Category: Romania

FOOD AND CULTURE OF ROMANIA

The Romanian is a study in contrasts. Like the Romanian climate which is icily cold in winter and fiercely hot in summer, the Romanian can be consumed with melancholy listening to the doine (poignant country songs of love and longing) or elevated to a passionate frenzy when dancing the hora or the colusari. Gypsy violins can make him cry but the sound of flutes and nai (panpipes) or cimpoi (bag-pipes) will evoke songs and laughter. He likes his tea very weak and his coffee very strong, his pickles very hot and his desserts very sweet. Like the powerful wind called the crivetz, which whips up the snow in the winter and drives the yellow dust in the summer, the Romanian soul is alternately gay and animated or sad and despairing – but seldom dull.

Aside from these extremes of temperament and taste, the two-thirds of the Romanian population engaged in agriculture do show a form of moderation when it comes to their work. The rich fertile lowlands and the Wallachian Plains yield bounteous crops with little effort, and for centuries the people contented themselves with their own needs and little more.

Probably it is those same fertile pastures, orchards, vineyards, and fields of grain that enticed the Roman conquerors about 100 C.E. In exchange for the grain and the gold that they took from the land, they built bridges and roads; but more important they built the beginnings of an identity and left a language and culture that is proudly preserved to this day. The strength of the Roman cultural identity can be better appreciated when one realizes that Romania was and still is almost surrounded by Slavic peoples and even counts within her own population more than a dozen ethnic groups. Despite this, more than 85 percent of the population speak Romanian, which is closely related to the other Romance languages of Latin, Spanish, French, and Italian. Further, their homogeneity is displayed not only in their almost universal temperament and tastes but also in their religion, for the vast majority of the population are members of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Romania today is composed of the areas of Transylvania, Banat, Wallachia, and Moldavia, with the Transylvanian Alps and parts of the Carpathian Mountains forming her interior. In former times, Bucovina and Bessarabia were also a part of Romania – but never all these areas at one time. Because of the tug-of-war for her lands, parts of Romania developed differently, strongly influenced by invaders. For example, Transylvania, originally a Romanian province, before 1000 C.E. became a Hungarian province, but in the 1200s was settled by German colonists, thus adding to the population of Romanians, Hungarians, and Szecklers (of non-Hungarian origin). At this time Hungarian domination spread to most of Romania, and the original Romanian population was kept in ignorance and subservience for almost 800 years.

In the 1400s, the Turks conquered Moldavia and Wallachia and placed Greeks on the thrones. In the late 1600s a contest of power between Austria and the Ottoman Empire further suppressed the Romanians and added Hungarian peasants to the oppression.

By the late 1700s, Russia joined the battle for Romania’s lands and by 1812 Bessarabia became Russian. But a surge of Romanian nationalism resulted in the creation of Romania as an independent kingdom in 1881, and rather than wars, she made treaties with Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and gained some internal stability.

In the powerful desire to throw off their subservient yokes and gain independence, the Moldavian peasants began a surge of anti-Semitism that later became government policy and led in the early 1900s to a mass exodus of Romania’s Jews.

Towards the end of the First World War, Romania’s siding with the Allies gained her more territory at one time than she had previously ever known. Back into her fold came Transylvania, Bucovina, most of Banat and Bessarabia. In the wake of this good fortune, Romania rescinded its anti-Semitic policies and attempted much-needed land reform policies. This too was short-lived and growing political pressures and Fascist sympathies led again to Jewish repression, censorship, and alignment with the Germans during the Second World War. By 1944, Russian armies swept into Bessarabia and Bucovina and deep into Romanian territory to secure her surrender. The gradual spread of communism began, as did the shift from a basically agricultural economy to a more industrialized one.

Because of the repressive history of Romania, it is all the more intriguing that the country has retained her ancient Roman cultural identity and language – even the Romanian Orthodox religion. With the many territorial exchanges and foreign rulers, and despite the sufferings of her people, Romania mirrors her history in her cuisine but not in her identity. From the Southern Slays of the former Yugoslavia came the sarmales and ghiveciu, from Hungary the tokany, gulyas, and paprikash, from Austria the strudels, tortes, and wiener schnitzel, from Turkey the pilafs, baklava, halva, dolmas, and strong Turkish coffee, and finally from Russia the taste for soured soups, blini, and a variety of dark breads made from rye and coarse wheat flours. In some areas the German love of potatoes predominates over the inherent Romanian love of mamaliga, Romania’s staple “bread of gold” made from cornmeal.

Aside from cuisine, one other Slavic tradition has become important in Romania. This is the reverence for wheat as the symbol of life. A part of the Romanian Orthodox funeral service is the blessing of a plate of mounded wheat sprinkled with sugar, raisins, and nuts. This is similar to the Ukrainian kutya, the Russian kutija, and the Serbian koljivo or zito.

Romanians are noted for extremes in temperament and taste, and diversity in history and cuisine, but some things have remained comparatively consistent. Although increasingly Romanian women are stepping into full-time jobs away from their homes, they still retain their age-old respect for their men; the Romanian man comes first. And although Romanians are devotedly religious, they have embraced Christianity in addition to, not instead of, paganistic rites and superstitions.

All share one other characteristic: they believe firmly that old age is simply a disease, not an inevitability. Health spas, mineral baths, drinking waters, the assiduous application of herbs and sometimes even a spell or two are believed to do the trick. From infancy to adulthood the taking of special waters, teas, and herbal brews are as much a staple as their beloved mamaliga. Hence too the serious devotion paid to the skills of the kitchen by all Romanian women: what can be more important than food and herbs?

FOODS OF ROMANIA

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Yogurt, soured milk, and cottage cheese head the list of dairy products in the Romanian food diet for these are not only eaten by themselves but enjoyed as parts of many other food and dishes. Sweet cream is widely used as whipped cream in pastries, and sour cream finds a place in many Hungarian and Slavic-inspired dishes.

Even when other protein sources such as meat and fish are scarce or expensive, cheese is consumed at least once daily and often more often. Most cheeses are made from sheep’s or goat’s milk and include the Kashkaval, a firm yellow cheese, and Brinza, a soft creamy cheese. Together with the fresh cottage cheese, all cheeses are eaten as they are with breads, with mamaliga, atop casseroles, or enfolded in cakes and dumplings, yeast dough and clatite (thin crepes). Some sharp and pungent cheeses are eaten as an appetizer with Tuica (clear plum brandy) and black olives.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

The climate and fertile lands produce an abundance of quality fruits: peaches, apricots, pears, apples, plums, cherries, grapes, and many varieties of melons and berries. In season these are eaten fresh or as a compote. Some fruits are dried, others made into fruit butters and jams and the famed dulceata.

Many varieties of vegetables are available and are eaten in quantity and variety commensurate with the budget. The Romanian food staples are cabbage and potatoes as well as the usual root vegetables. In season, many vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and scallions are eaten raw as a side dish. Cabbage may be stored as sauerkraut, and peppers, cucumbers, etc., will be made into spicy pickles. Eggplant is one of the more popular vegetables because of its versatility as an appetizer. Vinete tocate is a vegetable stuffed with meat and rice or as the important part of musaca.

The uses and nutritional values of vegetables are well appreciated by Romanians. Infants are fed finely pureed vegetables as one of their first solid foods. The cultivation of herbs for flavoring and medicinal purposes is widely pursued. Vegetables in colorful profusion are munched raw, nibbled as appetizers, enjoyed raw, or cooked for salads, may be stuffed, pickled, wrapped, layered, stewed, or simmered in hearty soups.

At the very least, most vegetables will be accorded the “simple” Romanian treatment of being chopped, shredded, or diced then tossed with lard and browned onions with a little water. They are then cooked till tender, sloshed with sour cream or yogurt and blended with a little vinegar just before serving. Finally, most Romanian sauces are really only a puree of vegetables blended with oil. One way or another, everyone in Romania gets their vegetables.

MEATS AND ALTERNATES

Pork and veal are the favorite meats and there is no part of the animal that is not used. Meats are grilled or roasted but most often are a part of vegetable soups and stews. One of the favorite snacks is mititei, sausage-like fingers of highly seasoned ground meat grilled over an open fire and served with sour cabbage, hot pickles, and dark bread. Often tidbits of variety meats and offal – heart, liver, kidney, lungs, brain, or udder – are grilled too. Some chicken, duck, and game birds are occasionally used, but the birds are often scarce and expensive. Chicken and egg production is low and chickens are often tough.

From the Black Sea coast, the Danube River and countless smaller rivers and lakes comes quite a good supply of fish. Sturgeon, trout, carp, pike, perch, and bream are baked or grilled and often made into soups or stews. Sturgeon roe (caviar) is expensive, but carp roe is often prepared by mashing and blending into a thick sauce with olive oil. This appetizer is called icre and may be a part of the Romanian food appetizer assortment together with salted olives and tangy cheese. Beans are used quite often in soups, salads, or casseroles.

BREADS AND GRAINS

Corn, wheat, oats, buckwheat, rye, barley and rice are all grown in Romania but nothing exceeds cornmeal in popularity. From this is made mamaliga. This Romanian food’s versatility equals the pasta, rice or potato staples of other peoples, and even the most affluent Romanian succumbs at least occasionally to a meal based on mamaliga. This is not difficult to enjoy, for mamaliga in its bland sweetness seems the perfect foil for meats and gravies, cottage cheese, yogurt, butter or sour cream, various vegetable sauces or simply a mound of browned mushrooms or onions. Cold, it can be sliced into wedges and eaten as a bread or sliced thinly and dipped in egg and breaded and fried in squares, layered into vegetable and/or meat casseroles, or served in the bottom of a soup plate. Sometimes mamaliga is the companion to fried or scrambled eggs, or even just sauerkraut or pickles. With mamaliga who can be hungry?

Wheat flours are processed in various stages of refinement and used for the many pastries, cakes, tortes and desserts so beloved by the Romanians. If mamaliga is not on the table, it is certain there will be an assortment of dark and sour rye breads or crusty coarse wholewheat breads to accompany the meal. Rice and barley are used in soups and stews, in stuffed vegetables and as a base for meat and gravy dishes.

FATS

Lard, butter, olive oil, and sunflower seed oil are used in cooking and baking. The latter two also serve as salad dressings.

SWEETS AND SNACKS

Romanians are fond of sweets and they like their sweets very sweet, perhaps as an antidote to the hot peppers.

Dulceata (fruits preserved in heavy syrup) and sweet thick Turkish coffee plus the whole range of rich tortes, layer cakes, filled cakes, honey and syrup-drenched Turkish pastries, sticky-rich dried fruits, strudels filled with fruits, nuts, poppy seeds – the list is endless. Chocolates in every form, plain or filled, are a specially treasured treat. Failing chocolates, Romanians will munch happily on raisins.

SEASONINGS

As in other parts of the Romanian food and cuisine, the inter-twining of Slavic and Oriental tastes is evident. Olive oil, sour cream, onions and leeks, garlic, black olives (masline), paprika, wine, and a wide range of herbs are used not just for flavor but for their other properties as well. Babies enjoy sticking sprigs of sassafras tied to their wrists. Parsley and garlic are believed to purify the blood, yogurt to aid digestion, and caraway to act as a mild laxative.

In order to prepare the many sour soups that are a frequent part of the Romanian food menu, fermented grains, fruits, beer or vinegar or the juice from pickles or sauerkraut is used.

BEVERAGES

Romania’s vineyards produce a variety of good local wines enjoyed with dinner and supper and often in between, especially when mixed with soda water as a shpritz. The most popular aperitif is the clear plum brandy called Tuica or Tzuica enjoyed straight but always with appetizers such as icre, vinete tocate, masline, mititei, tiny hot peppers, pickles, or sharp cheeses. Must is an autumnal beverage of lightly fermented grape juice.

On the sober side, clabbered milk called lapte batut is often a part of breakfast with breads or rolls (croissant or brioche) or even mamaliga. Sweetened soft drinks and cola are increasingly available, and fruit drinks called nectars are also enjoyed. Turkish coffee, tea, and herbal teas are also taken.

ROMANIAN DOMESTIC LIFE

Romanian homes are brightly decorated with wall hangings, curtains, coverlets and tablecloths of richly intricate embroideries. Displays of folk pottery and carved wooden objects attest to an artistic people who are seldom idle with their hands. Even much of the furniture is handmade and beautifully carved and finished.

The center of most homes, is usually the kitchen. This same room is not only the largest in the house, it is also the living room, the dining room, and the children’s bedroom. One other small room will be the parents’ bedroom and a still smaller one will be the food storage room or the pantry. A large wood-burning stove with ovens, cooktop, and open hearth will be centered against one wall of the kitchens whitewashed interior. Not only do all the good foods come from here, but so does the heat.

Colorful earthenware dishes, mixing bowls, and casseroles for baking the many popular vegetable stews are basics of the kitchen as are the heavy cast-iron pots for soups and cooktop stews like gulyas and tokany. But most important are the utensils involved in the preparation of mamaliga. This thick cornmeal porridge that is almost all things to a Romanian is so special it is cooked in a special cast-iron pot called a ceaun and stirred with a carved wooden stick called a facalet. Finally it is turned out on to its own wooden board to cool and is cut with a special string into hearty wedges; that is, if it is not prepared to be eaten in one of countless other ways.

Romanians prefer fresh fruits and vegetables, each in its own season. But the pantry area does hold cabbages and root vegetables that can take storage: to preserve them for winter use, vegetables that are more perishable are sometimes wrapped in leaves and buried in an earthen pit. Mostly, however, seasonal fruits are preserved as jams, fruit butters to be used for pastry fillings, dried, or cooked in heavy syrup to produce dulceata, thick sweet preserves of whole or sliced fruits or berries eaten with a spoon between sips of icy cold water and finally washed down with strong Turkish coffee. Cabbage may also be stored as barrels of sauerkraut; other vegetables will he preserved for winter and year-round use as spicy hot, sweet, or sour pickles.

ROMANIAN SPECIAL OCCASIONS

Over 85 percent of the population is Romanian Orthodox. Very small minorities of Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Jews make up the remainder. The Romanian calendar burgeons with fast days and feast days, lucky days and unlucky days, rites for spring and rites for winter, sheep milking festivals, harvest and seeding festivals, wine festivals and festivals for the invocation of rain. All have traditional songs and dances and often costumes and much wine and good food.

Funeral customs exemplify many ancient pagan rites, beliefs, and symbols: dirges and funeral songs are played, special dawn ceremonies are held and many don special masks while keeping the vigil with the corpse. In the church service, the priest blesses a special plate of cooked grain, nuts and sugar in memory of the dead.

Weddings are gay, colorful, and bursting with exuberant song and dance. One of the oldest country wedding traditions is the fertility rite of “the song of the hen.” Feasting and good times may continue more than one day.

In Wallachia, Gypsy children parade in green-leaved costumes, knocking at each house, singing, dancing and being splashed with water by the villagers. This paparude is intended to invoke rain and is usually performed in the spring or during a drought. More water-throwing accompanies June 24, St. John’s Day, when little girls dress in costumes and hats decorated with ears of corn, singing, dancing, and uttering occasional shrieks destined to reach the ears of some unnamed corn god – another ancient tradition.

Christmas is celebrated more quietly with caroling and good food. But the stress on agricultural themes can be seen again in many villages. New Year’s is celebrated by carrying a decorated plough from house to house accompanied with songs to ensure the next year’s good crops.

ROMANIAN MEALS, CUSTOMS AND FOOD COMMONLY USED

The single most important staple of the Romanian diet is mamaliga (the name is of Turkish origin from mama, and means food). Many peasants have survived almost solely on this cornmeal porridge while even the upper classes make it almost a daily part of the menu. Romanians are also fond of spicy and tangy appetizers, cheeses, sour soups, stews of vegetables and meat, grilled and roasted meats and fish as well as sweet desserts and pastries. All of this is enjoyed with good wine, potent plum brandy (Tuica), thick Turkish coffee and sometimes weak tea. Simple or complex, Romanian foods all have distinctive flavors, and as in everything else, contrast are much enjoyed.

MEALS AND CUSTOMS

Breakfast may of necessity have to be only mamaliga and yogurt or clabbered milk, but Romanians prefer a hearty breakfast including soft-boiled eggs or omelets, sliced ham and sausages, cheeses and dark bread. Lunch or dinner is considered the biggest meal of the day and may be anytime between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. It usually begins with a gustare or “taste” of cheeses, olives, scallions, and Tuica, then on to soup, followed by a good stew of meat or fish with vegetables, a dessert of fruit or pastries or clatite (rolled thin pancakes). This is accompanied by wine and completed with Turkish coffee. The evening meal will be lighter and taken around 9:00 p.m. It is usually made up of leftovers from dinner, noodle or dumpling dishes, or something based on mamaliga (cottage cheese and butter atop a plate of mamaliga for instance). Large servings are the common rule.

Casual visitors are always offered a tray with dulceata, cold water, and tiny cups of Turkish coffee. The procedure is to take small spoonfuls of dulceata followed by sips of water. Turkish coffee completes the ritual. In some areas the offering of the second cup of coffee means that the visit is over and it is time to leave.

Meals at home tend to be not only generous in portions, but simple and hearty. The many-course meal is a rarity except in affluent homes or restaurants. There is little home life in the cities, because of the congested and sparse living quarters, so people enjoy the evening stroll (like the korzo of the former Yugoslavia and the paseo of Spain) with a stop for drinks, snacks, and gossip. Meals in restaurants feature fine-quality beef and all of the complex dishes that require skilled preparations: ciorbas, tocanas. ghivetcu, tortes, strudels, and other specialties. Coffeehouses serve tea and coffee but mostly aperitifs with appetizer plates of olives, pickles, and cheese.

Street vendors sell fresh fruits in season, dried fruit snacks, and the Romanian specialty mititei.

ROMANIAN GLOSSARY OF FOOD AND FOOD TERMS

Balmos: boiled cheese balls.

Bors or Borsh de Miel: sour soup (like Russian Borsch) with pieces of lamb.

Branza de Burduf: cheese flavored with pine.

Budinca: rich steamed puddings made with eggs, meat and/or vegetables, cut in squares to serve.

Cartofi: potatoes.

Cas: unsalted country cheese.

Ciorba: soups that may be made with meat and/or vegetables or even just grains. Characteristic is the sour taste created with the addition of vinegar or the fermented juices of fruits, grains, sauerkraut, pickles or beer.

Ciorba de Fasole: a soup of dried white beans thickened with an onion roux. Tartness comes from the addition of vinegar and sour cream.

Ciorba Pescareasca: sour fish soup.

Ciuperci: wild mushrooms.

Clatite: thin dessert pancakes served with nuts and sugar or fruit.

Coltzunash cu Smintina: cheese-filled, poached dumplings encased in noodle dough. They are served with sour cream and a sprinkle of sugar.

Dulceata: selected whole or sliced fruit preserved in a very heavy syrup. Eaten in small spoonfuls with sips of ice water, followed by Turkish coffee.

Ghiveciu: a mixture of vegetables and herbs browned first then slowly cooked or baked in one pot. Occasionally meat is a part of this dish. Top may be finished with grated cheese, or a custard of beaten eggs and yogurt. To the Romanians not only a culinary delight but a symbol of their own country: many diverse elements living in harmony and enhancing each other. The Romanian classic via the former Yugoslavia.

Gustare: just “a taste,” the term used to refer to a small appetizer.

Icre: well-seasoned carp roe mashed and blended with oil and served as an appetizer, usually with black olives. From the Greek Taramosalata.

Lapte Batut: clabbered (fermented) milk served as a beverage.

Mamaliga or Mamaliga de Aur: Romania’s “bread of gold,” her staple in good times and bad, regarded almost as a symbol of reverence and security. Mamaliga is simply cornmeal cooked in boiling salted water to a porridge. It is eaten hot or cold and in countless forms with endless combinations often making the entire meal, whether breakfast, with the addition of cream or milk, dinner with meat and gravy, or a light supper served with cottage cheese and sour cream.

Masline Frecate: an appetizer paste made of black olives, sweet butter and seasoned with chives, parsley, fennel, and pepper.

Meze or Mezelicuri: appetizers.

Mititei: ground, seasoned meat shaped into fingers and grilled.

Musaca: a casserole of potatoes layered with cubed pork or veal, topped with beaten eggs and cream and baked in the oven. Of Greek origin.

Pastrama: any smoked meat: pork, lamb, mutton, even goose.

Patricieni: similar to Mititei but even more spiced and covered with pork intestine.

Praz cu Masline: a chilled appetizer of leeks, onions, and olives cooked in garlic and olive oil.

Sarmales: ground meat and rice stuffed into cabbage sauerkraut, spinach, or grape leaves.

Supa: soup other than Bors or Ciorba.

Tocana: Hungarian stewed meat with onions and paprika.

Tzuica or Tuica: clear distillate of plums taken straight and called Apa Chiora (cross-eyed water) by country people. For those who can take it, it is considered the national drink of Romania.

Urda: cheese made from sheep’s milk.

Varza: cabbage.

Varza ala Cluj: layers of sauerkraut, meats and rice topped with sour cream.

Vinete Tocate: an appetizer prepared from cooked mashed eggplant well seasoned with garlic and served with black bread.