Romanian Traditional Food STUDENTS :PLESA ELISABETA VISAN SANDRA COMENIUS Bilateral project

Romanian cuisine is extremely diverse, blending the dishes of several traditions which it came into contact with. It was influenced by the other peoples that lived on its territory such as the Hungarians and Germans, the Greek, the Slavic, the Turkish and the French But the oldest influence comes from the Dacian- Roman era.

MUNTENIAN CUISINE Muntenia lies in the south – central part of Romania, along the Danube and further up to the mountains. Its cuisine is very ingenious and diverse.

You can find a lot of soup recipes in Romanian cuisine; some of them are clear soups but some of them are thicker broths which are usually prepared with lots of vegetables and these ones are called “ciorbe” in Romanian Vegetables soups made of nettles, mushrooms and all kind of beans and weeds are very popular in this region too and they are usually enriched with rice, eggs and sour cream..

Meat soups are cooked especially with chicken and beef and Muntenians cooks make good use of lovage too. Soups and thicker broths come along a large choice of meat dishes such as chicken, fish, pork, beef or mutton. The famous cow tripe soup served with garlic and sour cream shouldn’t be missed.

Dry and smoked plums (prune) are very appreciated in Muntenia and they make good ingredients for all kind of dishes, from main meals such as prune stew (with or without meat) to prune pies and puddings.

“Mititei”, also known as “mici”, is another traditional Romanian meal made of grilled minced-meat rolls. The mixture for “mititei” is made of beef, pork and lamb blended with garlic, thyme, savory, black pepper, coriander and anise. This dish is best served with beer and mustard. The both names of this meal, “mititei” and “mici”, mean “small ones”.

People from Muntenia eat indeed a lot of fresh salads – especially in spring and summer time – but during cold season they would not give up their salads, only that they would use more boiled vegetables, mixed up with cheese, cheddar, eggs and various dressings. The French mayonnaise is very much used.

If we speak about desserts – prune pie and pumpkin pie are very popular here. Sweet specialties of the area are the boiled “papanasi” (a sort of round dumplings served with jam and sour cream) and the “mucenici muntenesti” or simply “mucenici” a special type of small cookies boiled in water with walnuts, honey (or sugar) and cinnamon which are prepared only once a year – on the 9th of March).