For R we chose Romania, because we hadn’t “traveled” to Europe in a while! While this country is most famous for its storied cruel ruler (Count) Vlad Dracula, that is just a small portion of its history. Romania’s story also includes two separates states, Hungarian rule over Transylvania for hundred of years, Russian control for sometime, Communism and finally free elections and entrance into the European Union in the 1990s.

What we found most interesting about Romania is how much the land is similar to our state of Maryland with its mountains, forests, and coastline and a climate of lows in the 20s and highs in the upper 70s. Consequently many of the animals  – deer, foxes, bears – and crops – wheat and corn – are similar as well. With its 2,000 year history does have way more castles and much older, cuter villages!

Inspired by Isaac, I decided to put together a Power Point of information and he helped on several slides! You can read it her: Romania.

And some interesting facts about Romania we enjoyed were:

• Romania was known as Dacia in ancient time
• Walachia and Moldavia were the first Romanian states.
• The Parliament Palace in Romania’s capital of Bucharest is the largest legislature building in the world
• In 1884, Timișoara became the first European city to have electric street lighting
• Francesco Illy, the founder of Illycaffè was born in Romania in 1892. He also invented the first automatic steam espresso coffee machine

FOOD

Romanian food, as expected, has Eastern European flavors. Ground meats, soured cabbage and other vegetables and lots of cheeses and cream! While the spices don’t provide much heat, they are flavorful of coriander, paprika and black pepper. And fortunately I have a friend who is Romanian (Thanks Felicia!), so she shared some great recipes to make our meals truly authentic!

Breakfast

 

Romanians eat a traditional European breakfast with eggs, meat, bread and cheese. The big difference is they prefer vegetables (not fruit) on the side – like cucumbers –  and usually have on had a eggplant/red pepper spread called Zacusca. We couldn’t find any at Whole Foods so we decided to make some ourselves.

• Hard boiled Eggs
• Fried Ham
• Crusty Bread
• Soft Cheese
• Zacusca – We followed this recipe, sort of, cutting it back by three-fourths and using jared roasted red peppers and pre-roasted the eggplant. Isaac loved it so much he had it for breakfast the next day and Daddy declared it would go great with wine!

Dinner

 

My Romanian friend provided me with a complete menu for dinner – including some fabulous dessert. We were not surprised by the stuffed cabbage but were intrigued by Romania’s love of feta cheese!

• Romanian Stuffed Cabbage  – what makes this Romanian is that the cabbage is “soured” so it tastes more like sauerkraut. All the adults enjoyed this (grandparents joined us, too!) but the kids were not the biggest fans
• MĂMĂLIGĂ CU SMĂNTĂNĂ – Everyone thought this was delicious. Basically polenta with lots of feta cheese and cream!
• FOR DESSERT: Salam di biscuiti – Literally translates into “Salami of biscuits
  (cookies)”. So yummy and quite easy to make. Daddy said this was definitely a repeat!

CULTURE

 

 Romanian is famous for its pottery! Particularly in the town of Horezu where they have been making pottery the same way for centuries – even still using a hollowed bull horn and feather tip to paint! 

So we learned all about Romanian pottery and Horezu here: Horezu Pottery And watched it in action here (though the best video we could find was in French): Romanian Pottery And then we decided to paint some of our own pottery (or, err, acrylic plates) in the same style!

Next up is S. We have a lot to choose from, but we finally going to South America to explore Suriname!