Self-catering in Romania will not cause any trouble to the traveler. In stores without a problem (Read: there are no queues) you can get basic food items, at much more favorable prices than in Poland. Going to the mountains, however, it is worth to stock up on food in advance, because some hostels, as in Poland, they only run buffets with drinks and sweets.
Prices in Romanian restaurants are very affordable and it would not be easy to spend more than on food 10 $ daily. However, the search for a gastronomic establishment itself may end in failure., and above all, you may get bored with their modest offer, with dishes invariably reigning in the menus: grilled pork, pork cutlet, roast chicken, tripe and chips or boiled potatoes.
Often the hotel restaurant is the only decent place of its kind in the whole town.. Private restaurants and bars arrive very slowly, mainly because, that few Romanians can afford to eat out.
Even in better restaurants, the price of dinner for two people, including a bottle of wine, located in 15 $, and one person, ordering only water for a meal, will pay no more than 2 $. You can always pay in funnels (waiters demanding Western currency try to trick customers). Gratitude for a good service turns out, rounding the bill to an equal amount.
It's a good idea to review the card (meniu or list), even in Romanian. The kitchen serves only those of the dishes listed in the menu, at which the prices are shown. However, if in a higher class premises next to the names of the dishes the prices are not marked and the waiter claims, that there are no other cards (which is usually untrue), sometimes it's better to go out than to ask about the price of each dish. Cheaper eateries may not have cards, but serve pretty good food.
Part of the menu is often pure theory, but almost everywhere there are tasty soups. In the romanians' sense of "sumptuous” dinner (and this is considered to be everyone ordered in the restaurant) will not do without meat. That is why often the choice ends with cutlets and chicken. Vegetarians should look for cheese dishes (brinza/cascaval), Tomatoes (rosii), Peppers (ardei), Fungi (ciuperci) and eggs (Ou). Salad is usually arranged on a plate sliced tomatoes and cucumbers (castraveti). Almost everywhere you can eat cake for dessert. Better just in case to check, or in the bill [note] there are no possible "mistakes"”, remembering, however,, that bread and salads are often calculated separately.
Romanian dinner should consist of three courses, as well as Italian. However, it seems to be, that this tradition is going away (or she's already gone) into oblivion. Bread or rolls are served as standard for the main course, even if potatoes or chips were ordered; the latter shall be treated as an additive, and bread – as a clog. At the table, revelers say Pofta buna to each other! (enjoy your meal) and noroc! (Health).
Romanian specialties
Romanian specialties include ciorba de perisoare (spicy soup with pieces of meat and vegetables), ciorba de side (whitened tripe), ghiveciu (giuwecz, type of stew with vegetables), tocana (stew of onions and meat), ciorba de leguma (vegetable soup usually cooked on a meat broth). In restaurants and bars, mititei or mici are served (pronounced "micz"” – grate meatballs, formed from minced meat into the shape of short sausages, with the addition of spicy spices and garlic). Other popular dishes include muschi de vaca / Porc / grind (beef cutlet / Veal / lamb), piept de pui (chicken breast) and cabanos prajit (fried sausage). It is worth remembering a few Romanian words defining the way of preparing dishes: from the grate [la gratar], fried (prajit), Poached [fiert], baked on a spit [la irigare). Almost all dishes are served with potatoes (cartofi), Chips (cartofi prajiti) or rice (orez).
It is rather difficult to track down traditional delicacies of Romanian cuisine in restaurants, but it's really worth looking for them and enjoy stuffed peppers (ardei umplunti), small cabbage rolls of meat and rice, wrapped in cabbage or vine leaves (sarmale), or breaded cerebellum with ham (cieier pane cu sunca). Mamaliga (mamałyga) is corn porridge in the form of gruel, served in combination with cheese, Milk, cream, etc.. Of the sweets you can most often order placinta (semicircular cookies), clatite (Pancakes) and cozonac (sweet roll). Cakes in confectioneries are usually very sweet.
DRINKS
In Romania, it is necessary to get to know the taste of excellent – and cheap – local wines (Vin). Domestic beer, on the other hand, (Bere), although also inexpensive, slightly inferior in quality to this, to which we are accustomed in Poland. Which, of course, does not mean, that it is not worth trying. Hungarian and German beers are expensive (in Cluj, a small can of heineken cost 5 $). The most famous wines are Cotnari, wallow, Odobesti, Tirnave and Valea Calugareasca. The red ones are negru and rosu, white alb, dry sec, cute rowlocks, sparkling spumos or sampanie. Win de Masa means table wine. Even in the restaurants of two-star hotels, a bottle of good Romanian wine should not cost more than 3 $. Everywhere, standard mineral water is served with the wine (mineral water) – Romanians mix the liquor with sparkling water in a glass and drink it in the form of the so-called. spritzer. Naturally, you can tell the waiter right away, that you prefer wine without water (nu apa). Crama is the equivalent of a winery, a brarie – bar or brasserie.
During the grape harvest period, it is worth tempting yourself with fresh, non-fermented wine (must) or new wine (turburel). Tuica (cujka, weak plum brandy) and palinca (apricot cognac flavor) are sometimes served as aperitifs. Pure vodka (vodka) is peculiarly cheap and peculiarly sold. Even in any candy booth at the station you can buy vodka in a glass bottle (0,33 l), plastic bottle (0,5 l) or in a small cardboard box, as with us juice or mineral water. However, it is difficult to guarantee the good quality of such a drink.
For breakfast, Romanians usually drink yogurt or milk. When ordering tea (what do you have), you can be sure, that it will appear on the table quite heavily sweetened, but not very strong. Request, so that no sugar was added to it (not sugar), it is not always fulfilled. It is similar with coffee (coffee). You have to ask for milk for coffee or tea (with milk). In the good old days, coffee in Romania was traditionally brewed in the Turkish way – in small copper crucibles, heated in hot sand. Today it is better not to count on a little blackberry prepared in this way, cafes usually only serve espresso coffee (coffee filter) and the so-called. ness, which with the product of a famous company with that name has nothing to do with, just like with any real instant coffee. This disgusting cereal and vegetable lure hardly ever passes through the throat.
Mineral water is cheap and widely available. Fruit juices (fruit juice) they are traditionally thick, with fruit flecks.
ENTERTAINMENT
Information on local festivals and cultural events can be obtained from tourist offices. In cities, you can ask about it in theaters and concert halls and at the box offices. In Bucharest, Jassach, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara have opera scenes. Listings of cultural events are published by local magazines in large cities, but you have to be able to decode them. Hotel bars are usually gloomy and pretentious, and discotheques often host simple erotic performances. It is rather difficult to find a nice place, but it's worth looking for: there are nice pubs.
WHAT IS WORTH BUYING
Traditionally, slivovitz is bought in Romania, embroidered blouses and crafts. The latter are sold in all the most visited places by tourists, for example, at the castle in Bran and at the Bukowina monasteries. You can buy glass in Romart stores, fabrics, women's wear and ceramics, and for Romanian recordings the easiest way is in Muzica stores. Cluster piracy in Romania no longer exists, cassettes and CDs cost the same in conversion, what's up with us.
Books are sold in bookstores and street stands. Items issued one year ago may not be exported from the country 1973. It is always good to have something to write on hand, to ask the seller to write the price, if there are any doubts. It never hurts to count the change spent.