Romania

🇷🇴Romania

Babic

Raw-dried salami from Buzău County made of pork and beef seasoned with garlic and chilli, air-cured into a firm, spicy stick.

🇷🇴Romania

Baked Beans

Iahnie de fasole

White beans slow-cooked with onion, tomato and garlic until the sauce turns thick and sticky, often with smoked pork.

🇷🇴Romania

Bean Purée with Fried Onion

Fasole bătută

White beans mashed with oil and garlic into a smooth paste and topped with onion fried dark in paprika oil.

🇷🇴Romania

Bean Soup in a Bread Bowl

Ciorbă de fasole cu ciolan

Beans cooked with a smoked pork knuckle and soured vegetables, often served in a hollowed round loaf that you eat as you go.

🇷🇴Transylvania, Romania

Beaten Bread

Pâine bătută

A rustic Transylvanian bread whose crust is charred in the oven and then beaten with a stick to crack it open, revealing a soft crumb.

🇷🇴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

Beef Sour Soup

Ciorbă de văcuţă

Beef boiled with celery stalks, onions, carrots, potatoes, bell peppers and tomato paste in a broth soured with lemon juice and enriched with beaten egg.

🇷🇴Romania

Beet Sour Soup

Ciorbă de sfeclă

Beetroot simmered with carrots, onions and rice in a borș-soured broth, similar to borscht but distinctly Romanian in seasoning.

🇷🇴Romania

Bilberry Liqueur

Afinată

Wild bilberries picked in the mountains and steeped in spirit with sugar into a dark purple liqueur.

🇷🇴Romania

Black Pudding

Sângerete

Romanian blood sausage of pig's blood mixed with fat, meat, breadcrumbs and spices, boiled or fried and eaten at the winter slaughter.

🇷🇴Romania

Borsec Mineral Water

Borsec

A naturally carbonated mineral water from springs in the eastern Carpathians, bottled since the 19th century.

🇷🇴Romania

Braga

A thick, faintly sour fermented drink of millet or maize flour, sold from carts and a handful of surviving shops.

🇷🇴Romania

Burduf Cheese

Brânză de burduf

Salty sheep cheese kneaded and packed into a sheep's stomach or a fir bark tube, where it matures into a pungent, spreadable paste.

🇷🇴Romania

Carpati

Carpați

A Romanian chocolate cake of cocoa sponge, caramel or cream filling, and a dark chocolate icing shaped like a mountain ridge.

🇷🇴Romania

Cașcaval de Săveni

A named Săveni cheese with a firm, aged paste, clean dairy aroma, and a savory finish that deepens as it matures.

🇷🇴Romania

Cheese Pastries

Merdenele

Soft puff pastry parcels filled with salty telemea and baked until the pastry lifts, sold beside pretzels at street kiosks.

🇷🇴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.

🇷🇴Romania

Chicken in White Sauce

Ciulama de pui

Chicken or mushrooms in a thick white flour-and-cream sauce, poured over polenta.

🇷🇴Romania

Chicken Noodle Soup

Supă de tăieței

Clear chicken broth with thin egg noodles, the sweet (non-soured) counterpart to ciorbă, finished with chopped parsley.

🇷🇴Transylvania, Romania

Chimney Cake

Kürtőskalács

Chimney cake is sweet yeast dough wrapped around a spit, roasted over charcoal, with a caramelized crust and soft centre.

🇷🇴Romania

Chocolate Layer Cake

Amandine

Squares of cocoa sponge soaked in rum syrup, layered with chocolate cream and covered in a hard chocolate fondant.

🇷🇴Wallachia, Romania

Clay-Pot Bread

Pâine la țest

A round flatbread from Oltenia baked under an inverted portable clay oven (țest) set on a hot hearth, a method dating to the Dacians.

🇷🇴Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Cluj Layered Cabbage

Varză à la Cluj

Layers of soured cabbage, minced pork, rice and smoked bacon baked in a dish and served with sour cream.

🇷🇴Romania

Cremă de zahăr ars

A set Romanian custard baked beneath a dark caramel layer, with a tender vanilla center and syrupy caramel around the edges.

🇷🇴Transylvania, Romania

Double-Distilled Fruit Spirit

Pălincă

A twice-distilled fruit brandy of plum, apricot or pear, much stronger than țuică and drunk in small measures.

🇷🇴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

Elderflower Drink

Socată

Elderflower heads fermented briefly with lemon, sugar and water into a lightly fizzy, faintly alcoholic summer drink.

🇷🇴Romania

Eugenia Biscuits

Eugenia

Two plain biscuits sandwiched with cocoa cream, sold in a paper tube and unchanged since the 1960s.

🇷🇴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.

🇷🇴Transylvania, Romania

Fetească Regală

A crisp, citrusy white wine from an indigenous Romanian grape bred in Transylvania, the country's most planted white variety.

🇷🇴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

Fish in Onion and Tomato

Plachie de pește

River fish baked on a bed of onion, tomato, garlic and wine until the sauce reduces around it.

🇷🇴Romania

Fish Roe Spread

Salată de icre

Fish roe whipped with oil, lemon and soda water until it doubles into a pale pink mousse, eaten with bread and raw onion.

🇷🇴Dobruja, Romania

Fish Sour Soup

Ciorbă de peşte

Freshwater fish simmered with onions, tomatoes and borș into a tangy soup, thickened with cream and egg yolk and scattered with lovage.