Romanian Food

As anyone who gets to know me will quickly to discover, food and cooking are two of my favorite subjects. After a month in Romania, I have had an opportunity to sample a good amount of the cuisine, in a variety of settings ranging from home cooked meals to restaurants. Here are some of my impressions of Romanian food (you can view my, not recently updated, food blog at cenarela.blogspot.com).

Romanian food is generally simple. Meat and vegetables are usually prepared in an uncomplicated manner, and flavors tend to be straightforward. Other than salt and pepper, spices are not heavily utilized. Though, Romanians to have a predilection to put lots of chopped parsley or dill in many dishes. There also does not tend to be much in the way of sauces.

One of the first dishes I tried upon arrival was sarmale. Somewhat resembling a dolma, sarmale involves ground meat rolled into either grape leaves of cabbage. I've only had the grape leaf variety, and this has proven to be one of the better dishes I have had in Romania.

Another classic Romanian dishes that accompanies many dishes is mămăligă, which is the Romanian version of polenta. Unlike the Italians, Romanians tend to serve mămăligă in solid form. It is often eaten topped with cheese and sour cream

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Many Romanian meals also involve soups, either to start or as the whole meal. I have tried a few varieties. There's a basic vegetable broth, ciorba, which many soups are derived from. I've seen versions involving just vegetable, pork, chicken, beef, and fish. The best soup I've had has been ciorba de burta, which is made with tripe.

Speaking of tripe, Romanians cook a lot more with ofal than American do, and I believe more than many other Europeans. I even saw fried brain being served in a college cafeteria. Liver is also very common. A large dish of chicken livers finds its way onto numerous menus. Another one of the highlights over the last month has been a dish of grilled pork liver, served over mămăligă and what I think were pickled red peppers. 

Many restaurant menus have English translations, even if the translations are a little off at times such as "chicken chest" instead of "chicken breast." An American themed restaurant near the Danube serves Obama Fried Chicken.

I have not had a chance yet to try some of the more upscale places, though I did eat at one restaurant in Bucharest to which I plan on returning next time I am in the capital. I ordered a dish which was simply described on the menu as pork ribs with potatoes. The dish ended up being a huge, thick slab of perfectly cooked pork served with very well prepared potato wedges. 

I found another interesting dish at a small restaurant in the mountains where we stopped on our way back from Transylvania last weekend. The menu stated Chinese Chicken with Mexican Vegetables. I simply had to try it. Thought I expected disaster, it actually ended up being a decent dish. The vegetables were probably labeled as Mexican because they contained black beans and corn. The chicken really had more of an Indian flavor than Chinese, mostly having been spiced with an ample amount of turmeric. There are two actual Chinese restaurants in Galati I hope to try soon.

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Unsurprisingly, the Danube region is know for its fish.Sadly, I have not tried too much fish yet. Here's a dish of sea bream:

Of course, no discussion of Romanian food is complete without mentioned mici. As I previously mentioned, mici is ground meat shaped into something resembling a hot dog and then grilled.  Various sorts of meat can be, and are, used. It is usually served with bread and mustard. Its often some of the most affordable food around.There's a farmers market near the SMART office where mici can be purchased for 1.50 lei, including mustard and bread.

One of Romanians strengths is certainly the pastry shops which appear on nearly every block, serving wonderful and cheap pretzels, breads, and sweets. Pretzels are especially plentiful, and usually sell for around 0.50 lei each.

Romanian deserts tend to be less sweet than we would expect to find in the United States. Many involves various forms of cheese. Another very common ingredient is rum extract. There's even a very popular and omnipresent candy bar called ROM made with Rum extract. Take a look at their unique advertising campaign:

Eating habits are a bit different than what we are used to in the United States. Romanians do not seem to eat much during the day. Rather than going out to lunch like most American office workers would, Romanians tend to just snack throughout the day. This may having something to do with the fact that eating at a Romanians restaurant takes a very long time. Like other Europeans, Romanians also eat dinner later than most Americans.

I have certainly had some good dishes in my time in Romania. However, the cuisine tends to be a bit plain for my tastes. The most spice I have had in Romania has been at a Sub Way in Bucharest (which was remarkably like a Sub Way in the United States) where I was able to have jalapenos. I am looking forward to continuing to try more.