Adventures in Romanian Cuisine

Salut again!

My Romanian trip yielded quite a lot of photographs. Continuing the trend of blogging my European eats, I  thought I'd dedicate this post to my Romanian culinary adventures. I can't promise anything as interesting as getting pecked by a dead chicken but if you're like me food helps you understand a culture, so I thought these would be interesting. If not to you, then to me.  :)

Roman Romanian Food
Ethnic Romanians claim to be descended from the Romans, and if you eat their Italian food you would believe it. I don't know when I've eaten such delicious Italian food. Every restaurant has pizza, pasta, cheese plates, etc. And it's all super cheap, and it's all delicious.

I kept leaving my camera at home when I went out to eat so many many pictures of my delicious Italian meals are going to be missing much to my chagrin.

The first place I ate was this restaurant on Piata Mica called La Turn, which means the Tower, and it was right under the Town Tower. The first thing I ate there was a grilled vegetable antipasto, and it was so good, I kept going back there almost every day for more grilled vegetable antipasto.

It was a plate with grilled eggplant, zucchini, squash, white asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, and olives served on top of arugula with shaved parmesan on top. Every table in Romania had a bottle of oil and balsamic vinegar on it so you could dress your food. This was the first dish I had in Romania and it was divine. I neglected to take a picture of it but here is a close approximation, only this looks like it could serve 10 people.

Grilled Vegetable Antipasto

The second dish I ate while there was grilled chicken with mushrooms and roasted potatoes. Sound boring, but after all that heavy Hungarian food in Ezstergom and all the paprika cream sauce screwing up my system, it was delicious and just the right combination of protein and starch. A nice follow up to the vegetable antipasto.

Here is my chicken and mushrooms with a few olives from the antipasto plate thrown in.

Grilled Chicken and Mushrooms at La Turn

The food had been grilled in a wood burning oven and it was so good!

The third night I was in Sibiu, after I finally got the credit card cash advances worked out, I decided it was time to eat pizza. Again! This was my second pizza. I probably didn't need it, but I started the meal with a meat and cheese plate, just because the Italian food there is so damn good!

Here's my meat and cheese plate at Max's on the Piata.

Meat and Cheese Plate on the Piata

Here is my delicious pizza, cooked in a wood burning oven. 411 ain't got nothin' on this pizza.

Pizza with All the Toppings

I wish I had photos of some of the other noteworthy Italian meals. One of my favorites was chicken parmegianna at La Turn. It was a chicken breast, lightly breaded, topped with freshly sliced tomatoes, arugula, and Parmesan cheese shavings. Delicious!

Another dish that I just couldn't seem to stay away from was the bruschetta at La Turn. The tomatoes were so fresh and the olive oil so extra virgin. Here is a picture. I also ordered this just about every day. The staff was very nice but they laughed at me, as I laughed at myself, each time I came in. I think the poor girl who kept waiting on me probably knew exactly what I would order. If not grilled vegetable antipasto, bruschetta.

Bruschetta at La Turn

The second time I ate at La Turn I had to try the carpaccio, which, surprise surprise, was really good.

Carpaccio at La Turn

Romanian Romanian Food

If you think I only ate Italian food in Romania you're wrong. The second night I was there I had enough money for two meals, and I decided I needed to eat some Romanian food.

I went to this restaurant called Sibiu Vechi which was recommended on some Sibiu Tourism sites. I hailed a cab because it was on a little side street in a cellar and I was afraid I would get lost. I asked the cab driver if it was a good restaurant and he said, "Very good!" so that was nice to hear.

Consequently, the cab ride, which took about 15 minutes, cost me 1 Lei 50, which is about 40 cents. I tipped the guy 5 Lei because that's what I had, and you would have thought I gave him $100. I felt like a Rockefeller.

Sibiu Vechi is decorated with antiques and traditional Romanian painted wooden furniture, woven rugs and embroidered table cloths, with traditional painted pottery on the tables. Here is an old stove inside the door near my table decorated with traditional embroidery and lace and wooden furniture.

Antique Stove in Sibiu Vechi Restaurant

 This shot of the interior didn't come out so well. I wanted to capture the wooden tables and benches and the waiters who were wearing traditional tunics.

Inside Sibiu Vechi Restaurant

Here is my pottery table decoration.

My Table at Sibiu Vechi

When the waiter came to take my order I told him I wanted to try something that was very traditional and I asked him about the stuffed cabbage, because I understand that's a staple. His response: "You can get that on any street corner." Okay. So I got him to recommend something. He recommended a few things and I ordered the lamb. I think it's always a good sign when waiters recommend something eagerly and it's not the most expensive thing on the menu.

But for starters I ordered a traditional Romanian dish which quickly became one of my new favorite foods while I was there. It was ciorba tereneasca de vacutsa, or beef sour soup. Sour soups are apparently a traditional Romanian dish, and they make them with everything from meatballs to beef and vegetables to tripe and pork. They season it with vinegar which is how they have come to be called sour soups.

Here is my beef sour soup.

Ciorba Tereneasca de Vacutsa at Sibiu Vechi

You can see I also ordered some Romanian olives.  :) They serve it with a hot pepper and a bowl of sour cream, and you put the hot pepper in the soup and then "cool" it with sour cream. This picture doesn't really do it justice because the sour cream blobs came out looking kind of curdled but trust me, they didn't look like that in real life, only in the photograph. It was delicious.

This was the first of the sour soups I tried. I ate beef sour soup several other times after this and I also tried the meatball sour soup. It was more similar to Italian wedding soup. It was made with chicken broth and had beef meatballs and rice in it and bits of parsley. I did NOT try the tripe sour soup.  :)

And now we get to the main course. It was a lamb filet served in a rich gravy and it was divine. I have to say, I had not eaten much all day and I was starving. I gobbled down the entire plate of food before I realized I had not taken a picture of it. So, yes, you get to see the dregs. The only thing still intact is the pile of polenta which is a Romanian staple referred to as mamaliga.

Lamb Filet and Gravy with Mamaliga

I also ordered a traditional pickled vegetable because it seemed par for the course, but I didn't eat much of it. Here are my pickled Romanian peppers.

Pickled Romanian Peppers

The last day I was there I ate lunch at a traditional Romanian restaurant in Piata Mica where I had seen a lot of locals eating. I had sour meatball soup and then I tried the stuffed cabbage.

My mom has a friend who is from the Ukraine and she gave my mom their stuffed cabbage recipe, which I love. It's stuffed with a beef or pork picture and sometimes there is rice in it, and it's topped with a tomato based sauce. I assumed since Romania is near the Ukraine their stuffed cabbage would be similar. It was not.

In my quest to eat less pig, I was expecting a big plate of tomato topped cabbage rolls. Imagine my surprise when they set down a plate of cabbage rolls filled with smoked pork and topped with a pig knuckle and sour cream!

Stuffed Cabbage Topped with Pig's Knuckle, Shredded Pork and Sour Cream

You will notice the ubiquitous mamaliga. Just so we're clear, it's not that I don't like pork, it's just that the combination of smoked pork and sour cream gets a little heavy on your system after awhile. The food was quite tasty, but I did not eat very much of it because I didn't want to be breathing smoked pork all afternoon, a surefire recipe for a migraine.  :)

Limonada

Before I sign off, I would be remiss if I did not discuss and depict my all time favorite beverage after water, Lemonade! Those Romanians know how to make some damn good lemonade.

They bring out a glass pitcher that has about two cut-up lemons in the bottom, juice squeezed, and a tiny bit of ice. Tiny. This is Europe after all. There is a straw in the pitcher, and they bring you a bottle of Apa Minerala. You put in sugar to taste, and dump the mineral water in and stir it up, and there you have it. Fresh squeezed lemonade. Delicious!

Limonada

Ciao for now!