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Features
- Romanians You Should Know: Carol I
- Romania During Communism
- Romanian Food
- Overrated Romania: The Mud Volcanoes
- Romanians You Should Know: Nadia Comaneci
- Romanians You Should Know: Nicolae Titulescu
- Romanians You Should Know: Rodion Camataru
- Romanians You Should Know: Mihai Eminescu
- Romanians You Should Know: Stefan Kovacs
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Romanians You Should Know: Stefan Kovacs
Winner of two consecutive European Cups with Ajax Amsterdam from 1972-73, Ştefan Kovács is the mjost successful Romanian football coach in history.... -
Romanians You Should Know: Nadia Comaneci
There’s an urban myth in the US that claims all baby girls born in the six months after the 1976 Montreal Olympics were called Nadia.... -
Romanians You Should Know: Carol I
Few visitors to Bucharest will leave without seeing the enormous horseback statue of Carol I - the first king of modern Romania - which appeared in front of the University Library in Piata Revolutiei at the end of last year.... -
Romanians You Should Know: Mihai Eminescu
Born Mihail Eminovici in Botosani (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1850, Mihai Eminescu is widely regarded as Romania’s finest romantic writer, and is recognized as both Romania and Moldova’s national poet.... -
Romania During Communism
Almost twenty years after the revolution that toppled Romania's communist regime, headed by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian History Museum (MNIR) recently launched a major new website, Communism in Romania, the front-end of a project designed to look at the communist period in Romania in a ’serious, objective way.... -
Romanians You Should Know: Nicolae Titulescu
Romania’s greatest diplomat, the negotiating skills of Nicolae Titulescu were in large part responsible for Romania more than doubling the size of its territory in the Treaty of Versailles that followed the end of World War I.... -
Overrated Romania: The Mud Volcanoes
Romanians love banging on about the many unique natural wonders their country boasts. And indeed, from the Danube Delta to the Carpathian Mountains, there are certainly a decent number of natural sights to take in and enjoy.... -
Romanians You Should Know: Rodion Camataru
Legend has it that when Austrian Toni Polster heard news that Rodion Camataru had scored another hat-trick, and had thereby overtaken him at the top of Europe’s scoring chart, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said “I’m not going to Monte Carlo....
Romanian Food
Let’s face it, nobody travels to Romania for the food. As with most of the Balkans the vast majority of what’s on offer is a diluted version of Turkish cuisine, with Hungarian and Germanic influences clearly discernable in Transylvania.
That is not to say that Romania does not have an identifiable cuisine, however, for it does. In most cases borrowed dishes have been localized, and in many cases vastly improved. An example is the classic Romanian sour soup, ciorba. Made of borş (a sour, honey-coloured liquid made of wheat and cornflour), the tradition of making sour soups is Ukrainian, but was perfected in Moldavia and later Muntenia. In theory anything can go into a ciorba, though the most popular are ciorba de legume (made with vegetables), ciorba de vacuta (made with beef), ciorba de burta (made with tripe), ciorba de perişoare (made with pork meatballs), or borş de miel (made with lamb, and popular at Easter). While you will often see ciorba de pui (ciorba made with chicken), chicken is more popular in clear soups, served with dumplings (galuşte), carrots and parsnips.
At more formal meals a number of cold appetizers – known as gustare reci – will usually be served before the ciorba. These include cheese, olives, spring onions, salami, tomatoes and boiled eggs. Sometimes there may also be a platter of warm appetizers (gustare calde), such as carnaţi de pleşcoi (mutton sausages), ficaţei de pui (chicken livers), ciuperci umplute (stuffed mushrooms), or mici. These are spicy little sausage-shaped meatballs made of mutton, beef and pork.
Main courses are usually the biggest disappointment of a Romanian meal. You can usually expect little more than gratar si cartofi prajiţi (a grilled piece of meat, usually pork, with fries). While there are options, such as the celebrated sarmale (cabbage or vine leaves stuffed with mince and rice), or tocaniţa (stew, usually pork), these are not all that common anymore as urban Romanians especially view them as provincial. Mamaliga, a Romanian version of polenta made of cornmeal, whose stodginess has long been compared to the Romanian temperament, has all but died a death in Romania’s cities. It remains a staple in villages, however.
Though Romania boasts a not insignificant coastline along the Black Sea, the standard of its seafood is distressingly poor. Only carp (comically called crap in Romanian) – a fatty fish with no real flavour, usually served grilled or fried - and lifeless, farmed trout (păstrav; always served grilled) are regularly available.
Romanians do however have a tradition of producing and eating fish roe, known as icre, usually mixed with garlic and mayonnaise and served in a delicious salad. Romania also produces decent caviar.
Sweets in Romania are sweet indeed. Pancakes (clatite) served with chocolate or jam and covered in sugar are a popular dessert, as are papanaşi: deep fried doughnuts filled with jam, or sometimes cottage cheese. Local ice cream (îngheţata) is good and ubiquitous. Look out too for Romanian cakes (prăjituri), usually made with lashings of fresh cream.
As a final word on Romanian food, a note about some strange culinary habits. For some unexplained reason Romanians usually serve their fries covered with tasteless grated cheese. When ordering you can avoid this by stating „fara branza pe cartofi prajiţi, vă rog.” There is also a local habit of throwing creme fraiche (smântana) on everything, especially in ciorbe and soups. Again, a simple „fara smântana vă rog” will suffice.
That is not to say that Romania does not have an identifiable cuisine, however, for it does. In most cases borrowed dishes have been localized, and in many cases vastly improved. An example is the classic Romanian sour soup, ciorba. Made of borş (a sour, honey-coloured liquid made of wheat and cornflour), the tradition of making sour soups is Ukrainian, but was perfected in Moldavia and later Muntenia. In theory anything can go into a ciorba, though the most popular are ciorba de legume (made with vegetables), ciorba de vacuta (made with beef), ciorba de burta (made with tripe), ciorba de perişoare (made with pork meatballs), or borş de miel (made with lamb, and popular at Easter). While you will often see ciorba de pui (ciorba made with chicken), chicken is more popular in clear soups, served with dumplings (galuşte), carrots and parsnips.
At more formal meals a number of cold appetizers – known as gustare reci – will usually be served before the ciorba. These include cheese, olives, spring onions, salami, tomatoes and boiled eggs. Sometimes there may also be a platter of warm appetizers (gustare calde), such as carnaţi de pleşcoi (mutton sausages), ficaţei de pui (chicken livers), ciuperci umplute (stuffed mushrooms), or mici. These are spicy little sausage-shaped meatballs made of mutton, beef and pork.
Main courses are usually the biggest disappointment of a Romanian meal. You can usually expect little more than gratar si cartofi prajiţi (a grilled piece of meat, usually pork, with fries). While there are options, such as the celebrated sarmale (cabbage or vine leaves stuffed with mince and rice), or tocaniţa (stew, usually pork), these are not all that common anymore as urban Romanians especially view them as provincial. Mamaliga, a Romanian version of polenta made of cornmeal, whose stodginess has long been compared to the Romanian temperament, has all but died a death in Romania’s cities. It remains a staple in villages, however.
Though Romania boasts a not insignificant coastline along the Black Sea, the standard of its seafood is distressingly poor. Only carp (comically called crap in Romanian) – a fatty fish with no real flavour, usually served grilled or fried - and lifeless, farmed trout (păstrav; always served grilled) are regularly available.
Romanians do however have a tradition of producing and eating fish roe, known as icre, usually mixed with garlic and mayonnaise and served in a delicious salad. Romania also produces decent caviar.
Sweets in Romania are sweet indeed. Pancakes (clatite) served with chocolate or jam and covered in sugar are a popular dessert, as are papanaşi: deep fried doughnuts filled with jam, or sometimes cottage cheese. Local ice cream (îngheţata) is good and ubiquitous. Look out too for Romanian cakes (prăjituri), usually made with lashings of fresh cream.
As a final word on Romanian food, a note about some strange culinary habits. For some unexplained reason Romanians usually serve their fries covered with tasteless grated cheese. When ordering you can avoid this by stating „fara branza pe cartofi prajiţi, vă rog.” There is also a local habit of throwing creme fraiche (smântana) on everything, especially in ciorbe and soups. Again, a simple „fara smântana vă rog” will suffice.
The end of this article about the fries and sour cream!!! If you go and try different cuisines you should try them the way they are served.! Yes sour cream is a Romanian way to improve the soup and "sarmale" and is delicious! That your taste buds are used to taste more ketchup and tomatoe sauce is because how you are used to eat your foods. We do have lots of dishes borrowed from the etnics that live in our country. So other countries too. Romanian food rocks in anyway!
Well I am just curious if the author is by any chance American...If he is, his comment about our sweets being sweet is just ridiculous-in this country even the bread has a high content of corn syrup, not to mention that the American cheese-some what tasty just turns to OIL when heated-not like the "tasteless" Romanian cheese-made out of MILK!If he is not American-just like my co national above-I would like to thank him for having such a obviously educated insight on Romanian cuisine. Isn't it just amazing how some people have a total disrespect for anything that is authentic and home made, that actually has the nerve to conserve some taste and not just enroll in the "standards"
my husband is romanian and im from from asia, but we're living in italy. guess what we're eating? lol:) but i must say that ciorba de perişoare, mici, and sarmale are great...sal!!!
Hi Barabara
The product you are looking for is call vermicelli. You have to boil this in milk or you can boil first in water, then drain and add milk and sugar (depend on your test), optional vanilla sugar.I hope that`s the one she is looking for.
I have a student that has been adopted from Romania. She is always talking about this food that they drank. It was like a creamy milk and it had something in it like spaghetti. I would appreciate any help in finding the recipe. Thank you.
you are!
Hi. I do agree with all comments though. The romanian food is delicious, but not the one you would usually order in restaurants. Unfortunatelly there is no such a thing as public cuisine served in restaturants culture, because there was not a big public demand in the close past. So if you go to some restaurants will get exactly what teh author described.But if you take a more rural venture you would enter the true food flavor land. I've been to a lot of places around the world but none povides the flavour of Romania countryside.So the Romanian cuisine is wonderfull but you'll not dind it in the majority of restaurants. That's a petty.The cheese is indeed wonderful just to know where to get it.
Sorry Mr. Author, you couldn't be more wrong. Sometimes the food is very poor, especially in the south in Wallachia, but most of the time the food is just wonderful. Fresh berries, natural jam, wild mushrooms, home made lemonade, bear sausage, fresh eggs, paprika's, sun baked tomatoes, stew, lamb chops... mmmmmmm
My name is Dorin. Thanks for providing this wonderful information about my culture: I am originally from Romania and have lived in Canada for 6 years now. However, I'd like to say that it is not true that Romanian cheese is "tasteless". Every kind of cheese that you buy in there, not to mention the one you can buy on the market, produced locally in small communities, has its OWN SPECIFIC taste. There are no two cheeses alike. We also have a kind of cheese, "smoked cheese", that people love and that you can also grate on the fries if you wish. Very good indeed, it melts on the fries. Why would that be "strange"? :-)I personally find Canadian cheese(s) tasteless, and there's no or almost no difference between the sorts of cheese available in the stores, except for the aged cheese. Thanks !