Romanian cuisine

Romanian cuisine is diverse, blending the dishes of several traditions which it came into contact with, as well as maintaining its own character. It was greatly influenced by the Balkan cuisine, especially during the long Turkish rule , but also includes influences of the cuisines of other neighbours, such as Germans, Serbians or Hungarians.

Description

Romanians like to eat, and they eat a lot with a great diversity. An existential romanian question is: We live to eating, or eat to living?. Most foreign visitors have an initial bad impression on Romania but certanly a good traditional romanian meal is hard to forget . A great number of proverbs and sayings have developed around the activity of eating. From the innocent child's thank you: Sărut-mâna pentru masă, c-a fost bună şi gustoasă, şi bucătăreasa grasă (Thank you for the meal, it was good and tasty, and the cook was fat), to the more philosophical Mulţumescu-ţi ţie Doamne, c-am mâncat şi iar mi-e foame (Thank you Lord, for I have eaten, but I am hungry again), Dragostea trece prin stomac (Love passes through the stomach), or the simple Pofta vine mâncănd (Appetite comes while eating) or the sarcastic Porcul mănâncă orice, dar se-ngraşă pentru alţii (The pig would eat anything but it gets fat for others) or a total fulfillment saying Mâncat bine, băut bine, dimineaţa sculat mort (Good eaten, good drinking, in the mornng woke up dead).

Recipies bear the same influences as the rest of romanian culture: from Roman times there still exists the simple pie called plăcintă in Romanian and keeping the initial mean of the latin word placenta, the turks have brought meat balls (mititei - fried meatballs or perişoare in a meatballs soup), from the Greeks there is the musaca, from the Bulgarians there are a wide variety of vegetable dishes like zacuscă, from the austrians there is the şniţel and the list ould continue.

One of the most common meals is the mămăliga, a cornmeal mush, for a long time considered the poor men meal (N-are nici o mămăligă pe masă - He hasn't even a mămăliga on the table), but it has became wery appreciated in the recent time. Pork is the main meat used in romanian cuisine (Peştele cel mai bun, tot porcul rămâne - The best fish is always the pork), but also beef is consumed and a good lamb or fish dish is never to be refused. In conjunction with special events or periods, different recipies are prepared. During Christmas traditionally a pork is cut and prepared by every family in a wide variety of traditional recipies like: cărnaţi - a kind of long sausages with meat, cartaboşi - sausages made with liver and other intestines, piftie a gelly thing made with difficult to use parts like the feet or the head and ears and also tochitură (a kind of stew) is served along with mămăligă and wine (so that the pork can swim) and of course sweetened with the traditional cozonac (sweet bread with nuts or lokum - rahat in Romanian). At Easter lamb is served and the main dishes are roast lamb and drob - a cooked mix of intestines, meat and fresh vegetables, mainly green onion, seved with pască (pie made with cottage cheese) as a sweetener.

Wine is the main drink and has a tradition of over two millenia. Romania is curently the world's 9'th wine producer, and recently the exports have started to grow. A wide variety of domestic (Fetească, Grasă, Tamâioasa) and worldwide (Italian Riesling, [Merlot]], Sauvignon blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Muscat Ottonel) varieties are produced. Also Romania is the worls's 2nd plum prducer and almost all plum production becomes the famous ţuică (a one time refined plum brandy) or palincă (2 or more times refined plum brandy). Also beer is highly appreciated, generally blonde pilsener beer, made with German influences.

List of meals

ardei umpluţi
caltaboşi
chiftele (a type of large meatballs covered with a flour crust or breadcrumb crust)
chifteluţe de ciuperci (chiftele made of mushrooms rather than meat)
ciorbǎ de burtǎ
ciorbǎ de perişoare
ciulama
dovlecei umpluţi
drob
fasole verde
iahnie
piftie
pilaf
pirjoale
ostropel
limbǎ cu mǎsline
mămăligă (cornmeal mush)
mâncare de mazǎre
musaca
mititei
peşte marinat
plachie
rasol (with garlic or horseradish)
saramură
sarmale
soté de morcovi
şniţel
stufat de miel
supă de găluşte
tocană, dim. tocaniţă (stew)
tochiturǎ moldoveneascǎ
varzǎ cǎlitǎ (steamed cabbage with pork ribs or duck or sausages, etc.)
zacuscă

List of spices and salads

List of Desserts

List of drinks

socată
bere (beer)
palincă
rachiu (fruit brandy)
secǎricǎ (caraway seed brandy)
turţ
ţuică (plum brandy)
vişinată (a type of cherry liqueur)
vin (wine)

External links