Romanian cuisine is diverse, blending the dishes of the several traditions which it has come into contact with, as well as maintaining its own character. Romania has a unique culture which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution Romanian literature is Literature written by Romanian authors although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language. Romanian philosophy is a name covering either a the philosophy done in Romania or by Romanians, or b an ethnic philosophy which expresses at a high level the fundamental features Romania is a European country whose population consists mainly (approx The art of Romania describes the artists and artistic movements in Romania. The cinema of Romania is the art of motion-picture making within the nation of Romania or by Romanian filmmakers abroad Pre-Modern styles See also Brâncovenesc architecture During the Middle ages in Romania there were two types of construction that developed in parallel A feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture determined by two factors Romanian dress refers to the traditional clothing worn by Romanians, who live primarily in Romania and Moldova, with smaller communities in Ukraine The art of Romania describes the artists and artistic movements in Romania. This is a list of Romanian actors, actresses playwrights and directors whether on stage or in film Anton Pann (1790s-1854 wrote Romania's national anthem Ciprian Porumbescu (1853–1883 19th century composer George Enescu The following is a list of famous or notable Romanian language Poets grouped by period of activity The beginnings Gheorghe This is a list of Romanian Writers Literature Old literature Neagoe Basarab Dosoftei Castles are declared hystoric monuments by the Ministry of culture of Romania. This is a very incomplete list of museums located in Romania In Bucharest See also List of buildings in Bucharest#Museums "Theodor Aman" Museum This is a list of Romanian Orthodox monasteries Agapia Monastery Antim Monastery Bistriţa Monastery UNESCO has included up until now 7 sites in Romania on the list of World Heritage Sites. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Reporters Without Borders ranks Romania 58th in its Worldwide Press Freedom Index the same level as Poland and Hong-Kong The Romanian Cultural Institute ( Romanian: Institutul Cultural Român, abbreviation ICR) is a state-funded institution that promotes Romanian culture and The most popular sport in Romania is Football (soccer. Other popular sports include Team handball, Basketball, Rugby union, Tennis Romania is a Secular state, thus having no National religion. Romanian humour, like all of Romanian culture, has many affinities with five other peoples the Latins ( Spanish and Italians) the Slavs, the Note: It has been greatly influenced by Balkan cuisine but also includes influences from the cuisines of other neighbours, such as Germans, Serbians, and Hungarians. The cuisine of the Balkan states includes Cuisine of Albania Cuisine of Bosnia and Herzegovina Cuisine of Bulgaria German cuisine varies greatly from region to region The southern regions of Bavaria and Swabia share many dishes among them and with their neighbours to the south The Serbian cuisine is a heterogeneous one influenced by Mediterranean ( Byzantine Empire / Greece) Oriental (Turkish and Austro-Hungarian Hungarian or Magyar cuisine is the Cuisine characteristic to the nation of Hungary and its primary ethnic group the Magyars. An exhaustive study of Romanian cuisine is very hard to make, because under the same generic food name are sometimes included products which can hardly belong to the same category. For example, the category ciorba includes foods classified otherwise as iskembe, sour soup, borsh and even some soups. Ciorbă ('ʧorbə from the Turkish word çorba) is a general Romanian word describing Sour soups consisting of various vegetables İşkembe çorbası, patsas (πατσάς is a Tripe soup prepared in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and the BORSCHT is an Acronym for '''B'''attery feed '''O'''vervoltage protection '''R'''inging '''S'''upervision '''C'''odec The category tuica is a generic name here, while in other countries every flavour has a different name, and sometimes there are even different names inside the same category. Ţuică (in Romanian /'ʦujkə/ sometimes spelled tuica, tzuika, tsuika, tsuica That happened, mainly, because of a lack of research in this field.

Description

"I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was "mamaliga", and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call "impletata". " —Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 1

An existential Romanian question is: We eat to live, or live to eat? A great number of proverbs and sayings have developed around the activity of eating. Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912 was an Irish writer of novels and short stories who is best known today for his 1897 horror Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary Antagonist the vampire Count Dracula. From the innocent child's saying of thanks:

Sărut mâna pentru masă,

c-a fost bună şi gustoasă,

şi bucătăreasa frumoasă

Thank you for the meal

it was good and tasty

and the cook lady was beautiful

to the more philosophical:

Mulţumescu-ţi ţie Doamne

c-am mâncat şi iar mi-e foame

Thank you Lord

for I have eaten and I am hungry again

and Dragostea trece prin stomac (Love passes through the stomach); or the simple Pofta vine mâncănd (Appetite comes while eating); or the sarcastic Porcul mănâncă orice, dar se-ngraşă pentru alţii (The pig eats anything, but it gets fat for others); or a total fulfillment saying Mâncat bine, băut bine, dimineaţa sculat mort (Ate well, drank well, in the morning woke up dead).

A plate of sărmăluţe cu mămăligă, a popular Romanian dish

Recipes bear the same influences as the rest of Romanian culture: from Roman times there still exists the simple pie called plăcintă in Romanian and keeping the initial meaning of the Latin word placenta, the Turks have brought meatballs (perişoare in a meatball soup), from the Greeks there is musaca, from the Bulgarians there are a wide variety of vegetable dishes like zacuscă, from the Austrians there is the şniţel and the list could continue. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Ciorbă ('ʧorbə from the Turkish word çorba) is a general Romanian word describing Sour soups consisting of various vegetables Moussaka ( μουσακάς South Slavic: мусака /​ musaka, from musakka ultimately from مسقعة musaqqaʿa "chilled" is a traditional Zacuscă is a vegetable spread very popular in Romania. Similar spreads are found in other countries throughout or bordering the Balkans. Wiener Schnitzel (from German Wiener Schnitzel, meaning Viennese cutlet) is a traditional Austrian dish and popular part of Viennese

One of the most common dishes is mămăliga, a cornmeal mush, long-considered the poor man's dish (N-are nici o mămăligă pe masă - He hasn't even a mămăliga on the table), but it has become more appreciated in recent times. Mămăligă (/məmə'ligə/ Mămăligă Мамалыга Mamałyga Cornmeal mush is a dish made out of yellow Maize traditional for Romania and Pork is the main meat used in Romanian cuisine (Peştele cel mai bun, tot porcul rămâne - The best fish will always be the pork or Cea mai bună legumă e carnea de pui şi cea mai buna carne de pui e carnea de porc - The best vegetable is the chicken meat and the best chicken meat is the pork), but beef is also consumed, and a good lamb or fish dish is never to be refused. Different recipes are prepared depending on the season or for special events. For Christmas, a pig is traditionally sacrificed by every family and a wide variety of recipes are prepared, including: cârnaţi (or cărnaţi) - a kind of long sausages with meat, caltaboşi (or cartaboşi) – sausages made with liver and other intestines, piftie – made with difficult to use parts like the feet or the head and ears, suspended in aspic, and also tocătură (a kind of stew) is served along with mămăligă and wine (so that the pork can swim) and of course sweetened with the traditional cozonac (sweet bread with nuts or lokum - rahat in Romanian). Aspic is a dish in which ingredients are set into a Gelatine made from a Meat stock or Consommé. A stew is a combination of Solid Food Ingredients that have been Cooked in Water or other water-based liquid typically by Simmering Cozonac (in Romanian, kozo'nak kozunak, козунак is a traditional Bulgarian and Romanian sweet bread Turkish Delight, lokum, or loukoum is a confection made from Starch and Sugar. At Easter, lamb is served and the main dishes are roast lamb and drob - a cooked mix of intestines, meat and fresh vegetables, mainly green onion, served with pască (pie made with cottage cheese) as a sweetener. Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year.

Wine is the main drink and has a tradition of over two millennia. Romania is currently the world's 9th largest wine producer, and recently the export market has started to grow. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania A wide variety of domestic (Fetească, Grasă, Tamâioasă) and worldwide (Italian Riesling, Merlot, Sauvignon blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Muscat Ottonel) varieties are produced. Grasă de Cotnari ('grasə de kot'narʲ is a a Romanian wine variety associated with the Cotnari vineyard Moldavia, where it has been grown Tămâioasă Românească (təmɨ'jo̯asə romɨ'ne̯askə is a grape variety used for the production of high-quality aromatic wines Tămâioasă are natural Merlot ('MERL-oh' in British English mer-LOH in American English and standard French is a red Wine Grape that is used as both a blending grape and for Sauvignon blanc is a green-skinned Grape variety which originates from the Bordeaux region of France. Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red Wine grape varieties. Chardonnay is a green-skinned Grape variety used to make white Wine. Muscat Ottonel or Muskat-Ottonel (in Germany) is a white Wine Grape that is a member of the Muscat family of Vitis vinifera Beer is also highly regarded, generally blonde pilsener beer, made with German influences. Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed Alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea Pilsner, sometimes pilsener or simply pils, is a Pale lager, developed in the 19th century in the city of Pilsen, Bohemia (

Romania is the world's 2nd largest plum producer and almost the entire plum production becomes the famous ţuică (a plum brandy obtained through one or more distillation steps). A plum or gage is a stone fruit Tree in the genus Prunus, subgenus Prunus. Ţuică (in Romanian /'ʦujkə/ sometimes spelled tuica, tzuika, tsuika, tsuica Distillation is a method of separating Mixtures based on differences in their volatilities in a boiling liquid mixture

List of dishes

• ardei umpluţi (stuffed bell pepper)
• caltaboşi (a sort of rice pudding with chitterlings)
• chiftele (a type of large meatballs covered with a flour crust or breadcrumb crust)
• chifteluţe de ciuperci (chiftele made of mushrooms rather than meat)
• ciorbă de burtă (tripe soup)
• ciorbă de perişoare (meatball soup)
• ciorbă ţărănească de văcuţă
• ciorbă de fasole cu afumătură
• ciorbă de peşte "ca-n Deltă"
• ciulama (white sauce stew)
• dovlecei umpluţi (stuffed vegetable marrow)
• drob (a sort of lamb tripe mix cooked with several types of green herbs like dock, bunch onion etc. Ardei umpluţi (ar'dej um'pluʦʲ is Romanian for " Stuffed peppers " Kofta (see section Name for other names is a Southeastern European Middle Eastern and South Asian Meatball or Dumpling. A meatball is a generally mass of ground Meat that is typically rolled meat comprised of rolled ground beef and other ingredients such as Bread or Kofta (see section Name for other names is a Southeastern European Middle Eastern and South Asian Meatball or Dumpling. A mushroom is the fleshy Spore -bearing Fruiting body of a Fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source Ciorbă ('ʧorbə from the Turkish word çorba) is a general Romanian word describing Sour soups consisting of various vegetables Ciorbă ('ʧorbə from the Turkish word çorba) is a general Romanian word describing Sour soups consisting of various vegetables Ciorbă ('ʧorbə from the Turkish word çorba) is a general Romanian word describing Sour soups consisting of various vegetables Ciorbă ('ʧorbə from the Turkish word çorba) is a general Romanian word describing Sour soups consisting of various vegetables Ciorbă ('ʧorbə from the Turkish word çorba) is a general Romanian word describing Sour soups consisting of various vegetables )
• fasole verde (green bean)
• frigărui (skewered meat)
• iahnie (beans stew)
• piftie (meat jelly)
• plăcinte (pies)
• pilaf (pilaff)
• slănina
• pârjoale
• ostropel
• limbă cu măsline (cow tongue with olives)
• mămăligă (cornmeal mush, Polenta)
• mâncare de mazăre (pea stew)
• musaca (moussaka)
• mititei (grilled minced-meat rolls)
• mâncare de praz
• papricaş
• peşte marinat (marinated fish)
• plachie
• rasol (with garlic or horseradish)
• saramură (pickled fish)
• sarmale (stuffed cabbage)
• soté de morcovi (carrots sotè)
• şniţel (chicken cutlet)
• stufat de miel
• supă de găluşte (dumpling soup)
• tobă
• tocăniţă vânătorească
• tocană, dim. Green beans ( American English) or French beans ( British English) also called squeaky beans are the unripe Fruits of any kind of Bean Frigărui (frigə'ruj singular frigăruie) is a Romanian dish consisting of small pieces of meat (usually pork beef mutton lamb or chicken grilled A skewer is a thin Metal or Wood stick used to hold small pieces of Food together A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a Pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or Savoury ingredients Pilaf, also called polao, pilau or pulao, is a dish in which a grain such as Rice or cracked wheat is browned in oil and then cooked in a Pilaf, also called polao, pilau or pulao, is a dish in which a grain such as Rice or cracked wheat is browned in oil and then cooked in a Mămăligă (/məmə'ligə/ Mămăligă Мамалыга Mamałyga Cornmeal mush is a dish made out of yellow Maize traditional for Romania and Polenta is a dish made from boiled Cornmeal. Although the word is borrowed into English from Italian, the dish (under various names is popular in Moussaka ( μουσακάς South Slavic: мусака /​ musaka, from musakka ultimately from مسقعة musaqqaʿa "chilled" is a traditional Moussaka ( μουσακάς South Slavic: мусака /​ musaka, from musakka ultimately from مسقعة musaqqaʿa "chilled" is a traditional Mititei (miti'tej or mici (mitʃʲ ( Romanian for little, small or very little, very small - Plural) is For Paprikas or Chicken paprikas see Goulash Pörkölt (Perkelt is a dish which originates from Hungary, but is eaten throughout Central Europe Rasol is a Romanian dish made from meat potatoes and several other vegetables boiled together Allium sativum L, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the Onion family Alliaceae. Horseradish ( Armoracia rusticana, syn Cochlearia armoracia) is a Perennial plant of the Brassicaceae family which also includes mustard Sarma ( Turkish: sarma, Greek:λαχανοντολμάδες Southern Slavic: сарма or sarma, Armenian A cabbage roll (also stuffed cabbage) is a dish consisting of cooked Cabbage leaves wrapped around a variety of fillings. Wiener Schnitzel (from German Wiener Schnitzel, meaning Viennese cutlet) is a traditional Austrian dish and popular part of Viennese tocaniţă (stew)
• tochitură moldovenească (moldavian stew)
• tochitură ardelenească (transylvanian stew)
• varză călită (steamed cabbage with pork ribs or duck or sausages, etc. A stew is a combination of Solid Food Ingredients that have been Cooked in Water or other water-based liquid typically by Simmering )
• zacuscă

List of spices and salads

• ardei copţi (roasted peppers)
• borş
• murături
• mujdei
• salată de boeuf
• salată de vinete (eggplant salad)
• salată de cartofi
• salată de macaroane
• salată de ţelină
• sfeclă murată
• salată de sfeclă
• salată de roşii (tomatoes salad)

List of cheese types

The generic name for cheese in Romania is brânză and it is considered to be of Dacian origin. Zacuscă is a vegetable spread very popular in Romania. Similar spreads are found in other countries throughout or bordering the Balkans. Mujdei (muʒ'dej no plural is a spicy Romanian sauce. It is made from garlic cloves crushed and ground into a paste salted and mixed energetically with Salată de boeuf is a traditional Romanian dish generally served during all festive and special occasions Cheese is a Food made from Milk, usually the milk of cows, Buffalo, Goats or sheep, by coagulation. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Bryndza is a Sheep milk Cheese made in Eastern Europe. there is no special type of cheese associated with it Dacia, in ancient geography was the land of the Dacians. It was named by the ancient Hellenes ( Greeks) " Getae " Most of the cheese is made of cow or sheep milk, goat milk being rarely used.

• brânză de burduf
• brânză de vaci (sweet cow milk cheese)
• brânză topită
• brânză în coajă de brad
• caş
• caşcaval
• telemea
• urdă

List of Desserts

Baklava is prepared on large trays and cut into a variety of shapes

• Baclava (very sweet pastry)
• Covrigi (pretzels)
• Gogoşi (donuts)
• Halva (khalva)
• Rahat (Turkish delight)
• Plăcintă (pastry)
• Colivă
• Cozonac
• Pandişpan (sponge cake)
• Orez cu lapte (rice pudding)
• Griş cu lapte (cream of wheat)
• Lapte de pasăre ("bird's milk")
• Cremă de zahăr ars (Crème caramel)
• Clătite (crêpes)
• Turtă dulce (gingerbread)
• Chec (cake)
• Papanaşi
• Şarlotă
• Prăjituri

• Savarine
• Amandine
• Joffre cake (invented at Casa Capşa)

• Mucenici

List of drinks

• socată
• bere (beer)
• palincă
• rachiu (fruit brandy)
• secărică (caraway seed brandy)
• turţ
• ţuică (plum brandy)(pronounced tzuy-kah)
• horincă
• afinată
• zmeurată
• vişinată (a type of cherry liqueur)(pronounced vi-she-na-ta)
• vin (wine)

External links

• Romanian Recipes
• More Romanian Reciepes