If there is one national “comfort food” in Romania, it has to be the dish sarmale, inherited from the long centuries of Turkish rule. Simply put, sarmale (sar-mall-eh) are cabbage leaves which are folded around a special filling into little “packages” and then (further) cooked. Because this is a Balkans-wide dish, there are as many variants of sarmale but the Romanian version generally has two … Continue reading Sarmale
As I’ve mentioned before, I tend not to follow the daily ins and outs of Romanian politics but I do keep an ever-vigilant eye on what the oleaginous Mugur Isarescu is up to at any given time. I came across this article (in English) about Romania’s budgetary cutbacks and how they are affecting the healthcare system in this country, which included this: Following a 7.1 … Continue reading The Grand Master Says the Medicine is Working…For Now
Daca esti roman, blogpostu urmatorul e interzis! Nu-l citesti! All Romanians cover your eyes! Yes, for the other three of you in room (hi, Fred :P), this is yet another entry in the category of manele, although it is based off an older Romanian folk song. The video can be found here and is entitled Ce Perversa E Lumea Si Rea, which I’ve translated to … Continue reading How Sick And Evil Everybody Is
As you remember from previous posts of mine, in Romania all inhabited places are divided into cities (orase), towns (comune) and villages (sate). Although most Romanian “cities” are extremely small, they all usually have a significant geographic feature, a series of internal divisions, each one called a cartier (car-tea-AIR) or a “neighborhood”. All Romanians who live in a city will know exactly where these neighborhoods … Continue reading The Cartier
A few days ago, something tripped the electricity in my house and reset my radio, erasing all the pre-set stations. I decided to take this as a serendipitous moment and let my radio scan around for a while. I found a really nifty radio station which I think many of you may like, called Radio Romania Actualitati, which means something like “Current Affairs”. It has … Continue reading Sunday Morning Coming Down
All Things Romania 