Romania

[Michael]

The place to dicuss local topics and to meet others in your area.

[IamJen]

Is there someone here from Romania?

[vegan23]

i am but i want to move to the uk later this year :hi:

[IamJen]

Oh yeah..I remember you...poker-man. :D

Do you know whereabouts you're headed in the UK?

[Skylark]

I tried to get a vegan friend in Bucharest, Romania, to join VB, but he said he was too busy with the Societatea Vegetarienilor din România. http://www.svr.ro So, there's a way to get involved locally for Romanian VBers.

[vegan23]

i'm not sure yet where i want to live in the uk, i need to find out more details about different areas. i know the svr site, the guy who made it is on my yahoo list. :hungry:

[ForestGlade34]

^^^ I remember vegan23 too!... How do you do Sir!! :rockon:

I think Skylark wants to Orphan you, but she lives in the US ;)

[Lena08-89]

Im from Moldova! close to Romania.. but I live in California now!
any russians in here for me to converse with!? 8)

[rockindancer86]

Ya ne russkaya, no ya chut-chut' govoryu po-russki...

[Lena08-89]

haha that was great!
I enjoyed that..
can you hold a conversation in russian for the most part?

[hooligan]

My fiancee and I will be going to Romania in Nov. for our honeymoon and we were wondering how difficult it would be to find vegetarian food...and what dishes are safe to order.

[Luise]

So I'm from Romania -- living all over the map now, though.

hooligan, I generally eat at family members' houses, so I don't know about restaurants (though I'd be curious) -- where are you going? My hometown is Cluj-Napoca, which is in the northwest in Transylvania. It's a university city, and where there's students, there must be alternative dining to some degree. We've got a slew of immense grocery stores, so at the very least you'll be able to find stuff there. (I'm sure a bigger city you visit elsewhere will have this option too.)

I also suggest, if you're into farmers' markets, to check out the local piata (pronounced piatza, you know, that zz sound in pizza); that's really truly a farmers' market and there should be multiple ones wherever you go every day. It's great to get fresh vegetables/fruits/breads and an even better opportunity to get some local flavor: screaming vendors, big, jolly, toothless ladies.

Otherwise one dish I adore and know is vegan (though some people make it with mayo, then it looks more creamy-white, and it's not half as tasty IMO, my veganism aside, 'cause it steals from the flavor) -- salata de vinete. It's an eggplant spread made from roasted eggplants and some manner of vegetable oil; it's green in color and I could eat it with a spoon.

Watch out for things that're fried or cooked in animal fats, though, and everyone probably spikes the soup with animal even if there's no visible meat. If at a loss and on the spot, go for the garden salad (or the dessert, should be vegetarian). Also, look up the words for foods you want to avoid so that when you're scanning a menu, you're not left clueless.


If you're vegan (okay so you said you're not, but then here's some things you could go for)...

egg/s = ou / oua
cheese = branza (the first "a" has a little hat on it)
milk = lapte
sour cream = smantana (the "a"s are hat-wearers, last one wears his upside down to be cool)
whipped cream = frisca ("s" has a tail, "a" has a hat)

Meat-things:
porc
sausage - carnat (first "a" has hat, "t" has a tail to make the tz sound)
beef/veal - vita / vitel ("t" has tail for vitel)
chicken - pui
fish - peste ("s" has a tail for the sh sound)
seafood - fructe de mare
lard - untura ("a" has a hat)

"fasole" is beans, but be warned that there's generally bacon involved


Maybe I'm forgetting something, I'll add if I remember. Let us know how it went, though, and enjoy! There are some stunning stretches of nature, especially near the mountains; so definitely take any opportunity you can to get out of big cities and explore. (Though I'm going to shamelessly plug my city Cluj as something worth seeing, there's some great architecture and museums; Sigisoara is absolutely fabulous too, "Dracula" was born there, either way, a gorgeous fortified city.) Great unexplored spot for a honeymoon -- what made you choose it?