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Romanian Gastronomy
Moldavia
Moldavian cuisine is said to be the most refined of all. And when you think of it, you always remember the Moldavian housewife who, no matter the town she lives in, will always welcome you to her kitchen with the delicious chicken soup or scrambled eggs with pork scraps and cheese, or with the famous poale-n brau - small pies made from dough, eggs and cheese and fried in oil in a pan.
The cakes made in this part of the country are so many and diverse one loses count.
The slaughtering of the pig in winter is followed by another ritual, directed by the housewife who cooks scores of dishes: from racituri (meat jelly made with pig's trotters) to sausages.
Vegetables, too, are turned into appetizing dishes in the Moldavian cuisine. Bean soup, stewed sauerkraut, or iahnie are the Moldavians' favorite dishes. Standing out among their soups and broths in the ciorba de potroace. It is made with chicken entrails boiled with carrot, onion, parsley, and a spoonful or two of rice and seasoned with bors (a homemade fermentation liquid obtained from bran and water). This specific soup is said to be a remedy for hangover.
Moldavian tochitura differs from the same dish made elsewhere in Romania. It is made from pig's liver and kidneys chopped finely, mixed with pieces of lard and fried. When this mixture is fried, a glass of wine, pepper and garlic are added and the whole is simmered for a few minutes. This dish is never served without polenta.
Polenta also accompanies Moldavian sarmale (meat rolls in sauerkraut leaves), a famous dish served in Romanian restaurants around the world.
These meatballs rolled in sauerkraut or vine leaves are made from minced pork mixed with rice, salt, pepper, chopped dill and parsley as well as chopped onion; small portions of this mixture are then rolled in sauerkraut or vine leaves and boiled.
Muntenia
The province that stretches along the Danube, over the Romanian Plain up to the Carpathian Mountains used to be famed for the banquets thrown by the Wallachian voivodes in honor of their foreign guests.
This region's cuisine is influenced by the French gastronomy. Thus, besides the traditional dishes based on vegetables and meat, well known and appreciated are the borsch made from sorrel, from nettles, beans, mushrooms or chicken.
In Muntenia people also like dried prune stew or prune and meat stew. Cheese or pumpkin pie is often eaten here, notably in winter.
The chicken stew with quinces or apricots or the duck with olives can honorably compete for a top place among people's favorites.
Rooster or goose jelly is favored by the people of Muntenia although in winter they also enjoy pork jelly.
But the everyday meals of Muntenian Romanians are made up of beef or meatball borsch or else vegetable broth and omelets with onions or poached eggs with polenta and cheese.
Oltenia
The province of Oltenia is known for its upright, industrious but fierce people. These usually hurried people are very attached to their specific dishes and are especially fond of spicy, peppery meals.
The usually simple Oltenian cuisine is always lavishly seasoned with horse radish, pepper, and chili pepper.
Oltenian sausages are famous. They are made from equal amounts of beef and pork chopped finely with a knife and mixed with garlic, pepper and salt, the paste being then stuffed into sheep guts. Then the sausages are smoked for two hours. To anyone who has a sound gallbladder the Oltenian sausages are a genuine delight.
Banat
Lying in the West of Romania, this province whose seat is the city of Timisoara, is influenced by Serbian cuisine but still the cookery here has its own personality. The dishes favored by the people of Banat are very spicy and the combinations are quite refined.
In Banat hors d'oeuvres are given pride of place so that the term has made its way into the Banat dialect. Should Shekherazade have to speak about the dishes of Banat, she would need at least 2000 nights.
Transylvania
For a foreigner to realize what the typical Transylvanian likes to eat, he should think of the taste of a piece of smoked lard or bacon eaten with an onion and bread fresh from the oven, together with a glass of palinca (strong prune brandy). Such food would do good even to someone exploring the North Pole.
The people living in Transylvania, a province inside the arch of the Carpathian Mountains like a citadel surrounded by its walls, are real gourmets, though they are quite moderate in their eating habits.
Tall and upright, with slow gestures but with deep feelings, Transylvanians are renowned for their very clean households and their meals always ending with a dessert picked from an impressive list of cakes.
The Transylvanian soup, famous throughout Romania, is prepared with green peas, small slices of white ham, green garlic, tomatoes and parsley. This soup is twice tastier when eaten with a wooden spoon.
Borsch, which is widespread in Muntenia, does not meet with favor in Transylvania. Here people prefer soups - pork, beef or lamb soups sometimes seasoned with vinegar or tartaric acid and spiced with tarragon, or smoked bacon and sausage.
Typical of this region are the sauces made with pimento, onion and roasted flour, which are used instead of ketch-up. Instead of oil, Transylvanians use fat.
Pork is by far the favourite meat in Transylvanian cuisine. Locals don't usually eat fish, since the province is crossed by quick rivers where fishing is not possible. In exchange, vegetables are enjoyed as much as meat is.
Cabbage a la Cluj is a dish as famous as the Moldavian sarmale or the Oltenian sausages. Chopped cabbage is alternated with mince in a dish and baked in the oven, after which it is served with sour cream.
Separately, a few slices of bacon and a few mushrooms are fried until soft and then added to the meat. Serve with polenta and sour cream. There cannot be a greater feast for a healthy stomach.
Dobrogea
This is the region stretching between the Danube and the Black Sea, where the gourmet is tempted by a cavalcade of flavors and tastes belonging to the Romanian cuisine with Greek, Turkish, Tartar and Bulgarian influences.
The flocks of sheep and herds of cattle grazing on the rich pastures of Dobrogea, the fish from the many waters surrounding the region, the game of the forests, as well as the grains, vegetables and fruit offered by this fertile land to its inhabitants provide a varied raw material for the imaginative cooks of Dobrogea.
Tourists coming to this region, and especially those who spend some time on the Black Sea coast, will long remember the delicious tripe soup, noted for its nutritional value as well as for the fact that it is said to be a remedy for hangover.
For this very tasty soup the main ingredient is beef tripe, well cleaned and boiled in salted water. When it is tender, carrots and onions, as well as pepper and garlic are added. The soup is further boiled and then allowed to cool. Then the tripe is cut into narrow strips, the soup is strained and the liquid is again simmered with the strips of tripe.
It is served seasoned with vinegar or sour cream.
Turkish coffee has long been liked for its flavor, and the inhabitants of Dobrogea are good at making it, just as they make excellent cakes with walnuts and syrup called baklava and sarailie.
Danube Delta
The Danube Delta is a heaven of birds and fish. It is famous not only for its beauty, which is unique in Europe and in the world, but also for the fish dishes prepared here. Certain sorts of fish, that exist only in the delta or that migrate from the Black Sea into the delta at certain moments of the year, are known for their fine taste, and this is also due to the skill with which the locals prepare them.
Many foreigners who visited the Danube Delta were amazed by the many types of fish here as well by the craftsmanship of the fishermen and by their exotic boats, but especially by the sheer size of the sturgeon (sometimes weighing as much as 300 kg) and by the Romanian caviar which is even bigger than the Russian one and exists in large amounts.
In a big cast-iron kettle supported by a trivet over a fire, water is brought to the boil with vegetables and then small fish from some 10 to 15 species are boiled in it. Then the liquid is strained and the small fish are thrown away. Big chunks of sturgeon, carp or pike are then boiled in the broth. Meanwhile fish saramura is being prepared from fish roasted on the stove or over live coals and brine.
The fish soup is eaten separately: first one eats the broth with a wooden spoon and then come the big chunks of fish on a plate over which chili pepper or garlic is sprinkled. Finally, the saramura prepared from big chunks of carp boiled on the stove or in a spit, is served with polenta and garlic sauce.
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