From sheep’s cheese aged in bark tubes to balls of polenta that help shepherd’s fight bears, discover the culinary curiosities hiding in Romania’s mountains.
If you’re headed to Romania, you’d better be hungry; the meat- and dairy-centric cuisine of this mountainous Eastern European country is seriously hearty. It’s also totally unique—a blend of local traditions and the myriad influences of conquerors (from the Ottomans to the Austro-Hungarians to the Soviets) who vied for control of its lands over millennia.
Today the country’s post-communist modernization is reflected in its trendy urban restaurants—but that’s juxtaposed with some of Europe’s most traditional rural areas. In the mountains of Transylvania, crops are grown organically in family gardens, shepherds make cheese over wood fires in mountain shacks, and grannies in colorful headscarves churn out some of the best dishes you’ve ever tasted using banged-up pots and pans. If you’re willing to venture off the beaten path, a plethora of culinary surprises awaits. Here’s a preview.