Moldova

🇲🇩Moldova

Alivenci

Maize flour beaten with fresh curd, eggs and soured cream, poured onto a cabbage or walnut leaf and baked into a squat golden cake.

🇲🇩Moldova

Baba Neagră

Dark, dense cake of maize and wheat flour with soured cream, butter and burnt sugar, baked slowly until the top blackens.

🇷🇴Romania

Beef Salad

Salată de boeuf

Boiled beef, potato, carrot, peas and pickles diced small and bound with mayonnaise, moulded and decorated with pickled peppers.

🇷🇴Romania

Chicken in Garlic and Tomato

Ostropel

Chicken browned and then stewed in tomato with an aggressive amount of garlic, thickened slightly and served with polenta.

🇲🇩Moldova

Chișcă

Pig intestine stuffed with liver, lung, heart and rice or buckwheat, boiled then baked so the casing tightens and browns.

🇲🇩Gagauzia, Moldova

Cighiri

A named Gagauz-Moldovan preparation of chopped offal and meat seasoned with onion and herbs, packed and cooked until sliceable, then served warm or cold.

🇲🇩Moldova

Colaci

Plaited ring loaves of enriched wheat dough baked for weddings, funerals and church feasts, carried on the arm and given away rather than sold.

🇲🇩Moldova

Colțunași

Half-moon dumplings boiled and dressed with sour cream, filled with sheep's cheese and dill in summer or sour cherries in July.

🇲🇩Moldova

Cricova Sparkling

Spumant de Cricova

Bottle-fermented sparkling wine aged in 120 km of limestone galleries under the village of Cricova, cool and constant year round.

🇲🇩Moldova

Cușma lui Guguță

A stacked Moldovan pancake dessert filled with sour cherries, covered with sour cream, and named for the literary character Cușma lui Guguță.

🇲🇩Moldova

Divin

Moldovan grape brandy, double-distilled and oak-aged, called divin because the Cognac name is not available to it.

🇷🇴Romania

Easter Cheese Cake

Pască

A sweet yeasted case filled with sweetened curd cheese, raisins and vanilla, baked with a pastry cross laid over the top.

🇷🇴Romania

Fermented Bran Sour

Borș

A sour liquid made by fermenting wheat bran with water and herbs, used to sour soups instead of vinegar or lemon.

🇷🇴Romania

Fetească Albă

A bottled white wine made from Fetească Albă grapes, with floral aroma, fresh acidity, and a light orchard-fruit finish in Moldova and Romania.

🇷🇴Romania

Fetească Neagră

A bottled red wine made from Fetească Neagră grapes, typically dark-fruited and plummy with gentle spice and structured acidity.

🇷🇴Romania

Filled Pie

Plăcintă

A thin-dough filled pie baked or pan-fried until crisp, with curd, cabbage, pumpkin, apple, walnut, or sour-cherry fillings depending on the season and household.

🇷🇴Romania

Fresh Sheep Cheese

Caș

Unsalted fresh sheep curd pressed into discs, mild and springy, eaten within days or salted on to become telemea.

🇷🇴Romania

Fried Cheese Doughnuts

Papanași

Rounds of sweetened curd cheese dough deep-fried, stacked with a small ball on top, and served under sour cream and sour cherry jam.

🇲🇩Gagauzia, Moldova

Gagauz Shorpa

Şorpa

Gagauz mutton soup: bone-in lamb boiled long with onion, pepper and potato, seasoned hard and eaten with flatbread torn into the bowl.

🇷🇴Romania

Garlic Aspic

Piftie

Pig's feet, tail and ears simmered until the collagen sets, suspended in garlic-spiced aspic and chilled until firm.

🇷🇴Romania

Garlic Pork Sausages

Cârnați

Fresh or smoked garlicky pork sausages made at the winter slaughter, grilled, fried or simmered in stews.

🇷🇴Romania

Garlic Sauce

Mujdei

Crushed garlic beaten with water, salt and oil into a sharp, creamy sauce served with grilled meats, fish and polenta.

🇲🇩Moldova

Green Walnut Preserve

Dulceață de nuci verzi

Whole unripe walnuts soaked for days to draw out the bitterness, then simmered in syrup until they turn glossy black and yield to a spoon.

🇲🇩Romanian Moldavia, Moldova

Julfă

Hemp seed pounded to a milk, sweetened and layered with sheets of thin baked dough — a Lenten dessert from before dairy-free meant a diet.

🇲🇩Gagauzia, Moldova

Mangea

Bessarabian braise of chicken in a thickened sauce of its own stock with garlic and sour cream, close to a Turkish-inflected fricassée.

🇷🇴Romanian Moldavia, Romania

Moldavian Hen Soup

Ciorbă moldovenească de găină

Moldovan zeamă made with chicken, homemade noodles, wheat-bran souring, and lovage, served as a clear, aromatic soup.

🇲🇩Moldova

Moldovan Pastramă

Pastramă

Mutton or pork rubbed with salt, garlic and thyme, pressed and lightly smoked, then grilled in slices over vine cuttings.

🇲🇩Moldova

Moldovan Sheep's Cheese

Brânză de oi

Salty white sheep's cheese kept in brine in wooden tubs, crumbled over mămăligă and into plăcinte — the default cheese of the country.

🇲🇩Moldova

Negru de Purcari

A named dark red wine blend from Purcari, built around concentrated black fruit, oak spice, and a long, structured finish.

🇲🇩Moldova

Nucată

Green walnuts picked before the shell hardens, steeped in spirit with sugar and spice until the liquid turns black and bitter-sweet.

🇷🇴Galicia, Romania

Polenta

Mămăligă

Coarse maize meal cooked in a cast-iron pot and stirred stiff, turned out as a dome and cut with a thread rather than a knife.

🇷🇴Romania

Pork Cracklings

Jumări

Cubes of pork fat rendered slowly until the solids turn crisp and golden, salted and eaten with bread, onion and a glass of țuică.

🇲🇩Romanian Moldavia, Moldova

Pârjoale

Pârjoale moldovenești

Flattened patties of minced pork and beef loosened with bread soaked in milk, heavy with dill and garlic, fried until dark and eaten hot or cold.

🇲🇩Moldova

Rachiu de Tescovină

A grape-pomace brandy distilled from pressed grape skins and seeds, with a rustic dry grape aroma distinct from wine-grape brandy such as Divin.

🇲🇩Romanian Moldavia, Moldova

Rară Neagră

Băbească Neagră

A bottled red wine made from the Rară Neagră grape, called Băbească Neagră in Romania, with light cherry and plum fruit and fresh acidity.

🇷🇴Romania

Roasted Vegetable Spread

Zacuscă

Roasted aubergine and red pepper cooked down with onion and tomato into a dark spread, jarred by the crate every autumn.