We're talking about small type of sausages made of minced meat and fried on the barbecue. Now the irony stands in the fact that... commonly, frying mici (or mititei) on the barbecue - at a picnic, outside in front of the house, in the backyard, in the park, beside the lake, in the weekend, on Easter Day, ANYTIME & ANYWHERE - has become a national sports competition. Frying mici defines the petty workers to the bones, and we're talking about a very large percent of the population. It is how they usually celebrate all the small things in their lives... and they're so many!
The smell of the frying mici is the easiest to recognize out of all smells that could possibly pass under your nose. Mici, mustard and cheap draught beer - at all public festivities, at every party, every wedding in the outskirts, everywhere.
The problem is that mici are actually very tasty and it would be a pleasure to eat them if it weren't for this aura of bad-taste celebrations that accompanies them all the time.
Making mici is quite simple: minced meat (beef and/or pork), salt, garlic and some other spices (savory, caraway) all mixed together and "moulded" in this shape:
Then you put them on the hot barbecue and let them fry well.
Always served with mustard. Always. And beer, of course, but you can try a good bottled pils. :) Enjoy! ]]>2007-02-04T13:25:00+00:00RecommendationsFlaviaToday's dish: Papanasihttp://metropotam.com/Recommendations/2007/01/art5233186830-Today-s-order-Papanasi/
We're talking about doughnuts, Romanian type of doughnuts, made with cheese and... semolina (is that how you call it?) and covered in sour cream and jam! Arrgghh! No, really, you'll get to kill for them. :)
The tiny problem with the recipe used in public restaurants is that the "papanasi"... don't have cheese in their composition, it is just normal dough - flour, milk, sugar, oil and stuff - which is fried in a pot of oil. Well, that doesn't make them any less delicious, anyway. "Papanasii" are the size of a tennis ball (sometimes even bigger), a round sphere of dough which, like I said, is fried in a pot of oil - forget about fats right now!! :)
There are situations (in Moldavia for instance) when the doughnuts look like the american ones, the policemen usually gulp for breakfast, lunch and dinner - with a hole in middle. They all have in common the mixture of jam and sour cream. It's very usual to pour over wildberry jam, or forest-fruits jam, whatsoever.
It is a very "heavy" type of food, considering the oil, cream and the jam, so you must consider no more than a light soup before this kind of dessert. Usually it takes long in Bucharest restaurants to make papanasi, that is because it takes time for them to cook well in the middle.
The best papanasi in town you can eat at Burebista, La Mama, City Grill (the dough is made with cheese, we tested it) and Thalia. You can also try Bellini or Athene Bistro. Normally they cost no more than 7-8 RON. ]]>2007-01-28T09:10:00+00:00RecommendationsFlaviaWhereto? Saxon villages in Transylvaniahttp://metropotam.com/Recommendations/2007/01/art2601929289-Whereto-Saxon-villages-in-Transylvania/Rosenauer fortress - is somehow part of the medieval heritage that German civilization has left on these lands. Some 900 years ago :) Germans from Saxony (at that time it also included Nordrhein-Westfallen with the Koln diocese) were brought by the Hungarian King Geza II to strenghen the borders of the teritory that was subject to the Hungarian Crown.
Those who came colonized the lands in the South of Transylvania and started a new life here. Civilized and christian people, the saxons - we call them sashi - left a deep mark upon the rural environment they encountered in Romania changing it radically.
Dealu Frumos
Socially and spiritually it was the church that stood in the center of the saxons' lives. This explains the huge stone cathedrals they've built throughout the centuries. On the other hand, the architecture of their villages deliberately placed the church in the center while the houses developed radially around it. Why so?
Starting with the 14th century frequent trukish invasions would churn up the country. Being ready to give up their houses, the saxon peasants would leave much of their belongings behind and take refuge inside a fortress where there was only food and water they needed in order to survive. Churches began to be fortified. Huge stone walls were built around and as time was passing and the population increased, old walls were crushed down and rebuilt sorrounding a larger area round the church.
Evanghelist Church in Dealu Frumos
The fortresses had control towers and deposits where peasants kept their provisions. Romanians were hardly tolerated within the saxon area, they had their own dwellings at the outskirts of the villages but Germans would mostly see them as we see today the gypsies living on the waste grounds near the city.
Valea Viilor
This is how 900 years passed. In the early '90s, as the communist period was over, saxons left the country massively. Gypsies took over the abandoned villages while only a few of the saxon heirs, the very old ones, still lingered in Transylvania. Gradually Romanians began to rebuild the cultural heritage left behind by saxons and the German inhabitants came back to re-claim their belongings. Many of the houses today are being taken care of by Romanian villagers on account of the German owners who come here during summer.
Mosna
Prince Charles himself was amazed at the beauty of these villages and he got involved in a wide restauration process for some of the 300 fortified churches in the area, Mosna (Meschen) being the first one he visited.
We recommend: Biertan - it is one of the most important saxon villages on Tarnave (the rivers crossing the lands) with one of the best preserved cathedrals.
Malmkrog - it is older than the mountains and, curiously, evangelic services still happen here, there are alomst 30 saxon families in the village. It is hard to get there, the road is awful but once you're there... you'll figure it was definitly worth it.
Tip - the tower is magnificent, it is 700 years old and much of the material it was made of is still standing! Well... we dare you to climb it! The cracking strairs have never been changed, just fixed here and there, there is nothing but wood... 700 year old wood that you have to climb through a mole tunnel up to the top where the boards creak and squeak and a 2 tons huge iron bell hangs down on them. :) It's awesome.
Mosna - Meschen. If you are here during summer you'll be surprised to see how villagers will treat you. The tower where poeple used to keep their provisions is still being used for that and in summer time they have bacon and other stuff in there which they give to tourists along with a small glass of tuica - romanian plainca(vodka), remember? :)
Valea Viilor, a village near Copsa Mica - ex-most poluted town in Europe... And then again: Dealu Frumos, Ighis, Apold... till you get to Sighisoara, which we'll talk about in a separat article. :) ]]>2007-01-26T10:39:00+00:00RecommendationsFlaviaToday's dish: Plescoi Sausageshttp://metropotam.com/Recommendations/2007/01/art4604307016-Today-s-order-Plescoi-Sausages/Plescoi sausages are simply awesome! I mean, I personally love them. And what do you know, I hear they are a quite famous trade mark around the world.
The spicy delicious sausages come from Plescoi, a Romanian village in the Sub-Carpathians area, Buzau. The original recipe includes mutton, fat mutton, the fatter the better :) garlic and/or paprika. The sausages must be smoked and dried in the wind and then fried for no longer than 1 minute in hot oil.
The sausages were first "cooked" this way by serbian grocers who found the taste of the Romanian local mutton so awful that they decided to spice it up strongly and smoke it until it became edible.
So it is actually fixing a bad recipe that made the sausages famous. Well, this is only a rumour. What matters is that today they are so famous around the country that you can find them anywhere: at the butcher's, in supermarkets and in most of the restaurants, especially in Bucharest. However we are not very sure if the recipe is always the original one.
The sausages must not contain minced meat and the spices must be carefully measured and added to the mixture. They are always served with "mamaliga" and sometimes with cheese and fried eggs. YUMMMY!!
You can also eat them with a garnish of white potato salad, containing mustard, vinegar and pepper. It is lovely if you could have a small glass of "tuica" (romanian vodka) along or a dry red wine. If not, then a fine mug of nice cold beer would do just fine. :)
Try the Plescoi sausages in Caru' cu Bere or in Nicoresti. They taste delicious. Normally they are no more than 12 13 RON in most of the restaurants around. Enjoy!
]]>2007-01-21T13:32:00+00:00RecommendationsFlaviaWhereto? Rosenauer medieval fortresshttp://metropotam.com/Recommendations/2007/01/art9325087268-Whereto-Rosenauer-medieval-fortress/
It lies not too far from Bucharest, if you have one full day at your disposal you can start early in the morning by car and be there in no more then 2 hours and a half. You'll be heading for Brasov - Poiana Brasov on DN 1. A good map would prove extremely useful. :)
The walls were build up on the mountain, somewhere around the 14th century, to protect the villagers from Turkish invaders. The problem encountered during invasions was lack of water, that's why the people decided to dig in the mountain and make a fountain. Those who worked for the deepest well in Transylvania - 150m - are supposed to be Turkish prisoners who toiled for no less then 17 years in exchange for their freedom... Some freedom :)
The village thrived during the Middle Ages because it lay at the commercial crossroad between Transylvania and the southern part of the country - just like today. In-between the walls there were houses, a small chapel, and a school. It has a very simple and functional architecture; the place was designed to protect not to impress. :)
The fortress protected many fugitives and warriors throughout ages but was left to ruin after 1850. Fortunatley there was some italian investor - Alberto Drera - that saw the place in 1990, when it was already half-destroyed and decided to restore it. Nowadays the fortress is partly reconstructed and can be visited for 10 RON admission fee.
It is one of the few historical monuments and relevant attraction point that was skipped by gypsy merchants selling coloured trifles and small things everywhere around and inside it. And it is one of those places where everyone loves to come back and visit again.
]]>2007-01-19T17:14:00+00:00RecommendationsFlaviaMulled wine - the spirit of Romanian wintershttp://metropotam.com/Recommendations/2007/01/art9734513179-Mulled-wine-the-spirit-of-Romanian-winters/mulled wine. Its close relative is glogg or grog - a mixture of hot tea and rum, very common among sailors in the old times.
Romanians, too, are huge fans of this alcoholic hot drink that we call "hot wine" or "boiled wine" and when the winter season begins it becomes our favourite beverage. :)
What exactly is hot wine and how do you prepare it? It is the easiest thing to do: all you need is red, rarely white wine, cinnamon, sugar, orange skin and apples. You can also add clove and nutmeg for flavor. Seething the wine is not actually the proper thing to do, otherwise you'll waste the alcohol in steams.
The condiments must be added when the wine is on the point of boiling in bubbles, and the sugar is added either in the beginning or gradually during boiling. You turn off the fire, and add the orange skin and the apples in small cubes, the cinammon and the rest of the spices. You cover the pot and leave it for 5-7 minutes, then poor the wine into cups and... drink it to the lees. :)
The ancestor of this flavored drink was backtraced in a Latin scholar's book: Apicius is the one who first noted in De Re Coquinaria a recipe that only slightly resembles what we nowadays prepare. At that time hot wine was made by mixing honey first with a little hot wine and some spices such as pepper, saffron and roast dates. The mixture was then added to a larger amount of cold red wine so that the result was a higly flavored but only slighlty heatened liqueur. Extremely appetizing!
Today we only use pepper when we make hot palinka - a traditional type of spirit like vodka, and we never use saffran or dates, but it is worth the try. :)
It is not wise to use expensive bottled wine because boiling levels all sort of alcoholic drinks. Romanians usually buy red wine "in bulks" from a wine cellar. Hot alcoholic drinks are very common among workers, especially during winter time to help them cope with the frost while working outside.
It is nonetheless a very pleasant way to spend cold afternoons inside with your family or friends when the hot wine replaces the more conformist tea. :) In Bucharest you can drink Romanian "gluhwein" in many places, we especially recommend: Mes Amis, Picasso and Hanu cu Tei.
