It’s made in Transylvania, where the shepherds still herd their flocks in the good old fashioned way, on open mountain slopes. You’ll see a number of mountain dairies (“stâna”) – in fact, if you stop by you will get a royal treatment for sure. They’ll set the table for you, with fresh organic produce, and good wine, or liquors from the region. Nothing fancy though, just a traditional meal that tastes like home for so many Romanians.

A traditional sheepfold in the mountains - courtesy VISITING SIBIU - please click on the image to visit the site.

It’s here where they make a rare cheese that rivals with some of the finest you’ve ever tasted. Aside the traditional telemea – similar to Greek feta – urdă, caşcaval and caş, they make Brânză de burduf, the most valuable among Romanian cheeses.

Brânză de burduf, courtesy THA Blog

The basis of this extraordinary cheese is the sweet caş. Caş is made up by adding rennet to fresh milk. After this coagulates, the curd is crushed and then gathered and hung in a textile material to allow the whey to drain.

The Cheese festival in Sibiu, courtesy Sibiul.ro

Brânza de burduf made with caş and a little extra… caş is cut into small pieces, salted and then hand-mixed in a large wooden bowl. The mixture is then placed in a sheep’s stomach, or into a sheep’s skin that has been carefully cleaned and sawed on the edges, or in a tube made of pine bark.

Brânza de burduf, courtesy old Swede 65

La Fondazione describes the process more in depth:

Brânza de burduf in pine bark is produced from May to July, when the trees are rich in aromatic resin: after the bark is scraped, it is softened in hot whey and then sewed to obtain cylindrical containers 20-25 cm high and 10 cm wide, sealed with bark discs at the edges. It can be aged from 20 days to 2-3 months, its flavor becoming increasingly spicy with aging. Fir tree bark imparts a resinous flavor on the cheese and enriches its taste qualities.

They don’t celebrate Halloween in Romania, not as you’d think. There will be some bars and nightclubs organizing Halloween specials, and in Sighisoara you’ll find a number of enthusiasts wearing vampire costumes – after all, this is where good-old Dracula was born. Adventure Transylvania has already begun its “Dracula tour” on October 28 – maybe you should bookmark this site for a future adventure.

So, aside the commercial implications, Halloween doesn’t mean much in Romania. They have St. Andrew’s Day, the national saint of Romanians and Romanian Orthodox Church. Then, they have St. Andrew’s Night (Noaptea Sfântului Andrei), which is November 29th, or the “night of the vampires” as they call it…

Romanians believe that during the night, vampires and “strigoi” (the undead) are coming out to fight and dance at the crossroads or near abandoned houses. In some villages young people gather at a common location to celebrate the occasion by “guarding the garlic.” They prepare their location grazing all access windows and doors with garlic. Each young girl is required to bring three cloves of garlic along. These are put together in a pot, and are guarded by the oldest woman in the house at candlelight. The party lasts all night. At dusk, the young folk take the pot of garlic outside and dance around it. The garlic is then split between the participants, and becomes a “sacred symbol” that will guard families against illness or spells.

Black Magic by beast love - click on the image to see the original.

There are a number of other interesting beliefs and superstitions. For example, they say that people who work on St. Andrew’s Day may be unlucky. They also believe that during St. Andrew’s Night animals speak with human voices, but people should not be listening to their conversations because they’ll die.

A Romanian wedding - photo by Adora Studio - click on the image to visit the site.

Girls can find their future husbands… or at least they can “see” them. This can be done in a number of ways, depending on local traditions. In some parts of Romania, young girls go to a fountain with a candle and look inside – they will see the faces of their future husbands reflected in the water inside. To dream the future husbands, girls put 41 grains of wheat each under their pillows. If they dream that the wheat is stolen, they will get married soon.

Wolf Moon by pareeerica - click on the image for the original.

Interestingly, St. Andrew is also the patron of the wolves, and a protector to people who have been attacked by these animals. Romanians also believe that Saint Andrew (named Sfântul Apostol Andrei) was the first who preached Christianity in Scythia Minor, modern Dobrogea, to the native people of the Dacians (ancestors of the Romanians).

This is the cave where St. Andrew apparently preached – in Dobrogea, Ion Corvin, Constanța.

Feature image, (garlic) courtesy Kate Palaña

It’s Fall, and in many Romanian homes this is equivalent with preparing for the winter. Since fresh produce are hard to find in the winter, are usually more expensive and generally tasteless, Romanians conserve the tastes of the Autumn and its finest flavors. The following is the recipe of a traditional Romanian bread spread, called Zacuscă. The origins of the dish are Russian (закуска, zakuska) but the Romanian Zacuscă recipe is significantly different compared to its Slavic relative.

Courtesy Adi Hădean.

Zacuscă Ingredients

3-4 kg fresh eggplants
1,5 kg fresh tomatoes
3 kg fresh red peppers (called gogoşari – in US pimento peppers. Alternatively you could use three types of meaty peppers, like pimento, capia peppers, sweet bell peppers, etc)
1 kg onions
1 kg minced carrots
salt (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)
1 kg sunflower oil (or virgin olive oil)

Preparing the Zacuscă Spread

Bake the eggplants and the peppers over an open flame (preferably grill) till their skins blacken. Peel them off, and wash the vegetable throughly with warm water. Mince the eggplants gently (don’t use food processors, as they transform the pulp into mush). Chop the pepper as well, in small cubes, and mix with the eggplant pulp.

Peal off the tomatoes and mince them (alternatively you could use 500 g tomato paste, but I believe that the fresh ones give a better taste).

Chop onions and place them in a large pot, add the minced carrots and the oil and let fry till golden over medium heat flame. Add the mix of eggplant and pepper to the boiling oil and onion, add tomatoes, then spice with salt and black pepper. Boil on low heat for about 2 hours, stirring repeatedly.

Courtesy Adi Hădean

If you want to save it for the winter, spoon the mixture into sterilized jars, seal them then boil the jars for about 20-30 minutes into a large water bath canner. Allow to cool in the same water.

Other recipes might include cooked beans, mushrooms, celery or other ingredients, according to taste, including spices. It’s really up to your fantasy to “improve” this. You could add zucchini, for example, or even eliminate some of the ingredients mentioned above (like carrots). Some replace eggplants with cooked beans, and so on. There’s no unbreakable rule – feel free to experiment till you find the right taste. The recipe above is my personal favorite. Zacuscă tastes warm or cold – serve as you will.

Courtesy Diva

It’s not as popular as Vama Veche, but it used to be, and it’s still packed with young people planning a Black Sea resort holiday on a budget. Costineşti was once “the paradise of youth and of students” – but since 2 Mai and Vama Veche became popular, this little rural Black Sea resort is no longer worth the accolades.

Yes, it still holds one of the largest open air discos in the country – Disco Ring – where the most popular Romanian artists of the moment throw memorable concerts almost every evening during the Summer season. There’s also Mega Discoteca Tineretului for even more dance and live concerts, but other than these, there’s not much to do here.

Well, you do have the usual water sports, beach fun and even an old shipwreck (Evangelia, a Greek ship beached there in the late 1960s) to challenge your imagination, but from a cultural perspective, Costineşti doesn’t have much to offer.

Mind you, this used to be a student camp during the communist era, when also Costineşti’s biggest hotel was erected, yet such activities are no longer “trendy.”

What you get is the occasional young artist, ready to pen your portrait in five minutes for a symbolic fee. You get the musician who plays a guitar tune, surrounded by a gang of lively friends. You get the typical beach parties at night, and sometimes, you can even spot a dolphin or two if your eyes are not wandering to spot Romanian topless beauties.

The resort has an official capacity of 5300 beds, but many private families in the village Schitu, which is included in the commune, offer lodging and other hospitality services. Speaking of which, you might want to try to find such an accommodation, at least for the authentic Romanian cuisine.

Every year, on March 8, Romanian cerebrate the International Women’s Day (IWD), and Mother’s Day.

The celebration started as a Socialist political event in Russia, in 1965 when Lenin declared it official holiday, and spread across the entire Soviet block soon after. But keep in mind, that unofficially, a women’s day was already celebrated around the world, on different dates, since 1909.

Later, the popularity of the holiday inspired other countries, and today, March 8 is an official holiday in the following countries: Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Croatia, Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

In Romania, March 8 is not an official holiday, but it’s held nevertheless. Note that here, this day is also the equivalent of Mother’s Day, and there is no other official or unofficial day to celebrate motherhood other than this. The custom, similar to all customs in the countries that celebrate the day, is for men to give ALL the women in their lives flowers or gifts. Female teachers receive small gifts from their students too, whether boys or girls. The idea that the female teacher is the equivalent of a mother figure prevails.

Official or not, for Romanians March 8 is a national celebration. After work, women colleagues or friends often dine together, but the greatest joy is for mothers who receive that little special attention from their children. So while the world celebrates IWD, think of March 8 as Mother’s Day in Romania, and you will understand its significance.

As fresh, as young, as unforgettable… Mihai Eminescu is the Romanian soul, our very essence, a poet who influenced and changed the Romanian culture.

His image is everywhere, his works are studied in all Romanian schools, and yet we know so little about his legacy. He was a Romantic, yes, a poet, yes, and probably, no, certainly, so much more.

Born January 15, 1850, Mihail Eminovici changed his name to Mihai Eminescu at the suggestion of Iosif Vulcan, who disliked the Slavic source suffix “-ici”. Today he is considered the national poet of Romania, Moldova, and of the Romanians who live in the Ukrainian part of Bucovina.

So Fresh Thou Art…

So like the sweet, white cherry blossom,
So tender and so fresh thou art,
And on my life’s way like an angel
Appearing thou dost light impart.

Thou scarcely touchest the soft carpet,
The silk on thee doth rustling stream,
From top to toe so light and lofty,
Thou floatest like an airy dream.

From draping folds like purest marble
Thine image unto me appears,
My whole soul on thine eyes is hanging,
Those eyes so full of joy and tears.

O happy dream of love, so happy,
Thou bride of fairy tales, so mild,
No, do not smile! Thy smille doth show me
How sweet thou art, thou gentle child.

My poor eyes thou canst close for ever
With deepest night’s eternal charms,
With thy sweet lips’ sweet fondling, whispers,
Embracing me with thy cool arms.

A veiling thought at once now passes
Thy glowing eyes thus covering:
It is the dark renunciation,
The sweetest yearning’s shadowing.

Thou go’st away and, well I know it,
To follow thee must I no more,
Thou art for me now lost for ever,
My soul’s dear bride, whom I adore.

My only guilt was that I saw thee,
Which I to pardon have no might,
Mine arm I’ll stretch for ever vainly
To expiate my dream of light.

Like holy Virgin’s purest image
In my fond eyes thou will rise now,
The brightest crown on forehead bearing,
Where dost thou go? When comest thou?

A Dacian’s Prayer

When death did not exist, nor yet eternity,
Before the seed of life had first set living free,
When yesterday was nothing, and time had not begun,
And one included all things, and all was less than one,
When sun and moon and sky, the stars, the spinning earth
Were still part of the things that had not come to birth,
And You quite lonely stood… I ask myself with awe,
Who is this mighty God we bow ourselves before.

Ere yet the Gods existed already He was God
And out of endless water with fire the lightning shed;
He gave the Gods their reson, and joy to earth did bring,
He brought to man forgiveness, and set salvation’s spring
Lift up your hearts in worship, a song of praise enfreeing,
He is the death of dying, the primal birth of being.

To him I owe my eyes that I can see the dawn,
To him I owe my heart wherein is pity born;
Whene’er I hear the tempest, I hear him pass along
Midst multitude of voices raised in a holy song;
And yet of his great mercy I beg still one behest:
That I at last be taken to his eternal rest.

Be curses on the fellow who would my praise acclaim,
But blessings upon him who does my soul defame;
Believe no matter whom who slanders my renown,
Give power to the arm that lifts to strike me down;
Let him upon the earth above all others loom
Who steals away the stone that lies upon my tomb.

Hunted by humanity, let me my whole life fly
Until I feel from weeping my very eyes are dry;
Let everyone detest me no matter where I go,
Until from persecution myself I do not know;
Let misery and horror my heart transform to stone,
That I may hate my mother, in whose love I have grown;
Till hating and deceiving for me with love will vie,
And I forget my suffering, and learn at last to die.

Dishonoured let me perish, an outcast among men;
My body less than worthy to block the gutter then,
And may, o God of mercy, a crown of diamonds wear
The one who gives my heart the hungry dogs to tear,
While for the one who in my face does callous fling a clod
In your eternal kingdom reserve a place, o God.

Thus only, gracious Father, can I requitance give
That you from your great bounty vouched me the joy to live;
To gain eternal blessings my head I do not bow,
But rather ask that you in hating compassion show.
Till comes at last the evening, your breath will mine efface,
And into endless nothing I go, and leave no trace.

One Wish Alone Have I

One wish alone have I:
In some calm land
Beside the sea to die;
Upon its strand
That I forever sleep,
The forest near,
A heaven near,
Stretched over the peaceful deep.
No candles shine,
Nor tomb I need, instead
Let them for me a bed
Of twigs entwine.

That no one weeps my end,
Nor for me grieves,
But let the autumn lend
Tongues to the leaves,
When brooklet ripples fall
With murmuring sound,
And moon is found
Among the pine-trees tall,
While softly rings
The wind its trembling chime
And over me the lime
Its blossom flings.

As I will then no more
A wanderer be,
Let them with fondness store
My memory.
And Lucifer the while,
Above the pine.
Good comrade mine,
Will on me gently smile;
In mournful mood,
The sea sings sad refrain …
And I be earth again
In solitude.

Aside “sarmale” and “mititei”, the dish known as “Ciorbă de burtă” (tripe sour soup or “gut soup” as others may call it) is the closest thing to a “national dish” you can get in Romania.

The “ciorba” can be ordered in almost all restaurants with national specific, but the best you can get is “home made” with a recipe that varies from household to household (the variations are small though, for example I prefer adding 1 celeriac and some garlic for taste, while in other households these ingredients are completely ignored).

Fortunately in Germany I can buy tripe that is already washed and ready to cook, so my recipe is based on such an ingredient. For regions where such an ingredient is missing, just ask the local butcher to give you fresh tripe, cleaned and bleached if possible. He’ll probably give you a funny look and if he doesn’t clean it and bleach it, you will have to go through a lot of trouble to clean the fresh tripe, but the end result is well worth it.

Fresh tripe needs to be boiled with salt for 4-5 hours, then strain and cut julienne (keep the broth).

Below the ingredients for a tripe sour soup as I cook it:

• 1 kg tripe (prepared as described above),
• 1 leg Veal or other pieces of Veal,
• 2-3 carrots,
• 1 parsnip,
• 1 celeriac,
• 2 whole onions (peeled),
• pepper for taste,
• garlic for taste
• 2 egg yolks,
• 1 pickled pepper (for taste)
• vinegar for taste
• 200g sour cream

With the carrots, onions, parsnip and celeriac (add black pepper for taste) make a vegetable broth. Mix with the tripe broth, add julienne-cut tripe, and boil till the broth is evaporated by half. Remove from stove.

Mince garlic, and mix well with sour cream and two egg yolks. Add the mixture the the soup, stirring continuously. Add some vinegar (add and taste), and 1-2 pickled red-peppers (Capsicum) cut julienne for taste. Serve hot, with more garlic, a spicy chilly pepper and sour cream if you wish.

Few towns in Romania have succeeded in preserving their medieval charm and flavor; among the Transylvanian ones, Sibiu stands alone.

It played an important part in the economic, political, religious and cultural history of the Romanian provinces. Founded upon a Neolithic settlement, near the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Cedonia, whose traces are still preserved, Sibiu was first mentioned in documents as far in the XIIth century. Beginning with the year 1150, a massive Germanic colonization took place; the first colonists (Flanders, Francons, Saxons) came from the western regions of the Rhine, found the pastures of Heaven and settled here.

The 19 guilds, whose members practiced 25 crafts, already mentioned in the year 1376, carried on active trade relationship with the Romanian provinces and withe Europe.

In the Middle Ages, every major guild had built his own tower of defense, integrated in the fortifications of the city. The guilds have disappeared by the decree of 1872, when they were converted into handicraft cooperatives.

The tradition of traveling apprentices has been revived in Sibiu since 2007, the year the town was the Cultural Capital of Europe. In Sibiu, the apprentices have their house and even an association called “Casa Calfelor” (House of Apprentices, Gesellenherberge, Maison des Compagnons – Sibiu / Hermannstadt). To revive the traditional arts and crafts, the Evangelical parish made available for apprentices a building at no. 3, Huet Place, which was restored by them.

The tradition of traveling apprentices has been preserved in countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Norway, Sweden.

Approximately 700 young people trained in trades of carpenters, masons, stone, potters, blacksmiths and sculptors have chosen to start on the road for three years and one day, wearing the apprentices’ uniform and hat, observe the rules imposed by their brotherhood. Thus, to be allowed to wear the apprentice uniform, the young are not allowed to be married, have children, debts or other obligations, must face with honesty and honor the commitments that they must take and follow the rules and traditions of their brotherhood. Both their presence in Sibiu since the Middle Ages and their tours have contributed in time to strengthen ties with European handicraft centers; from all points of view, they were a bridge unconventional but more vivid between Sibiu and Europe.

Before leaving, will be tailored for the apprentices special clothes in an old workshop, where the tradition of those clothes is kept. Apprentices’ costumes consist of splay trousers, jacket and coat of different colors – black, cream or blue -, white shirts, a special hat and black boots.

Being an apprentice not require a substantial material gain. Usually the apprentices goes out with moderate amounts and are forced to cope in the world, where they works to receive money, food and hosting, making it an opportunity to meet different mentalities and habits.

Tourists who visit the city of Sibiu during July 10 to August 6 have the opportunity to see working 17 journeyman from various European countries, gathered here for the third time, on Fortress Street, between the Potters Tower an the Carpenters Tower. During the workshops, the apprentices present their job; carpenters, potters, jewelers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, builders of musical instruments, masons, sculptors, can be followed in exercising their profession. Visitors can admire also a photo exhibition, which reminds of different moments in years in which they began to arrive in Sibiu. The exhibition covers the history of craftsmen travel, the various journeyman associations, and the differences existing between the traditional traveling apprentices and the companionway of French craftsmen.

Barsana is a village in Maramures, on the right bank of the river Iza, 20 km off Sighetul Marmatiei.

The village, attested documentary or the first time in 1326 (when King Charles Robert I of Anjou acknowledged and reinstained by a deed in this places prince Stanislau), is host of one of the most beautiful monasteries in Romania: Barsana Monastery, actually a convent with fourteen nuns.

The legend says that the monastery originally stood across the river Iza, in the Slatina Valley, and that it was moved later to the right of the river, on Podurile Manastirii (The Monastery Bridges).

Barsana is one of the wooden churches in Maramures, a beautiful synthesis of Eastern and Western European architecture, with Gothic and Byzantine elements.

The Monastery is situated on the northern-central part of the village. The first church was built in 1720 with a plan that includes: the gate, the narthex and the nave. The exterior reminds of a hall, but the inside is divided into separated walls according to the traditional Orthodox dogmatic.

The narthex is narrow, with low ceiling and flats over the girders. The frescoes are very similar to those of the painted monasteries of Moldavia. This Wooden Church is the only one with double cornice, the Old Monastery, the tallest wooden building in Europe (62 m tall).

The church was manually carved by some of the most talented craftsmen from Maramures. No power tools or nails were used to put this impressive construction together.

Its beauty and uniqueness made it one of the eight churches in the region that UNESCO designated WORLD HERITAGE site.

The monastic compound is made of wood as well, according to the local tradition. Only Barsana craftsmen are building the compound, under the direct supervision of architect Dorel Cordos. Today you can admire the Maramures gate, the belfry, the church, the summer shire, the house with cells and chapel, the house of the masters, the house of the artists and a more recently arranged museum portraying the Maramures history, culture and civilization.

The community is now led by the Prioress Filofteia Oltean and counts eleven nuns and three sisters.

Enjoy more images from Barsana:

Yesterday, in my post about Lazarus’ Saturday (April 11, 2009) I mentioned a special dish, used to celebrate the dead: coliva.

Coliva is the Romanian translation of the Greek κόλλυβα (kólliva) and it describes a sweet pudding made of boiled wheat.

This “desert” is used liturgically in both Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic churches. Romania and Greece are not the only two countries that use this culinary delight to celebrate their dead. Variations can be found in Serbia, Russia and Bulgaria too.

Bellow a Romanian recipe, which, unlike the Greek kólliva which contains sesame seeds, almonds, raisins, pomegranates seeds and anise seeds, is much simpler. The reason is that in Romania, many of the ingredients mentioned above are neither traditional, nor affordable for people of the folk.

Ingredients: 1 kg wheat kernel, 250 g sugar, 150 g honey, water to cover the kernels, 240 g crushed walnuts, crunched graham crackers as needed, powdered sugar as needed, vanilla, fine zest from 1 lemon, fine zest from 1 orange, colored candy, 100 g milk chocolate grinded fine or cocoa powder.

Since coliva is a ritual dish, its preparation follows a ritual too. The day before the liturgy prepare the wheat as follows:

Wash the wheat kernel with nine waters (one for each of the 9 angel squads in heaven) then boil in a Teflon pot for 2-3 hours at medium heat. Stir thoughtfully with a wooden spoon to prevent the wheat from sticking to the bottom of the pot. When boiled, put content into an enameled pot and covered with a wet towel, so that the composition won’t form a “crust.”

The day of the liturgy:

Sweeten the composition with 250 g sugar and 150 g honey. Flavor with zest from one lemon and one orange and with 1 TBS vanilla.

Add 200 g of the crushed walnuts and stir till all these extra ingredients incorporate in the wheat composition evenly. Your coliva is now almost ready – all it needs is the décor that will make it fit for the liturgy.

Place the composition on a large platter and form the coliva with your hands, respecting its shape – make sure you even the coliva to look like a cake. Coliva can take any form: rectangular, oval or round, and sometimes even “cross.” With the rest of the crushed walnuts and crushed graham crackers cover the coliva on the top and the sides. Add powder sugar and then make your ornaments out of chocolate and candy. You can even use half walnuts to form a cross or to ornate the sides of the coliva.

I hope the images posted give you some ideas on how to ornate this dish. Coliva is very delicious, and many people choose to eat it in other occasions that those related to death. If you want to do so, simply skip the shaping and decorating.

I had to update this to correct a misspelling (emailed instead of enameled, thank you, Pearl) and to add this sweet video I found on YouTube)