Thursday 09. July 2009 The challenge to mess with the original!

By: Christian Woelbeling

One of the biggest challenge for every country after a stay in Romania is, to mess with the native way of cooking food.

The challenge to mess with the original!

One of the biggest challenge for every country after a stay in Romania is, to mess with the native way of cooking food. Distinctive cuisines are everywhere in east Europe. From the very first my favourite Romanian food, i couldn’t  imagine before, was tripe soup. It didn’t matter when, on an empty stomach after an all-night party or in the end of a successful day of work. A “ciorbă de burtă“ always fitted! As soon as I acquired the taste I tried it everywhere, in the north, the south, the east and west of Romania. And this went on as I recognized that even in Bulgaria, Greece, Cypress and Jordan other variations of that soup where available. The taste was never the same again like the one in Sibiu. “Never say never“, so I thought about that there must be a second place in the world, where this brilliant taste is existing. Et voilà! I went for a walk on a Sunday morning along the road in Vancouver. And what was jumping into my eyes? A restaurant sign: “Transylvania Flavour“. I stopped immediately and I tried to see something through the window. But nothing moved inside. YES! This place is noticed. The next step was to convince my travel companion to go there ones during our stay. And this was no big deal, because she also loves the Romanian food. Since that time when Mama Ilse, an old Romanian granny, had cooked for her. So we went there one week later. It was a warm summer night, calm. The host received us with open arms and big pictures from Sibiu & Sigisoara decorated the walls. To be home again, wonderful: “Do you have Ursus?“ No was the answer, even to the question, if they have Schnaps in PET bottles. But, and this was the most important thing, they had Ciorbă de Burtă. The only thing I can say: she was great! The Transylvania cuisine stays original, because the host family comes from Sibiu! His answer to the question if he knows the best place to eat a Ciorbă de Burtă  in Sibiu was: when he was there the last time, this restaurant was not existing. Across the river Cibin…

 

I really hope that he will visit it one day and that it stays open for a long time.

Poftă Buna!

 

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