Reading my previous posts on the culinary delights of the fair Romanian folk, it may have seemed a bit to focus around various bits of animal, with focus on the mighty pig. So I thought of writing a piece on somewhat lighter fare that is eaten in the summer. It is no longer summer at the time of writing this post, it was not at the time the pictures were taken and it will certainly not be at the time of posting, but it was a particularly mild autumn so I will keep the title.
October is one of the nicer months in Bucharest, a city of very hot summers and quite cold winters. It is the driest month, historically speaking, not too cold and not too hot. It is so nice people often say: I don’t remember the last time we had such a nice October – usually the last time was the previous year. But the meteorological memories of people can be unreliable. This particular October was, in fact, nicer than usual, especially the last week when temperatures got to the mid 20s, some 8 degrees above normal. This post was written on a particularly nice day mid-month, although ever so slightly on the too windy side of things. The sun was shining, the swans were swimming and the last tomatoes were still struggling to ripen on the vine. And we had a nice family meal in the style of summer.
I will begin with a note that this particular post will not have exact recipes, that is not really my thing, but more of an overview, focused on the starters. Romanian meals usually start with ciorba during the week day, but during a weekend gathering other things are preferred. I should mention that whenever I reference oil, it is sunflower oil I am speaking about. It is, by quite some distance, the most popular cooking oil in Romania because it is quite cheap and Romanians consider it neutral tasting, although this may be just because they are used to the taste. It is not particularly healthful – seed oils generally are not in my opinion – and I use none of it in every day eating – I use mostly olive oil or butter – but these dishes just do not taste right to Romanians with oil other than sunflower.
One of the more popular summer foods in Romania is “salata de vinete cu ardei copt” – eggplant “salad” – more of a dip really – with roasted pepper. This is done quite simply. The eggplants and peppers are roasted – on a grill if available or on a stove top if not – until done, which I cannot tell you when it is, you have to see it.
A medium eggplant should take some 40 minutes until it is charred on the outside and baked on the inside. When done baking, it needs to be processed still hot or the flesh can darken. This can be difficult and lead to burning of fingers if care is not used. Just remove some of the skin and scoop the flesh with a spoon in a colander. Salt it some and leave drain for 20 minutes.
The resulting eggplant can be turned into the dip – just add a tablespoon of oil per eggplant and a very finely chopped raw onion, mix and that is it. The drained eggplant also freezes reasonably well, and people sometimes freeze a few bags of it to be prepared at a later date – the preference is to bake more eggplants at a time.
The peppers are easier – bake until the skin is slightly charred and can be peeled off. Add salt and vinegar to taste and that is about it. Usually the core and seeds are removed from the pepper, but that is not the way of the Pie household. Each one removes the core of the peppers they eat. So to eat get some good bread, cover in a layer of eggplant and either put a piece of pepper on top or, as I do, take a bite of each, alternatively.
A second popular dish is a form of deviled eggs. This is simple; hard boil the eggs, remove the yolk, crumble it and mix it with salt, pepper, some herbs, and either butter or liver pate and a tablespoon of mayonnaise. Refill the egg with with the mixture.
The next dish is a fish roe dip and it is made from either carp roe – cheaper – or pike roe – pricier and preferred. It is practically like making mayo, but with fish eggs. Add the row, salt and some lemon, and then mix while slowly adding oil until desired consistency. Add finely chopped onion to taste – the onion is sometimes served on the side, but most often mixed in.
Next we have green string beans and garlic. This type of beans are ones that grow long and thin – we call them Chinese beans in Romania, don’t know what particular cultivar it is. This is also quite simple, pick tender pods, boil for 3 minutes and add a lot of minced garlic and some mayo to tie things together. The garlic is the secret – boiled green beans being disgusting themselves. Often a similar thing is made but with mushrooms instead of beans.
Finally no Romanian summer meal is complete without some raw vegetables – tomatoes, peppers, radishes, onions – and plain white cheese – usually a piece is fresh, softer and less salty, the other is aged, harder and saltier. All these starter are placed on the table and each eats what they want.
The main course was catfish – the Wels catfish – two ways.
One is the traditional way of cooking fish down these parts saramura – which translates as brine. But unlike most places when things are brined before cooking, here the brine is like a sauce. You basically add a teaspoon and a half of salt per cup of hot water, with fresh ground black pepper, paprika and thinly sliced chilies to make the base – or thin brine. The fish is taken hot off the grill and placed directly in the brine. Various vegetables can be added on the grill next to the fish – tomatoes, peppers, chilies, onions – to be used as a side. Sometimes these are peeled and mashed in the brine to for a thicker brine – more similar to a sauce, other times they are on the plate next to the fish. The dish is usually served with polenta. In my family we usually do the thin brine. Also this type of brine is also used with grilled chicken.
The second way is simply fried – just dredge it in a bit of cornmeal and fry it on both sides in a pan – we don’t usually deep fry fish. This is eaten simply with a good squeeze of lemon or mujdei de usturoi.
So this about covers the food for the day. It was warm enough to eat outside on the patio. The lake looked good and clean – for reasons I do not understand the last few summers it was plagued by some vegetation that completely filled it to the point you barely realized there was water there. The white wine was properly chilled and of good quality. Overall it was not a bad day.
Comments
186 responses to “Life of Pie: Romanian summer food”
suddenly, I’m starving
eat some fish with brine it helps
You sir, are ebil!
Whoever is scheduling food posts for lunchtime clearly is trying to undermine all the Glibfitters.
I have the same grill.
That grill cannot be in two places at the same time so how can you have the same grill?
Time travel.
You can get around that with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle…
Speaking of BBQ physics, I make a mean Schrödinger’s steak.
Does it involve live/dead cats?
I suppose it could. Mine are just beef though. Both raw and overcooked at the same time.
Quantum grill.
That all looks delicious, Pie.
*looks out at the snow*
You are cruel, Pie.
Cruel.
(Awesome, though. Wood eat all of it)
Yes, the damn snow that came from your way! It’s your fault!
Hey motherfucker, I global warm like a madman! It’s not my fault it doesn’t fucking work!
That looks terrific, Pie. The fish roe dip sounds a lot like taramasalata. Man, I love that stuff. And the deviled eggs with pate definitely sounds like a winner.
I grow eggplant in my garden but I’m the only one in the family who eats it. That dip sounds great.
Ratatouille changed my kids’ minds.
That’s the only way I eat eggplant.
may be i’m used to it like that but really works with the baked pepper in a bit of vinegar
It looks VERY similar to baba ghanoush. Maybe we’re actually cousins?
there are a lot of middle eastern influences via Turks here
mmm, catfish. Damnit, now you got me wanting catfish and there are no restaurants around here to get it, and I don’t trust the frozen stuff from the store.
I don’t trust the frozen stuff from the store.
Swai is that?
Why don’t you just go to one of the dozens of rivers or lakes within walking distance and catch some? Does every state not have that feature?
Many states also have the feature of not possibly getting eaten by the fauna in those bodies of water, as well.
Well, by the macroscopic fauna. The microscopic fauna can do a number on you in pretty much every state in the land.
Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little old alligator.
https://youtu.be/FWS5xfIaoeA
What’s the fun in that?
My wife use to be afraid of alligators, until we spent a day canoeing in the Okefenokee swamp. After seeing how they basically just move out of your way and paddling passed dozens of them without incident, she got over it.
gators are pussies
/cottonmouth
wimpy US alligators. You should see Romanian alligators piss your pants
There are only 2 species of alligators in the world. American and Chinese. Off course the American is much bigger.
did you see that lake in the pictures? who knows what is hiding there
Aqua Vampires?
All we got are bullheads, similar, but not the same. And fishing and I have a tense relationship. When I moved back here 15 years ago I just wanted to by a case of beer and sit on the dock and fish. Bought the case of beer many times over, but never get around to the fishing.
I’m going camping and fishing this weekend, now that it’s cooled off to the 80’s.
October is one of the nicer months in Bucharest, a city of very hot summers and quite cold winters.
Bucharest seems pretty temperate relative to Albuquerque.
Average winter temps in the 30s and 40s (F) and summer temps in the 60s and 70s? Yeah, Pie is full of shit! I bet he’s not even Romanian, probably Russian trying to influence our elections.
i don’t know how averages are come by but i remember few recent years where the highs in summer were under 35 and the lows in winter over -15 . then again i walk 30 minutes to work usually at 7 Am when it is the coldest so maybe I feel it more. For European Union, Bucharest is thee capital with the highest difference between winter and summer. Dunno about the US but for some reason seems to have more extremes.
You’re C numbers are too confusing for ma brain. But Wisconsin is generally in the high 80s low 90s (F) in the summer and usually go almost a month during the winter where it doesn’t get above 0 (F).
I ask you nerds: is this really how the interwebs is managed?
“I am concerned about capture [of votes] by people who don’t know what they are doing,” Dyson said, according to the New York Times. “People who are stupid, individually.”
Yeah, well, there’s that.
Isn’t this the problem with democracy in general?
Half of all potential voters are below average intelligence.
Too white, too male, yawn rinse repeat.
“We’re wrong to think the internet is ‘so important’ that we must somehow create a global democracy to run it,” David Jennings, a delegate from Ireland who called upon by ICANN to debate the pros and cons of the voting system, said in 2000.
On the contrary, the internet is much too important to democratize.
It is no longer summer at the time of writing this post, it was not at the time the pictures were taken and it will certainly not be at the time of posting
So this is all fake news is what you are saying.
it is still very nice. highs of 15 and sunny. kinda of a drought though could use some rain. the weather will worsen soon so i already put the winter tires on my car to avoid the inevitable queues
Inevitable Q’s
I dont have separate rims for my winter tires so changing them is more difficult
Great article. Looks good and a lunch I would enjoy. We are mild/warmish too and might get close to 50 today. Not quite as warm as you but we got close to that last weekend.
Love those Deviled Eggs, and some nice pictures Pie
Pie.
http://girls.gunaxin.com/saturday-is-pi-day/14684
where do you find these strange websites?
On the internet.
*poker face*
I have to be honest, I was hoping for a less literal interpretation of “pie.”
Also, my comment is why there are no libertarian women.
If we’re going to go with a Senate popular vote, why stop there? How many people voted for Democratic governors nation wide compared to Republicans? Mayors? How about local dog catchers?
and here I was trying to get your mind off politics… I say make an app and everyone can vote on anything. I
Fish and radishes? I’m American. Not a Medieval peasant or commie.
Is there at least some wine for me to get drunk off of involved in this meal?
off course
I think we should go to a system where voting isn’t necessary at all. Have a simple framework in place to determine if a crime has been committed, based on the idea of negative rights. Then we won’t need legislators or voting, and we would have solved a lot of corruption and power-grab issues.
Everything has always been at least as dumb.
(Courtesy of KDW’s fantastic article this morning.)
They seem to be implying that the representation should be reapportioned based on votes per party such that CA would then get to determine who represents districts in other states. The whole concept is fucked. But it tells you what they think of divided, representative government.
We all know they’d be perfectly happy with a dictatorship, as long as it represent their ideas.
focus on the mighty pig
Anthony Bourdain was somewhere in Mittel Europa in a small town/village for one of his shows, and there was going to be a party of some kind, with the cuisine featuring the mighty pig. I remember he cracked “Its not a party until someone kills a pig.”
All hail the mighty pig!
that’s unpossible per EU law
Dude just guts it right there in the kitchen without at least laying down some paper towel or news papers. That is too far over the line. It is banned for their own good.
What are you in for?
Pig killing
(All the motherstabbers and fatherrapers back away…)
#Group-W Bench
I too had never heard of a dump being closed on Thanksgiving.
Who would have thought a Somalian might be a terrorist? Aussie brings cafe chair to knife fight.
. . .another — swiftly dubbed an “Aussie hero” on social media — repeatedly tried to ram the suspect with an empty metal shopping cart.
Oh, now you think all anarchists are terrorists just because they don’t have roads or formal governments?
How could Aussies and I have evolved so far apart after leaving Scotland only 300 years ago?
Just double-tap that asshole center mass and take the rest of the day off, except, of course, Australia has been rendered a safe place by virtue of common-sense gun control like banning lever action assault rifles.
Well, that was a bit of a misrepresentation, but fuck ’em.
“That’s not gun control. THIS is gun control.”
/every prog trying to put up Australia as model of commonsense gun safety
Let’s be fair, Australia doesn’t go nearly far enough for them, it’s just a convenient first stepping stone as far as they’re concerned.
Gun control is 6 out of 10 in the 9 ring.
Now that’s what I call a successful day.
Hey Pie, that is some deliscious food there man. Grilled veggies rock. So does a nice deviled egg. Not a big fan of fried fish, but that still looks awesome too.
BTW, you have this problem in Romania?
ehm strangely not huge, but then again the press ignores what happens in the bad parts of town. but overall the murder rate is not high
None of this matters because I know where the CIA keeps its prototype 100MPG carburetor.
There’s always an oil shortage on the horizon, because “current capacity” will never be enough to meet “future demand”, but somehow the market always works that out.
The argument here really is that governments are blocking the investments needed to match future demand. So, government fuckery even though the Goldman Sachs stooge can’t come out and just say that and instead tries his best to claim its about investor sentiment.
I’m sure G$’s solution if for G$ to put together a sovereign investment bond package with attractive margins to G$.
Surely; for that matter, I’m not sure that “shortage” has a meaning in economics.
I explain that we never run out of anything. Take gold: you can have all you want right this instant for $40 a gram.
Ha ha ha, all it would take is one week of gas lines and those Progs will begging for a refinery at their house.
That would imply that they have an effective grasp on economics, industry, or markets. Really, they’d just be demonstrating in front of oil executives’ houses because of the profiteering.
^^^^THIS^^^^
Reality will never override the narrative..
Why do you think their answer to everything their ideology ends up fucking up because it tries to defy reality is to double down on the same stupid shit that caused the issue in the first place, huh?
No No, they drive electric cars, they don’t need oil, they have Coal!
Ya, that has nothing to do with abundance of natural gas that they talk about in the next paragraph. Bull shit oil shortage unless it is manufactured to raise prices.
That is his underlying message, though. He dances around it, but any “shortage” would be a result of governments.
Not necessarily all Gov.
There is no new laws/regs stopping oil companies from investing in future production, they stopped investing in future production because the price of oil tanked. And this is why I am sitting here typing and not working in oil exploration incidentally. As soon as this future shortage happens, if it does, they will go right back to what they have always done and invest in future production. Right now they are pumping what they are sitting on and not exploring because it costs money.
You mean a a boat ?
That looks great. I missed lunch. Mmm. Lunch.
I have a food confession. I think I am addicted to McD’s $1 Sausage McMuffin. I ate two today. You can’t find better value for your money.
Their sausage patties are delicious for some reason. I fucking love them!
Seriously, I might need a twelve step program. I have to have at least one every morning.
They are made from roadkill.
Delicious roadkill.
Ugh. The patties are awful.
*looks for some Hawaiian pizza to eat*
You sir, have no taste and probably kick your dog.
Only accidentally! And I feel worse than she does.
ugh . . . beat me to it half an hour ago!
needs MOAR pineapple
Their sausage patties are delicious for some reason.
Where “some reason” = “salt.”
What was that famous quote from a chef again? — “The problem with home cooking boils down to three things: not enough butter, not enough salt, and not enough heat.”
And all the people said “AMEN!”
The only thing better is the 2 for 4 bucks Sausage Egg McMuffin
I don’t know, is the egg really worth an extra buck? I am not sure.
Yes. The breakfast trinity (egg, meat, cheese) is greater than the sum of its parts.
(((westernsloper)))
I’m a brefast burrito man myself.
You have a loving and supportive friend. I too have McMuffined… I have the makings in my freezer and when I’m alone I might eat three. Three, Godammit. In all seriousness, the sausage McMuffin is clearly the superior McMuffin of all the McMuffins.
the sausage McMuffin is clearly the superior McMuffin of all the McMuffins.
Truer words have not appeared on this site.
Sausage and Egg McMuffin. It’s one of the few things both my wife and I will eat at McD’s.
Their Filet-‘O-Fish, on the other hand, gives me the shits.
Powerline, Copsuckers, but you knew that,
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/11/jeff-sessions-conservative-hero.php
Yeah, the WSJ ran an editorial where the author more or less fellated Sessions over his support of asset forfeiture.
He was an authoritarian prick and we’re better off rid of him.
This is the one way in which I feel sorry for Trump: when you have no principles, it’s hard to know who will make a good minion. If you don’t know what you’re doing or what you want, you don’t know which tool will be the right one to do it for you. Further, what good is an AG who can’t seamlessly jump back and forth every day to argue both sides of a situation as a president figures out his latest utterance is untenable ?
I’m going to start drinking tonight and not stop until I’m dead or Monday. And I know which I’d prefer. Fork this forking gundam week with a rusty prison shank.
good luck tonight friend, but you’re really looking through the binoculars from the wrong end: so much beer / so little time
the weekends and the breweries stretch past the horizon, and you are only limited by your imagination and tenacity !
For some reason that last sentence suddenly made me want to go back and play Escape From Butcher Bay.
that is also my plan but i doubt the wisdom of it
That was my plan until I discovered that there was no long weekend after all. Darryl has a long, slithery sad…
May you pass out on your side, and may you have left your clothes somewhere they’re easy to find.
Right under his face, while passed out on his side makes them easy to find, but is not ideal.
http://www.theintell.com/news/20181108/rally-outside-fitzpatrick-offices-calls-for-mueller-protection
Really? These people are going to be really disappointed when his report gets released.
Haha, you mean in 6 years?
What if Silver supports your notion of fraud in Broward County?
Something sure does seem off in Broward County; we just don’t know what yet.
The next generation of liars and cheats will need to work on tuning their standard errors (they can learn from the kids earning their PhDs lately), but, for today, possible fraud sticks out like a turn in a punch bowl. We’ll see where this goes.
This story would be so inconvenient for the people screeching about the Russians and the integrity of democracy and how racist/crazy claims of voter fraud are that I’d have to think they’re going to do everything in their power to smother it in the crib after poisoning it, beat it with a baseball bat, and throw it in the river before it can get off the ground.
Now this is just shitty…
There was something similar with someone that survived one of those mall shootings a few years back that died in another shooting. Makes you wonder if Final Destination was onto something.
People who frequent a country music bar were also at a big country music festival in the next state last year? I don’t think it’s too much of a coincidence.
It would still be a pretty huge coincidence. Possible? Sure.
I could end up the ass, but I know these people. I know how they lie.
“My son was in Las Vegas with a lot of his friends and he came home. He didn’t come home last night,” his mother told ABC News.
“I don’t want prayers, I don’t want thoughts, I want gun control”, she said.
I don’t care what you want.
Cue the GOP pols running like scared children from her and the Dem pols / media using her at every chance.
If the GOP pols would simply answer, “No” this would go much better for them. Instead, they’ll try to empathize with her, because that’s what pols do, and it will go poorly.
It’s a big scary world out there: billions of folk, a few percent of them are crazy.
I carry. My son carries. Don’t go where you can’t carry.
I bought my daughter her first pistol this week. I expect she will carry on a regular basis.
“Don’t go where you can’t carry.”
speaking of which, i just saw my local synagogue has put up a big red “no firearms…” sign inside the front door. the same temple that counts 2A superlawyer Alan Gura as a member. sure, this is progville but i was still a little surprised.
deja vu
I wish them well but
I find (((this))) to be a more rational solution.
it’s much like the argument for hate speech. those clamoring for gun control can’t fathom how much worse it can get under greater govt control despite some startling historical examples. tyranny and defensive gun uses are not on their radar.
It’s not like today is an important anniversary or anything.
Too-Fucking-Che!
What lesson with She Guevarra/Karla Marx learn from this revelation? I am betting whatever it is, it will be wrong.
You could put ten thousand (((comedy writers))) in a room together and they would still come up short.
Again, calling bullshit. This bitch was wearing outfits that cost several thousand during her campaign, but she has no one to bankroll her?
I suspect she has a sugar daddy.. Some beta male lefty douche that likes her to order him around.
Wow: be a boss how so you can be a bitch later NTTAWWT
DON’T KINK-SHAME, ASSHOLE!
What is his kink is sexually humiliating others? Did you think of that?
I’m sure campaign finances were used to dress the candidate.
I imagine rent in DC is a bit harder to hide in the campaign reports.
Yep, they can spend campaign money on wardrobe.
when you elect someone without a career or direction or personal ambition or work ethic, you at least expect them to know how to couch surf.
You just know that there is some rich feller that is totally into a toothy bug-eyed blow-job. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got.
I remember a bunch of freshmen Republican congressmen living in their offices during their first term off and on over the last decade or so.
I also remember a recent “expose” about how unsightly it was that some congressmen were sleeping in their offices, rather than living in a DC mcmansion.
I believe some members of the Congressional Black Caucus called for an investigation saying it may be a violation and abused taxpayer money. Of course, the were also looking for housing $$.
Amazon made a weak attempt at a sitcom based on the premise of a bunch of Republican Senators all living dorm style in a small house in DC.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CDBQP58/
i would watch that if the cast had Nigel and all the other lads from the flat in The Young Ones.
Created by Garry Trudeau? Well, at least I know what the politics will be.
Please. She could open up a GoFundMe and collect six or seven hundred thousand dollars from her adoring fans in a day.
You can say that again! I’m wondering if that would violate some gifting laws. Maybe she can get herself thrown out before she gets there.
I’m wondering if that would violate some gifting laws.
Generally speaking, a member of Congress can accept a gift from anyone other than a lobbyist of less than $50, with a limitation of less than $100 in gifts from any single source in a calendar year. Gifts having a value of less than $10 do not count toward the annual limit.
Whether the gofundme would count as a single gift, or whether they would count each pledge to the gofundme as a separate gift, I couldn’t say. I suspect the former. And I’ll bet you anything she has already looked into it, after Blasey Ford made bank earlier this year.
Nothing a go fund me page can’t fix.
1. Write her memoir
2. Sell 5 million copies… all at once
3. Profit!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/01/20/how-barack-obama-has-made-20-million-since-arriving-in-washington/#1cfb21215bf0
Apropos of naught but fuckery, I hereby present – https://youtu.be/40QSd6ZtZfk
chris the vancura
1 year ago
He plays the shopping carts like a boss
You might also like a Canadian show called Letterkenny
Nope. Cuts too close to bone for this feller. I grew up with those loogins and louts and don’t find it amusing. I was a loogin and a lout.
Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mKPCJUW2I4
Butthurt Report
□ I am a little bitch
No one liked my selfies today
LOL
( √ ) I’m better than everyone else.
Shut up!
So about these found ballots. ….
We can’t even pass muster for a banana republic. Banana Republic have better chains of custody over thier phony balony ballots. We have no custody on who knows the fuck knows what quantum of legitimacy votes.
Cloward-Piven approves of the election results.
Fort Worth vigilante transportation management favors scooters over bike share
. . . her first thought upon seeing it was, “We’re not Dallas. We don’t do that.”
Trump’s latest round of belligerency is real must see TV.
Two things that do not go together:
“Donald Trump” and “must-see”
Beats the fuck out of “Dancing With The Stars”.
-1 Mushroom
The second way is simply fried – just dredge it in a bit of cornmeal and fry it on both sides in a pan
I’ll have one of those.
Thanks for this post, Pie. I love your dispatches from my ancestral homeland!
Scott supporters say? It’s a shame this is all subjective and all and that they’re aren’t like actually rules governing this sort of thing. Gosh, if only those sorts of things existed and reporters could look them up to verify them or not.
I’d eat the hell out of those eggs and that catfish.
Speaking of seafood, had some fresh blue crab in Annapolis for lunch today.