I am excited about the opportunity to live in Romania, with food being one of the things I most look forward to. After growing up in an Italian household and then living in Italy for several years, Italian food has always been my favorite. Living in Romania though will offer me an occasion to learn something new - sorta. After reading volumes of material on this country, what makes Romanian food recipes so special?
Romanian history. This land was always at the confluence of roads between East and West, and always in the way of various conquerors - on their way to and from the Crusades and other far away lands as Europeans discovered new cultures to the East.
As this little country was fighting for its own independence, it was always occupied by some foreign entity; first by Romans which gave birth to a Latin nation! The Turks followed and then the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Romanians also had pronounced cultural influences from other European countries such as France, Poland, and Russia. Between World Wars I and II, the capital of Romania, Bucharest, was known as "Little Paris." The influence of France's culture was at its peak for language, culture, and food.
The result of these mixed and varied cultural influences has strongly influenced "traditional" Romanian food. My first exposure to Romanian food was at the 2nd annual Romanian Festival in San Antonio in September 2018. We enjoyed; mici, cabbage rolls (wait, I thought those were Polish), polenta (isn't this Italian), baklava (hey, this is Turkish), coleslaw that tasted more German than what we would eat at KFC, and chocolate desserts rivaling any French pastry shop.
So what is "Romanian" food? Over the next few years, I will be exploring the culture and the people of my new home. Stay connected to learn while I learn, see what I see, and taste what I am tasting. I hope you like it.
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