Taste the Flavors of Romania: Traditional Cuisine

Romanian Cuisine combines several cultural influences, and is a fusion of the different cultures that have influenced Romania’s history. Romanian cuisine is mainly influenced by Balkan and Turkish cuisine.

Hearty and Flavorful Dishes:
Romanian meals are often comforting and filling. Signature dishes include sarmale—cabbage rolls stuffed with meat and rice, slow-cooked in a savory sauce, originated from the influences of the cuisine of the Ottoman Empire; mămăligă, a creamy cornmeal porridge similar to Italian polenta, often served with cheese, sour cream, or meats; and ciorbă, a tangy soup made with vegetables, meat, or fish, often with a hint of traditional souring agents like borș. Mămăliga is considered the main dish of the lower classes.

Meat and Grill Specialties:
Grilled meats are a staple of Romanian cuisine. Mititei (small spiced sausages) and friptură (roasted meats) are popular across festivals, markets and family gatherings. These dishes showcase bold flavors, fresh herbs and traditional cooking methods.

Breads, Pastries, and Sweets:
Romanian bakeries and homes delight visitors with freshly baked bread, pastries and desserts. Favorites include cozonac, a sweet bread with nuts and cocoa and plăcintă, a filled pastry that can be savory or sweet. Seasonal fruits and honey are often used in traditional desserts, adding natural sweetness.

The most common meat in Romanian cuisine is pork (as expressed in the proverb – “The best fish will always be pork”), but chicken, beef, lamb and fish are also consumed.
Romanian desserts are characterized by high sweetness, for example “mălai” and “papanași”.
Romanian soups – ciorba – are characterized by sourness, including a variety of soups such as bean soup, meatball soup, fish soup, stomach soup.
Common spreads are Romanian eggplant salad, “iahnie” (bean spread) and “icre”.

For Christmas, it is customary to slaughter a pig and prepare various delicacies from it, including:
– “cârnați” – sausage;
– “caltaboși” – sausage made from liver and other internal parts or coagulation of parts that are difficult to cook, such as feet and ears;
– “tochitură” – a stew with mămăligă and wine sauce (“so that the pig can swim”);
The meal is accompanied by “cozonac” (yeast cake).

For Easter, roast lamb and a stew of offal with vegetables are served. The last dish is “pască”, a cake made from cottage cheese.

The Romanian beer is brewed with German influence.
Romania has large factories for cask ale, which is used in many dishes.
Romania is the second largest producer of plums in the world, with most of the crop going to “ţuică”, a plum liqueur, resembling the Balkan “slibovitz”.