Romania

🇷🇴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 Cașcaval

Cașcaval pane

Slabs of yellow cașcaval cheese breaded and deep-fried until the crust is golden and the inside runs, served with fries or mămăligă.

🇷🇴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.

🇷🇴Romania

Fried Flatbread

Scovergi

Discs of yeasted dough stretched thin and deep-fried, eaten hot with garlic, cheese and sour cream or with sugar.

🇷🇴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.

🇷🇴Romania

Gomboti

Gomboți

Potato-dough plum dumplings boiled until tender and rolled in toasted breadcrumbs, with the fruit melting into a tart center.

🇷🇸Vojvodina, Serbia

Goulash Soup

Gulyásleves

Goulash soup is a Hungarian beef soup with paprika, potatoes, caraway, and csipetke noodles traditionally cooked in a bogrács.

🇷🇴Romania

Grasă de Cotnari

A sweet white wine from botrytised grapes grown on one northern hillside, historically served at European courts.

🇷🇴Romania

Grilled Carp in Brine

Saramură de crap

Whole carp split, grilled over embers, and then bathed in a hot brine of water, garlic and chilli, served with polenta.

🇷🇴Romania

Grilled Minced Rolls

Mititei

Skinless rolls of minced beef and lamb with garlic, bicarbonate of soda and stock, grilled over charcoal and eaten with mustard and bread.

🇷🇴Romania

Grilled Polenta with Cheese

Bulz

Balls of polenta packed around salty sheep cheese and butter, then baked or grilled over embers until the outside crusts and the middle runs.

🇷🇴Romania

Head Cheese

Tobă

Pork head meat, tongue and skin set in aspic inside a stomach casing, sliced thin and eaten cold with mustard.

🇷🇴Romania

Honey Gingerbread

Turtă dulce

Hard honey-and-spice biscuits pressed in carved wooden moulds or iced in bright colours, sold at fairs and pilgrimages.

🇷🇴Bucharest, Romania

Joffre Cake

Tort Joffre

A small dense cake of chocolate sponge and heavy chocolate ganache, named for a French general who visited in 1920.

🇲🇩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.

🇲🇰North Macedonia

Kashkaval

Кашкавал

Kashkaval is a firm, pale-yellow Balkan cheese, usually made from sheep’s milk or a sheep-and-cow blend and eaten sliced or melted.

🇬🇷Greece

Koliva

Κόλυβα

Ritual wheat/poppy/honey memorial porridge

🇷🇴Romania

Lamb Haggis

Drob de miel

Lamb offal chopped with spring onion, dill and parsley, bound with egg and baked wrapped in caul fat, then sliced cold.

🇷🇴Romania

Lamb Sour Soup

Borș de miel

Lamb meat and offal cooked with rice, carrots, onions, celery root and spring garlic in a broth soured with borș and enriched with egg and sour cream.

🇷🇴Romania

Lapte de pasăre

Poached meringue islands floating in vanilla custard, a Romanian dessert whose name means bird's milk.

🇷🇴Romania

Leek Sour Soup

Ciorbă de praz

Leeks simmered with carrots and rice in a light broth soured with borș or vinegar, often enriched with smoked meat and finished with sour cream.

🇷🇴Romania

Lettuce Soup with Smoked Meat

Ciorbă de salată cu afumătură

Fresh lettuce simmered with smoked pork in a borș-soured broth, finished with sour milk or cream and a handful of dill.

🇷🇴Romania

Liver Sausage

Lebăr

Emulsified pork liver sausage ranging from fine pâté to coarse, sliced cold and spread on bread at the Christmas table.

🇷🇴Romania

Meatball Sour Soup

Ciorbă de perișoare

Small pork and rice meatballs in a vegetable broth soured with fermented wheat bran liquor, finished with lovage.

🇷🇴Romania

Memorial Wheat

Colivă

Boiled wheat berries mixed with honey, walnuts and poppy seeds, shaped into a mound and decorated with crosses and candles.

🇷🇴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.

🇷🇴Romania

Mushroom Rice Pilaf

Pilaf cu ciuperci

Long-grain rice cooked with mushrooms, onion and stock until fluffy, a fasting and everyday side dish.

🇷🇴Transylvania, Romania

Novac Afumat Tara Barsei

Novac afumat din Țara Bârsei

A named hot-smoked bighead carp from Țara Bârsei, with oily flesh, a clean smoke aroma, and a firm, sweet finish.

🇷🇴Transylvania, Romania

Năsal Cheese

Brânză de Năsal

Cow's milk cheese aged in the natural caves of Năsal in Transylvania, developing a pungent, creamy paste with a yellow rind.

🇷🇴Romania

Orez Cu Lapte

Romanian rice pudding slowly simmered in milk with cinnamon or lemon, until the grains are tender in a spoonable cream.

🇭🇺Hungary

Padlizsán Krém

Salată de vinete

Transylvanian grilled-eggplant salad; shared with RO salata-de-vinete; canonical home needs a product decision

🇷🇴Romania

Pecica Bread

Pită de Pecica

A large hearth-baked wheat loaf from Pecica in Arad County, made with high-gluten flour, yeast and salt, with a thick charred crust.

🇷🇴Romania

Penteleu

Penteleu is a named Romanian firm cheese with a dense cut, savory dairy aroma, and the nutty finish of an aged mountain cheese.