Talk:Romanian cuisine

Who wrote this article has no clue about history
Romanians have a cuisine which has alot of similarities with italian cuisine because of the common origin. "Sarmale", like sour cabbage too, has the origin in China. Balkan cuisin is NOT turkish cuisine. Turkish cuisine is actually Greek cuisine. Polenta isn't a tipical Romanian dish, Maize comes from South America and all hyspanic people and also the Italians eat polenta. Amazing how many confusions contents this article! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.143.93.37 (talk) 21:29, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

No section
An exhaustive study of Romanian cuisine is very hard to make, because under the same food name are sometimes included products which can hardly belong to the same category.

That sentence needs to be reworked. It's unclear what is meant, exactly, homonyms with widely different senses?

--216.84.45.198 20:11, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

roumanian steak?
What's a roumanian steak? We have a picture of one, but no description. - TheMightyQuill 03:35, 13 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Never heard of a special Romanian steak. And BTW, the picture looks awful. Drunken people sleeping with their heads on the table are missing from the picture to make it perfect :) Mentatus 07:15, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Caltabos... from what I know (being from Transilvania...), is a tipe of sausage —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.103.222.218 (talk • contribs)
 * I'm Romanian, never heard of Romanian steak either, but that reminds me that we do grill a lot - any possible meat or meat product in any possible way. Only, we seldomly use those closed grills/smokers which seem to be heavily used in other places of the world. Which reminds of something missing in the article. I didn't notice "mici" in the recipes section - some turkish dish we took over and completely changed, to the point that it's barely recognizable, hence the changed name too. It's a mixture of three or four meat varieties (pork - some fat too, veal or beef, sheep - absolutely no lamb, and, if there is such thing available, a small amount of horse or donkey meat) and lots of specific spices, minced (or, for a nicer texture, chopped finely with a sharp knive and with great care for your fingers) kept in the refrigerator for at least one night so spices can spread their aroma into the meat, then formed into 4" long, somewhat less than 1" thick sausage-like pieces and grilled on low heat, on an open grill, then served hot with bread and either mustard or horseradish mixed with some sour cream. Another important miss is the vegetables we put in brine in a barrel each autumn. Conserved this way, they keep most of what's good in them over the winter, are delicious, although not recommended for people with kidney problems (due to being quite salty), but excellent for people with stomach problems, who can't eat vegetables conserved using vinegar.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.196.122.50 (talk) 17:12, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Saying
Traducerea mi se pare incorecta:

Peştele cel mai bun, tot porcul rămâne - The best fish will always be the pork daca traduci engleza in romana nu este la fel: "cel mai bun peste va fi porcul." 121.45.49.229 09:56, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Ideea ca porcul este preferat in materie de carne ar putea fi sustinuta cu referinte din carti de bucate: cite feluri de porc, cite de pui, s.a.m.d. The article uses sayings and translations of to convey facts. Sayings are difficult to translate as they most often rely on particularities of the laguage of origin. Most of the translations of sayings in the article don't look like proper English. They would benefit from the help of a professional. The idea that posk is the preferred meat dish could possibly stated by citing cookbooks: number of dishes made of pork, number of dishes made of beef and so forth. 137.43.94.151 13:12, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
 * De acord. In plus, mare parte din articol incearca sa includa zicale cind e vorba de mincare. Zicalele sint greu de tradus, pentru ca au grad mare de "culoare locala" a limbii. Toate zicalele sint oarecum fortat traduse. M-as aventura, dar sint doar utitlizator de engleza, nu filolog.


 * Zicala, cum o stiu eu din Banat si din Ardeal, e usurel diferita: cea mai buna leguma e porcul. other than that, I don't think the number of dishes is relevant. It's how often each dish is cooked that's relevant. The quantity of meat of each sort consumed annually by the population would IMO be a better metric.

Balkan cusine
What it is called here "Balkan" cuisine is in fact Turkish cusine. "Balkan" cuisine is nothing more than the influence of Turkish cuisine, there is no such a thing as "Balkan" cuisine influence if the Turkish influence is disregarded. Serbia is not in Balkans? And Serbian influence is cited separately.
 * Obviously your personal Point Of View. See the article Balkan cuisine and Category:Balkan cuisine: their existence on Wikipedia cannot be ignored. --Zlerman (talk) 07:18, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Which is the influence of Albanian, Greek, "Macedonian" etc. cuisines on the Romanian one? Romanian cuisine is also quoted there as "Balkan" cuisine, we should understand that it is auto-influenced? If you care about the quality of the article, leave things as they are. If not please quote the components of this "Balkan" cuisine influence.
 * Finally I think that "Ottoman cuisine" is the best option, so I have edited the article accordingly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.232.184.147 (talk) 08:03, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Living in the Western part of Romania, one of the regions where most diverse influences come together (for instance, Timisoara was for more than 150 yearsunder direct ottoman rule, whereas the rest of the country was never formally part of the ottoman empire, they just had rulers imposed by Istanbul, but it is also Timisoara where the oldest Romanian beer brewery was built - it started producing beer in 1718, one year after the ottoman left), I'd say the following: balkan cuisine and ottoman cuisine are quite different things, the Romanian cuisine was definitely influenced by both, but there are also other influences, a lot more far-fetched, like Greek or French, which are not cited. Greek monks or Romanian monks traveling to Greece are at the origin of the Greek influences, together with the many greeks comuing to Romania during the fanariot period, whereas the intellectuals of the generations around 1848, educated in France, came back with French recipes, which were quickly assimilated as Romanian dishes. However, there is also an ancient, authentic Romanian cuisine, quite difficult to uncover from under the many layers of foreign influences, based mainly on wild herbs, vegetables, mushrooms, and not so much on meat. As far as I can tell, recipes of this type are missing from the article. I'd cite just two of my favorites: "ciorba de loboda" (soup of this herb), which may be a very distant relative of salad soup (the initial idea seems the same, but the recipes are quite different, the Romanian soup being lighter - or at least the way I make salad soup may suffer from heavy German influences which makes it heavier), or "ciorba de urzici" (stinging nettle soup, eaten only before the nettles start to flower, in the spring, and having a blood cleaning effect - nettles, like many other herbs, have more iron than spinach). The fresh sheep milk cheese Romanians eat most often during spring and summer is something I didn't find anywhere else in Europe - although I suspect it could be found further to the east, among Ukrainian sheepherders. One last note: most Romanian dishes assimilated from other cuisines are simplified, less spiced up with various more exotic seeds and herbs, and more spiced with herbs found locally. Parsley leaves, fresh dill leaves, pepper and garlic are the most used spices, I'd say thyme comes next, then a large variety of herbs, such as basil, marjoram, rosemary, sage and the like are also used frequently. Essentially, however, taste is derived from fresh ingredients of the best quality, rather than from lots of spices or intricate ways of cooking - although completely different, I'd say it has something in common with Thai cuisine in this regard, namely fresh ingredients of the best quality cooked most often in a simple way.

Omletă ţărănească
Would "Omletă ţărănească" (peasant omelette) be considered a typical or traditional dish in Romanian cuisine?

I've been eating one each morning in Romania for the past week but I've only noticed it on two menus in one tiny village so far because I haven't been moving around. There are lots of his for it if you do a Google search. &mdash; Hippietrail (talk) 08:51, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Slănină
Oi, I have a couple of questions regarding certain meanings of certain words in this line: slănină (şuncă) - pork fat often smoked (a.k.a. bacon). So -- şuncă is not a synonym, but rather a word used in the outer Carpathian arc with the same meaning, however şuncă also means ham everywhere in Romania. So... not exactly 1:1 synonym and I feel it introduces certain ambiguity. Second, the slănină is more often than not just the pork fat from the pig's back with very little meat on it, unlike bacon which most of the time has more meat than fat, and it from the belly. In fact, there is no English word that completely describes this. Maybe „smoked fatback” would do. On a different note, where I come from we call actual bacon (as in the one Westerners eat) Keiser / Kaizăr. All these meanings should be taken into account, especially since words for different foods vary, sometimes dramatically, across Romania. Peace out y'all 94.108.151.114 (talk) 09:36, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Brânză de Brăila
"The traditional "Brânză de Brăila" (a type of telemea which has become quite scarce) is spiced with Nigella damascena seeds" - whoever wrote this: are you sure you didn't mean Nigella sativa? Nigella damascena isn't used for flavoring, whereas Nigella sativa seeds are sometimes used instead of authentic black cumin. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.113.76.209 (talk) 18:46, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

Rumanian cuisine???
How can such a thing exist? Rumania/Romania didn't actually come into being until 1862 or so after the unification of Wallachia and Moldova. And why is there no mention of the Austrian and Magyar influence? Transylvania and the Partium were part of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Austrian Empire far longer than they were ever part of "Romania". RB — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.30.222.153 (talk) 19:29, 7 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Romanian state-like organizations were in existence before Hungarians or Austrians, or even the Turkish empire, were even known to Europe. The fact that those were conquered and annexed by other nations did not destroy the Romanian culture already established in the area. Neither did it stop evolving. This is how there can be a Romanian cuisine. Even if the country, as a state, is quite young, the culture is quite old.
 * In 1541 the Ottomans occupied most of Hungary, incorporating it into their empire, leaving the rest under Austrian rule. Did this make Hungarian culture extinct? Did Hungarians living in the Ottoman or Austrian empires suddenly start to cook differently? In 1945 the German state seized to exist, until 1949, when two, not one state were created by the former allies. Would you say German culture starts in 1949? Or German cuisine, for that matter? 82.208.180.4 (talk) 17:02, 4 July 2018 (UTC)


 * This is not an intelligent argument worth of wikipedia. The modern country of Italy started with the unification of various territories in the beginning of the 19th century, and the country known as Italy was established first as Kingdom of Italy only in 1861. I bet you would not say that the Italian cuisine never existed before the country, would you? Then why would you say it with regard to Romania? simple nonsense. 2601:447:D17E:6840:2988:8BBA:4880:5EB7 (talk) 15:41, 22 October 2023 (UTC)

Link error
In the List of Desserts section of the article, "Tort - cake" links to an article about law. If there is a type of cake called "Tort", the link should be corrected to send users to that page. Otherwise, it should be removed. ~the.one.and.the.only~ (talk) 03:54, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Proposals for additions and corrections
I don't want to edit the article myself since I'm not familiar with the protocol to follow, don't want to break any rules and had the experience in the past that wikipedia maintainers are easily aggravated by not following protocol, but here's a list of additions and corrections I consider relevant:
 * Cârnați is a generic name, used for any kind of sausages
 * Chiftele are not covered with breadcrumbs. They're just slightly flattened meatballs, deep-fried
 * Pârjoale are just a smaller, spicier version of Chiftele, usually served as appetizers, instead of the meaty part of the main dish, like Chiftele
 * Piftie is prepared only from specific parts of the pig: lower part of the legs, ears, and slices of skin, and some carrots and parsley roots, maybe a cellery root and some parsnip are also added to the broth
 * Slănină is always salted, and most often also smoked, never just kept raw
 * Tobă is stuffed with various pieces of meat, not just liver and skin - traditionally the pig's head is boiled until the meat easily comes off, and that meat is what gets stuffed into the pork stomach
 * Tochitură is definitely not a stew. It is less saucy. Roughly chopped meat, spiced, then fried, maybe with some onion slices or other vegetables or herbs, depending on region and particular recipe
 * Varză călită is a popular side dish, served alongside many different kinds of baked, roasted or fried meat, not just pork ribs, duck or sausages
 * Saramură de crap described as carp in brine is misleading. The fish is roasted on heated salt until it is almost done, with its skin and scales on, then laid in a pan, lots of chopped herbs and some chopped hot peppers are also added, then water is added until the fish is almost completely under water. The pan is placed in the oven until the fish is completely done. The "brine" is the soup-like liquid formed by the remaining water, the salt that was stuck to the fish'es scales and the herbs.
 * Ardei copți is typically prepared using long bell peppers, like Cubanelle peppers
 * Murături asortate is usually done with whatever vegetables and unripe fruits you have at hand, not just what's listed in the current text. An important miss, for example, is fresh beans. Lots of spices (black pepper seeds, mustard seeds) and herbs (cellery leaves, dried dill stems, dry thyme), plus horseradish as a natural preservative are also added - this is a must, or otherwise they won't keep well.
 * Salată boeuf should be spelled Salată de boeuf, since that's how it's universally used, and it uses boiled chopped meat, not minced meat, which makes for a great difference in texture. Also, all other ingredients are chopped too. An important miss/an essential ingredient is cucumbers pickled in vinegar. No mustard is added specifically. Mustard may be used when preparing the mayonnaise, though.
 * Salată de vinete is very much alike a properly done baba ganoush (most baba ganoush recipes on the web are odd, at best, though).
 * Brânză de burduf is not stuffed into a sheep stomach. It's stuffed into a pig's bladder.
 * Brânză în coșuleț should be spelled Brânză de coșuleț, since this is the form usually used - the cheese is the same as for Brânză de burduf, it's the wrapping that's different, giving it a significantly different flavor
 * Salam din biscuiți should be spelled Salam de biscuiți, since this is the form universally used
 * Horincă, although most often prepared from plums, is any triple distilled spirit. It doesn't even have to be fruit spirit, even if the one distilled from plums is considered to be the best. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.208.180.4 (talk) 17:08, 4 July 2018 (UTC)