Food

I really like Romanian food.  There are a lot of similar dishes to Slovak food.

Sarmale, or stuffed cabbages, are my favorite.  I like dumpling soup and it is also our baby Maya?s favorite. My family has a recipe for cîrnaţide casăthat is very similar to what you can get here (we call it kolbasi from Slovak, others say Kolbasa from Polish). I like them very much. I like cabbage with smoked pork or white beans with pork meat. Gris with milk and mămăligăare things my grandmother gave me when I stayed at her house as a kid.

I make a Slovak goulash for my wife sometimes in return for all the good Romanian treats she gives me.

Things I never had before coming to Romania are papanash pastries (fried dough with cream filling), and piftie (porc and garlic in clear gelatin served very cold). Mititei, small grilled ground meat with spices, are really good and we like to cook them on the grill at a barbecue. Mousaka is something I really like too that I had in Greek restaurants in America, but here I am told that is a Turkish dish. Keftelie, or fried meatballs, are really good too.

Usually Romanians keep food on the balcony or the window seal just outside the kitchen window when the weather is cold. For many people here, it is the only way to keep something cold because they don?t have refrigerators. Also, for too many people, they don?t have to worry about having a refrigerator in the cold months because they have little or no heat in the apartment. Those that have houses in the rural villages usually have wood burning stoves, so they make some heat to warm the house when they cook and then keep some foods outside to keep. Smoking, drying, salting, pickling and canning are still very common ways of keeping foods in Romania.

Ema told me before I came here that she didn?t know how to cook anything. In reality, she is an incredible cook. She has natural talent; the first time she tries something it almost always turns out perfectly. Her mother went to cooking school and is a cook by trade in a hospital in the small town of Făurei. She acquired the taste for what is good from her mother and learned how to cook just by watching as she grew up. Or, maybe it is a genetic trait?

Restaurants

It?s strange to me to see items like bread, jam, butter, ketchup, mustard, and a hot pepper on the bill. There is also listed every price for a slice of cheese, each kind of meat and each vegetable and condiment for a sandwich in some cafes. I suppose there are a few ways to look at this. You can see exactly what you are paying for, which is better than a lot of businesses in Europe that don?t post any prices for services, which I think is unnerving to an American. How can you be sure they are charging you the same prices? At the same time, because I?m not used to seeing all little price details listed on the bill, it makes me feel like the restaurant is being cheap or overcharging me. I feel this way even if the bill isn?t expensive when I see all these very small things listed. We also don?t pay by weight measurements for meat and other portions. It?s usual to get very big portions at an American restaurant, so you not going to feel like you didn?t get enough when you order any portion of meat, vegetable or garnish. I?m sure that the prices for everything, down to salt and pepper are factored into the prices on a restaurant bill in America, but because you never see them listed, it is psychological that these things are just free parts of the meal?. But in reality, whether you get ketchup on your sandwich or not in an American restaurant, you a paying for it, because it?s the same price. So, once I get over my psychological problem of seeing every tiny item listed with its tiny price, I can realize that it?s probably fairer the way the Romanians make the menu and the check.