2. Over time, the Romanian agriculture and
grazing has positively been influenced by its
favorable topography, temperate climate and
geographical position.
Because it is placed at the crossroads between the
biggest world cultures, Romania has developed a
complex civilization and also rich gastronomic
habits.
The Romanian kitchen stands out with the fact
that the dishes are easy to prepare and you don't
need special ingredients.
3. TRANSILVANIA has been marked by the Austro-
Hungarian Empire. Therefore, the Romanian people borrowed
many terms: regional word "levese" (soup) comes from "leves",
"palinca" (tuica - an alcoholic drink) comes from "palinka" and
"paprica" (pepper) comes from "paprika".
4. Also, "Gulas"
is a meal that
contains beef. In
hungarian
"gulyas" means
"shepherd", and
in the past, the
shepherd use to
slaughter his
animals and eat
them.
There are also hungarian dishes we
prepare all the time. "Papricas" is a
spicy meal with a lot of chilli pepper.
5. The Greek and Oriental cultures put their marks all
along the Black Sea territories up to DOBROGEA.
Thus we have common terms such as „pesmet”, „franzela”,
„pandispan”or „bezea”.
6. These influences created new
habits to the local population: we
started eating pilaff, stew,
moussaka and kebap. Settlers
brought with them plants like the
tomatoe, eggplant, pumpkin,
melon and corn.
A very big
similarity is that
the Romanians,
Greeks and
Turks use honey
and flower nectar
as sweetener.
Romanians also
have pies,
halvale, sarailiile
and baclavalele
from the Greeks
and Turks.
7. In the MOLDAVIAN cuisine there are many signs of Slavic culture. "Plescavita"
(plijeskavica) is a specific dish that looks like a hamburger, but the sauces and the meat
have different ingredients and spices and you can also eat it from the plate if you want
to. There are also common terms like "a praji" (to fry) and "cocos" (rooster).
8. You can also discover
French cuisine marks in the
Romanian kitchen . We have
many common gastronomic words:
antreu, pateu, piureu, saleu,
sufleu, file, pane, sote, rulada,
antricot, bulion, cotlet, crochete,
escalop, maioneza, vinegreta,
profiterol.
Many French recipes have
been Romanized as well: the
Boeuf salad, Soup a la greque,
Soup a la rousse. The name of the
Romanian appetizer "parizer"
actually comes from "Paris", the
capital of France. Also, the
Romanian word "biscuit"
(biscuit, cookie) means soft
dough, baked in France.
9. We believe that thecontributionand the influence of
many culturesare the reasonsfor having such complex
andtasty Romaniancuisine.We are proudof it!