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1. Traditional Romanian Breakfast
Romanian cuisine is a very diverse one, including a lot of customs
and culinary traditions, specific foods, being influenced, along history, by
the culinary traditions of the other nationalities it has come into contact
with, such as Hungarians, Slavs or Turks. Romanian foods include
vegetables, cereals, vegetable oils, milk and dairy products, meat –
especially pork, and sweets.
Although a traditional Romanian breakfast doesn’t actually exist
and what people eat for breakfast varies from one region of the country to
another, some foods are consumed everywhere. Nowadays, modern
people, living in cities, don’t give breakfast great importance and eat
whatever they find before going to work, or school – the children.
However, in the countryside, most people still eat traditionally and one of
the specific Romanian dishes is called “mămăligă”, a cornmeal mush,
which is usually eaten with cold milk. In the past it was considered the
meal of the poor people, but today it is more appreciated. This type of
food is even mentioned in Bram Stoker’s Dracula: “I had for breakfast
[...] a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was "mamaliga"”.
Balmoş is another mămăligă-like traditional Romanian dish, but is
more elaborate; unlike mămăligă, where the cornmeal is boiled in water,
when making balmoş the cornmeal must be boiled in sheep milk. Other
ingredients, such as butter, sour cream and cheese are added to the
mixture at certain times during the cooking process. It is a specialty dish
of the Romanian of old shepherds, and nowadays very few people still
know how to make a proper balmoş.
Except for mămăligă, the traditional Romanian breakfast includes
bread, dairy products – cheese, cream, butter – vegetables – tomatoes,
onions – and eggs, especially omelettes. At times, Romanians also eat
meat for breakfast, especially pork. Milk is a very common drink, cow
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and goat milk especially, and people who live in the countryside drink it
freshly milked.
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2. SUSTAINABLE BREAKFAST
In the past, when most of the people lived in the countryside,
everything that was consumed for breakfast was home-made – corn from
small crops, along with other cereals, vegetables from the garden and
milk from the livestock owned by each family. In modern times, food is
processed industrially, in a non-sustainable way: agriculture relies on
synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, large amounts of water, major
transportation systems and factory-style practices for raising livestock
and crops.
Sustainable agriculture means that food is produced using healthy
methods and is healthy both for consumers and animals, without harming
the environment, supporting rural communities and providing fair wages
for the employees – the farmers. It implies the protection of the
environment, by exploiting the resources in such way that they can be
available for future generations, by minimizing transportation costs and
fuel use and not causing pollution. Sustainable farms raise different types
of plants and animals that are rotated around the fields and chemical
pesticides are used at a very low scale and some farms don’t use them at
all. Animals are well cared for and are fed an appropriate diet. In
addition, sustainable agriculture is economically viable and the farmers
are well paid, thus sustaining and strengthening small communities. To
sum up, sustainable agriculture represents a process that can be
maintained indefinitely, without causing any harm of any kind or
endangering the future.
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3. SUSTAINABLE ROMANIAN BREAKFAST
The only way to turn the traditional Romanian breakfast into a
sustainable one without altering the actual meals is to implement a set of
rules to prevent farms from using any kind of chemicals/fertilisers for
growing crops and raising livestock.
Nowadays there is a global tendency towards eating as healthy as
possible and the Romanian society is no exception to it. If farmers were
forced to stop using chemicals and fertilizers by law and healthy products
were available in shops then the public would gradually get used to a
sustainable breakfast and not only.
4. MENU
“Slănină:”
Slănina is a traditional Romanian meal obtained in the household out of
pork fat, either from the belly or the back of the animal. The pieces of fat
are cut into slices and put into salt liquor – in some areas garlic is added
too. After 2-3 weeks the salt is removed and the product is kept in a
smoke house for 2 or 3 days.
BOILED FAT WITH GARLIC AND PAPRIKA
Slanina, pepper, laurel, garlic, paprika
☼ Add plenty of salt to the fat and hold it for several hours.
☼ Remove the salt and put it into boiling water, which contains
pepper, laurel and garlic.
☼ Boil it at a low fire.
☼ After it is boiled take it off the fire and let it cool down.
☼ Cover it with plenty of paprika and then put it in the fridge.
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“Mămăliga cu lapte:”
1 qt. Water, 1-2 cups corn meal, 2 tsp. salt
Boil water and salt in a pot. When water is boiling, gradually add
corn meal while stirring the mixture with a whisk.
☼ Stop adding corn meal when the mixture is considerably thick,
though still liquid.
☼ Continue to simmer for about 10-15 minutes, with caution since the
mixture bubbles up and splatters hot polenta around.
☼ Remove from the heat and serve with your favorite dish.
☼
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