Romania is a beautiful small country in Eastern Europe in the Balkan region. While living and working there over the years, I have eaten and enjoyed many delicious meals. Mealtime in Romania is a very special moment. Family and friends get together and can linger long after a meal is over in deep conversation.

Romanian food is diverse. Food choices and cooking styles are influenced by Balkan traditions as well as those from Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Russia, and the Near East, which includes Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.

Some of the traditional Romanian dishes are stuffed cabbage leaves known in Romanian as sarmale. Other vegetables cooked and served are stuffed bell peppers (ardei umpluti); green beans (fasol verde); carrot sote (sote de morcovi); roasted peppers (ardei copti); eggplant salad (salata de vinete); and tomato salad (rosii salata). Potatoes are popular in Romania and are served very often. They are cheap to buy and are sold everywhere in the fall, both in markets and on the streets and highways in front of private homes. There are vegetables and fruits of all kinds and many of them are grown in the country itself.

Pork and lamb are preferred over beef in Romania, and pork fat is used in cooking. For Christmas, traditionally, each family slaughters a pig and a variety of recipes are used to prepare the meat. One of the popular dishes made from pig liver and intestines is a long sausage called carnati. Another dish is piftie, which is made from the feet, head and ears and suspended in jelly. I have seen most of the country and in my travels have seen far more sheep and pigs grazing in the fields than cattle. Romanians love spicy meatballs made from a mixture of pork and beef. Ghiveci is a Romanian dish that combines meat and vegetables and is baked. Other meat dishes include skewered meat (frigarui); beef tongue with olives (limba cu masline); grilled thin meat rolls (mititei); and chicken cutlet (snitel). At Easter they serve roast lamb and also a cooked mixture of intestines, meat and fresh vegetables called drob in Romanian. Danube River fish and Black Sea mackerel are very important to Romanians. Pollution has extensively affected the fishing industry in Eastern Europe and eating fish is not as popular as it once was.

Soups, especially bean soup, are served hot in the winter in Romania, and cold soup made with cucumber, yogurt, and walnuts, known as tarator, is prepared in the summer. Lovage, an unusual herb that tastes like celery, is used in Romanian cuisine, especially lamb soup. Soups are usually soured with lemon juice or a dash of vinegar.

Different breads are very popular in the Romanian culture and there are many interesting varieties. Cooked maize flour (mamaliga) is traditional throughout Eastern Europe and is considered the poor man’s dish and is a Romanian specialty. It is used with meat or cheese and is called polenta in Italy. It is cooked so long that it thickens and when it is done it can be sliced ​​like bread.

Cheeses of all kinds are very popular among Romanians. The generic name of the cheese in Romania is branza. Most cheese is made from cow’s or sheep’s milk.

Desserts are usually fruit-filled crepes or cherry streudel. Other desserts in Romania include baclava, which is a layered sweet cake; sponge cake known as pandispan; rice pudding or orez cu lapte; and gingerbread or turtle candy.

More and more wine is being produced in Romania. In the past, religious influences and fifty years of political isolation from market influences prevented this from happening. Romanian brandy made from plums grown there is considered a national spirit and is called tulca. The meal ends with coffee, the strong, thick Turkish-style coffee served with dulceata, which are soft sweets made from apples, plums, raisins, or figs that have been stewed, thickened, and rolled into balls, topped with walnuts, and dipped in rum or other alcohol. .

When visiting homes anywhere in Romania, the people are friendly and warm and there is always an invitation to share their food.