Pofta Buna!

Nicoletta's homemade pickles

Salata de beufe

Couldn't resist adding some more delicious dishes to the blog. While Romanians take great pride in their cooking and dishes are beautifully prepared, you have to know that everything is made at home. Usually made from vegetables and fruits from the garden and meat and eggs from the animals they own. Lots of people even make their own cheese and yogurt and even margarine. Each time I asked the ingredients of a dish I was surprised at how basic they were. It's what is done with them is what's so impressive! Here are some of the things that have appeared at various dinner tables I've sat at over the past week or so.. Pofta Buna!!

Here is what I ate when I had dinner at Nicoletta and Daniel's house this week. Daniel is Ovi's youngest brother.
We had salata de beuf, potatoes, a beef dish, homemade pickles, and bread.

For dessert we had a fresh
fruit compote and and foi (from wafers) with cream





 Spent at evening at Daniel and Ina's this past Tuesday. Ina made a

 delicious chicken cordon blu, potatoes and salad. Her dessert (baton) was like chocolate fudge and was fantastic!

Had a couple of other meals this week that were new to me. Chicken liver wrapped in bacon and pane (pa-nay) carne which is liver with a fried coating. It was served with a delicious spinach dish.. all were made by Doina. She said most Americans don't like liver, and I have to say it's not my favorite. But if it's prepared right and wrapped up in a nice piece of bacon it's irresistible!

Ina's 'baton'

Galuste

Placinta

Placinta cross section

Doina's Spinach

On another night this week I was treated to something I had never had before in Romania- Placinta (pla-chin-ta). They are a cake type pastry filled with one of the following: pumpkin, walnuts, sweet cheese, cabbage, or salty cheese. I also had galuste (ga-loosh-tay) which is made from flour, eggs and water. Very simple (but requires some quality time in the kitchen) and VERY delicious! Both were made by Doina's sister Ica who is a former RCE staffer and Sunshine School cook.

More Romanian Words of the day:

Chocolate bars= baton (ba-ton)

Cheese= brinza (brin-za)

Spinach= spanac (spa-nock)

IMPORTANT NOTE:  This is the SECOND blog post for today, Thursday March 31st!

Check out the first one on Darius House/Amy's House