Mâncare în Romăna

It’s a good think I’m walking a lot because the food here is pretty darn good and full of carbs!  (Just what I love!!)  Bread (pâine) accompanies every meal.  So...here'a rundown of a typical day!

For breakfast I usually have a yogurt, a slice of bread and some tap water (apă plata).  I was given a water filter that is attached to the kitchen sink.  The water in Romania isn’t all that bad, but the Peace Corps wants us to drink filtered water...I drink A LOT of water!

Lunch every day is 1 & 1/2 sandwiches, usually some type of meat (often “mystery” meat!) cheese and mustard, one banana and again... Lots of water!  There is a little store (magăzin) right next to our school and often I walk over there during lunch break and get a little snack for the afternoon...maybe pretzels or some type of Romanian cookies.  The women who work there, Elena & Claudia, are very nice and put up with all our attempts at speaking Romanian with them!

Dinner at home is usually soup (chiorbă), maybe some homemade french fries (cartofi prejiți) or mămăligă (a cornmeal like substance - pretty good!) and some type of meat: chicken or pork usually.  We often have a nice tossed salad, which sits in the middle of the table and we all just chow down on it!  The vegetables (legume) here are WONDERFUL and the fruit as well.  Here's a yummy plate of bruscheta (sp?)

On the occasion (okay...every Friday!) I go out with PC friends after class for beer and pizza.  Sometimes, when you don’t read the ingredients well you end up with this (below)...french fries on your pizza!  It was actually pretty good, once I decided to go with it!

Today, in language class, we walked to a local restaurant to practice our ordering:  “Aŝ dori un papanaŝ ŝi latte machiato, vă rog!”  (I’ll have a papanaș and a latte, please!) Papanaș is a traditional Romanian desert and it was AMAZING!!  Imagine a really awesome homemade donut covered in real cream and fresh fruit.  Yep...it’s a good think I’m walking a lot every day!

I am looking forward to being at my site where I’ll have a little more control of my eating habits...hopefully more veggies and fruit and less bread!!! :)  But definitely lots of papanaș!!!  :)