess of the filling.

The side salad of carrots, beets, sunflower seeds, and parsley punctuated the strudel with a bit of zest, likely from the oil dressing that brought the flavors together. The colors were also a bright punch to the monochrome of the savory strudel and its fillings.

My partner said his spinach and feta strudel was more sophisticated than what he was accustomed to from his years as a television correspondent in the Balkans, though the smells carried him back to those days. Rather than traditional in style, it had the flavor of hipster Zürich. With the eggplant salad, he felt the Balkan autumn in the middle of the winter.

The sarma showed that every kitchen has its own variation. He described Poushe’s as Zürich in flavor but again wholly Bulgarian in origin. He liked everything about it. The sarma was the extra treat for someone who loves the Balkans, whereas the eggplant salad and strudel were the standard, which is to say an extraordinary fusion.

How to get to Bulgaria from Switzerland:

By car, it is an all-day drive depending on your departure point in Switzerland through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia before arriving in Bulgaria.

By rail, several connections are required and the route is a bit different than by car as it goes the northern route through Germany, Austria, potentially Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia before arriving in Bulgaria. Some bus connections may be necessary. The journey itself takes more than 24 hours.

Helvetic operated by Swiss Air flies direct between Zürich and Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. There are no nonstop flights between Geneva and Sofia, but Air Dolomiti and Lufthansa offer the fastest connections with the shortest layover times through Munich.

How many Bulgarians are in Switzerland: More than 27,000

Distance Bern and Sofia: 1,756 km

Distance from Poushe Strudelmanufaktur to Sofia: 1,671 km

Learn how to make Bulgaria's national dishes, banitsa and shopska salad, and about their origins.

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