Festival Menu

For both meat lovers and vegetarians

About Romanian Cuisine*

Sărut-mâna pentru masă,

c-a fost bună şi gustoasă,

şi bucătăreasa frumoasă

Thank you for the meal

it was good and tasty

and the cook was beautiful

to the more philosophical:

Mulţumescu-ţi ţie Doamne

c-am mâncat şi iar mi-e foame

Thank you Lord

for I have eaten and I am hungry again

and 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 eats anything, but it gets fat for others); or a total fulfillment saying Mâncat bine, băut bine, dimineaţa sculat mort (Ate well, drank well, in the morning 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 meaning of the Latin word placenta, the Turks have brought meat balls (mititei Mititei (Romanian for little or small) is a traditional Romanian dish, a kind of grilled meatballs made from beef (sometimes mixed with mutton and pork meat), which contain garlic, black pepper, savory and sometimes a touch of paprika. It is best served accompanied by mustard. The mititei are very popular in Romania. - fried meatballs or perişoareCiorbă (from the Turkish word çorba) is a general Romanian word describing soups consisting of various vegetables and meat, similar to the borscht. The sour taste of ciorbă is achieved by adding lemons or, more traditionally (since Romania is not rich in citrus fruit), borş (fermented wheat bran). Lovage is a frequent addition. in a meatballs soup), from the Greeks there is the musaca Moussaka is a traditional aubergine (eggplant)-based dish in the Balkans and the Middle East. The Romanian versions are made with potatoes instead of aubergine., from the Bulgarians there are a wide variety of vegetable dishes like zacuscăZacuscă is a vegetable dish very popular in Romania and other countries in the Balkans. The main ingredients are roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers (belonging to a local cultivar called "gogosari") and chopped onion. Some add tomatoes, mushrooms,carrots, beans, or celery. Other ingredients are also added according to taste, including spices. Every cook seems to have his/her own recipe. . 

From the Austrians there is the şniţelThe Schnitzel is traditionally prepared from a thinly-sliced piece of veal, which is further tenderized by pounding with steak hammer, then successively dipped into wheat flour, eggs and breadcrumbs before being fried in clarified butter or lard. Sometimes the breadcrumbs are seasoned with freshly ground black pepper. It is now more often made with thin pork escalopes. and the list could continue.

One of the most common dishes is the mămăligaMămăligă (cornmeal mush) is a Romanian dish made out of yellow maize. It is better known to the rest of the world in its Italian form, polenta. Mămăligă is one of the main traditional dishes of Romania. Historically a peasant food, it was often used as a substitute for bread or even as a staple food in the poor rural areas. However, in the last decades it has emerged as an upscale dish available in the finest restaurants., a cornmeal mush, for a long time considered the poor men dish (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 will always be 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 recipes are prepared. During Christmas traditionally a pork is cut and prepared by every family in a wide variety of traditional recipies like: cârnaţiA kind of long sausages with meat with different prepared in different shapes and sizes (or cărnaţi) - a kind of long sausages with meat, caltaboşiSpecial Roomanian sausages made with liver (or cartaboşi) - sausages made with liver, piftieA gelly dish made with various types of meat, especially pork, chicken or turkey a gelly thing made with various types of meat tochiturăis a kind of stew,served along with mămăligă and wine. It is a very popular Romanian dish. (a kind of stew) is served along with mămăligă and wine (so that the pork can swim) and of course sweetened with the traditional cozonacCozonac is a traditional Romanian cake, usually prepared on the Christmas Eve, before Easter and several other feasts. It is a yeast cake, prepared basically as bread, to which milk, sugar, eggs, butter and flavours are added. It was the sweet chosen to represent Romania in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2006. (sweet bread with nuts or lokum - rahat in Romanian). At Easter lamb is served and the main dishes are roast lamb and drob It is a special Easter dish made out of lamb liver, kidney and meat mixed with egs and fresh vegetables, mainly green onion - a special dish made out of lamb liver, kidney and meat mixed with egs and fresh vegetables, mainly green onion, served with pască A special Easter pie made with cottage cheese and eggs (pie made with cottage cheese) as a sweetener.

Wine is the main drink and has a tradition of over two millennia. Romania is currently the world's 9'th wine producer, and recently the exports have started to grow. A wide variety of domestic (Fetească, Grasă, Tamâioasă) and worldwide (Italian Riesling, Merlot, Sauvignon blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Muscat Ottonel) varieties are produced. Also Romania is the worlds's 2nd plum producer and almost all plum production becomes the famous ţuicăNo meal may start without a shot of ţuică according to Romanian tradition (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.

* an article from wikipedia.org