Romanian Dishes You Have to Try

Romanian cooking is generous, rustic and deeply comforting — a meeting of Balkan, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Slavic influences melted into a style all its own. Meals are slow, portions are large, and every region defends its own recipe with pride. Here are the dishes a visitor absolutely has to taste.

Soups (ciorbă)

The ciorbă is the soul of the Romanian table: sour, steaming, usually soured with borș (fermented wheat-bran liquor) or with lemon juice and vinegar. It arrives as a first course and warms you instantly.

• Ciorbă de burtă — a creamy tripe soup finished with sour cream and egg yolk, served with garlic and hot pepper; many Romanians swear by it as the ultimate cure after a long night.
• Ciorbă rădăuțeană — the gentler cousin from Bucovina, made with chicken breast, creamy and perfumed with garlic; a softer gateway to the tripe soup.
• Ciorbă de perișoare — small meatballs of pork and rice simmered in a tart vegetable broth, generous with lovage; comfort food in its purest form.

Also look for ciorbă de fasole cu afumătură (smoky bean soup, often served in a hollowed loaf) and the peasant vegetable ciorbă țărănească — both perfect on a cold day.

The mains

These are the icons of Romanian cooking, the dishes you will meet at every celebration table.

• Sarmale — cabbage (or vine) leaves rolled around minced meat and rice, simmered slowly for hours; served with mămăligă and a spoonful of sour cream. The centerpiece of every wedding and Christmas.
• Mici (mititei) — skinless grilled rolls of spiced minced meat (beef, lamb, sometimes pork), eaten with mustard, fresh bread and a cold beer. The undisputed king of Romanian street food.
• Mămăligă — a cornmeal porridge, Romania's answer to polenta; served beside stews, layered with cheese and sour cream, or pan-fried. Simple, filling, everywhere.
• Tochitură — a rustic pork stew braised in lard with garlic and wine, plated with mămăligă, a fried egg and cheese; a hearty mountain-country specialty.

Try also the oven-roasted pork friptură, the garlicky ostropel, and along the coast or the Danube, saramură de pește (brined grilled fish) or the Danube Delta's fish stews.

Everyday & street food

These are the everyday flavors — what you buy at the market, on a street corner, or what waits in the pantry.

• Covrigi — warm soft pretzels dusted with sesame, poppy seed or coarse salt; sold on every corner and the city's default breakfast.
• Plăcintă — flaky pastry filled with cheese, potato, cabbage or apple; every region has its own version, from the Dobrogea style to the coiled creață.
• Langoși — pillowy deep-fried dough rubbed with garlic and topped with cheese and sour cream; a Hungarian legacy beloved across Transylvania.
• Zacuscă — a thick spread of roasted eggplant, peppers and tomato, cooked in autumn and jarred for winter; spread on bread, a pantry classic.
• Slănină & telemea — cured or smoked pork fat dusted with paprika, and telemea (a salty sheep's or cow's-milk cheese); with raw onion and tomato, the essential peasant snack.

Sweets

Romanian desserts are warm, generous and often fried — nothing shy here.

• Papanași — fluffy fried cheese doughnuts served hot with sour cream and sour-cherry jam; quite possibly the most loved Romanian dessert.
• Cozonac — a rich braided sweet bread swirled with walnut, cocoa or Turkish delight, baked for Christmas and Easter; its scent means the holidays have arrived.
• Clătite — thin crêpes filled with jam, sweet cheese or chocolate, rolled or folded; the Sunday dessert of every childhood.
• Colaci — braided sweet breads baked for occasions and feast days, sometimes ceremonial; beautiful and symbolic.

Look out too for kürtőskalács (chimney cake) baked over embers in Transylvania and apple plăcintă from the mountain orchards.

Drinks

No Romanian meal is complete without the right glass — usually something homemade.

• Țuică & palincă — plum (or other fruit) brandy distilled at home; țuică is milder, Transylvanian palincă is sharp and strong. Sipped as an aperitif, never rushed.
• Romanian wine — the country has a winemaking tradition thousands of years old. Seek out Fetească Neagră (a robust native red), Fetească Albă and Tămâioasă Românească (an aromatic, gently sweet white). Benchmark regions: Cotnari, Murfatlar, Dealu Mare, Recaș and the Transylvanian wine road.
• Socată — a refreshing fermented drink of elderflower, lemon and sugar; fragrant and lightly fizzy, the taste of a village summer.

Many guesthouses and cellars along the wine road offer tastings, and Romanian craft beer has flourished in the cities in recent years.

Where to eat it

For authenticity, choose a traditional restaurant with a cauldron and grill, a neighborhood tavern (crâșmă), or best of all a village guesthouse where everything is homemade. Farmers' markets — Piața Obor in Bucharest, the markets of Cluj or Sibiu — are the place for cheeses, cured pork, zacuscă and seasonal fruit. Mountain inns serve tochitură and hearty soups after a day on the trail.

For vegetarians: fasting food

Romania has an unexpected ally for vegetarians: de post (fasting) dishes, cooked without meat, eggs or dairy during Orthodox fasting periods. Look for fasole bătută (bean purée with fried onion), iahnie de fasole (bean stew), sarmale de post (filled with rice and mushrooms), ghiveci (vegetable stew), zacuscă, potato plăcintă and mămăligă with mushrooms. Many restaurants mark the fasting dishes, which are in fact fully vegan.