annieb wrote:If you ever catch yourself on the road in an erea that's totally chain-ganged, you can stop in at Bob Evans, where you can have fried mush.

Annieb: Are you referring to, for example, such "chain-ganged" locales as Watertown, NY and Trenton, NJ? While they have locations in 14 states north of the Mason-Dixon line, they are operating in only five south of there. I also note there are NO Bob Evans in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas (check out the restaurant finder). And FWIW, Antonius, are you sure it's the Italian Americans who are the most maligned ethnic group? Maybe those God-fearin', chain-gang supportin' Southern Americans could share some of that burden?

Anyway, back on topic. Fried mush was a regular mainstay in my breakfasts growing up, probably because my family did come up from the South (the generation above me grew up in Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and Texas, among other states my peripatetic grandfather called home). For me, it was the packaged Jackson mush, dipped in milk and yellow cornmeal, then fried and served with margarine (couldn't afford butter, don't you know) and fake maple syrup (idem). Much better than Bob Evans' version by the way.

Here is a scan of Bucovina’s menu as promised and a couple other pictures.

Menu from Bucovina


Saravale Romanian Meat Market


Saravale’s Meats

The market was closed when I was there but I can’t wait to visit.

Bob Evans and his restaurants are from the South all right, southern Ohio; specifically Rio Grande, which is near Gallipolis. The company started as a sausage producer then branched into restaurants.

cowdery wrote:Bob Evans and his restaurants are from the South all right, southern Ohio; specifically Rio Grande, which is near Gallipolis. The company started as a sausage producer then branched into restaurants.

Yes, that's pretty close to West Virginia, all right (closer to Charleston than to Columbus, for example). And West Virgiinia is ALMOST a Southern state (notwithstanding WVa's unique situation during the Civil War -- i.e., as the only State to secede from the CSA to re-join the Union in the middle of the war). So, how's the chain gang situation in Southeast Ohio? Anyway, to keep it on topic, the fried mush at Bob Evans is indeed a variation of polenta (by any other name), although it was a pretty sorry excuse the one time I tried it (admittedly, that was about 30 years ago).

We popped into Saravale’s the other day in the midst of some other shopping. Everything is true. They were SO nice, cutting away at the various sausages for taste. They also grilled up a couple fingers of mititti for us to try--complete with dabs of French's mustard, just like long ago. Well worth the visit. Also, note, there is a Serbian deli with all sortsa things, including several daily burek, not too far to the East. I have their card and will post more when I dig it up.

Rob

How was the mititei at Saravale?
We had dinner at Bucovina and there the mititei (pronounced 'meech') was eech.

When we stepped into Saravale, the mild smoky garlicky aroma was immediately relaxing and welcoming. The salamis we tasted and bought were great and the staff were very friendly and enthusiastic. I'd love to go back and try more of their fare.

sazerac wrote:How was the mititei at Saravale?
We had dinner at Bucovina and there the mititei (pronounced 'meech') was eech.

Now that you ask, the mititei at Saravale were pretty eech too, as were those a few years ago at Continental Cafe. It's just not something I like very much. Good burger ruined. Note, I heard them say mit-e-tit-e, there's 2 t's in the pronuciation as in the spelling (I think).

Mee-tee-TAY is the correct "long" (or formal) version; meech is the informal, "slang" reference. Both are correct in my experience.

GB

ROMANIAN RESTAURANT


www.restaurantperla.com
Address: 5522 W. Belmont Ave.
Chicago, IL 60641
Tel: 773-282-5522


Try it!!!!

Foarte multumesc, catalina!

Gypsy Boy wrote:I am looking for a truly authentic, if there is such a thing (and without getting into a discussion of the nature of authenticity), Romanian place.

Gypsy Boy,

Ever hear of the Milwaukee Magic Trick? That's where you're walking down the street and turn into a bar. Well, yesterday evening I was walking down the 4100 block of Kedzie and turned into a Romanian restaurant.

First we stopped for a drink at Brisku's Bistro, which was not my cup of tea*, though they serve food and m'th'su said the Turkish cook makes his own bread and serves a mean hummus with chunks of feta.

We then popped into La Palma, fully expecting it to be a Cuban restaurant with, hopefully, a bar, but low and behold it was a nightclub looking place, with the requisite attractive bartenderess, that catered to Romanians and served food.

La Palma has a full menu of Romanian items, including specials, is open for lunch and the bartenderess, Adriana, was very conversant with the menu. My guess is the food is quite good, though as we had just had dinner I did not try anything.

Weekends La Palma has a "singer", Thursday is DJ Spin night, which I intend to avoided. One word of caution, drinks were a bit on the expensive side.

Enjoy,
Gary

La Palma
4112 N Kedzie

*Music turned up to Deaf, with a bar full of guys who think slapping each other hard on the back while they smoke cheap cigars and talk loud is an enjoyable way to spend an evening.

Thanks for the tip! Not something that my research has turned up, although your descriptions sounds precisely like what I would expect: singer, DJ night. It seems increasingly like a way to take one's mind off the average food. It turns out, based on my eating around, that so far there is more Romanian food than I had thought--but it's nothing worth making a special trip for. At least not yet. A new place to check out: thanks!

Rene G wrote:Nelly’s was very different than I expected, more an upscale restaurant than blue-collar bar.

Nelly’s Sign

Instead of sitting at a table (with white tablecloths) I sat at the bar with an older Romanian gentleman who was having a bowl of soup.

Rene,

I think the same fellow was there last evening. Only a few tables occupied, mainly due to competition from the Romanian Festival in......Niles/Skokie (?), either way, it was slightly slow.

Interior, as Rene mentions, is more upscale restaurant than bar, though a large, wait, check that, huge, projection tv dominates the front section of the dining room. Actually, it was interesting watching Romanian television, first newscasts with drop-dead gorgeous newscasters, then a drama with an ever so slightly soft R rated bent.

Though our waitress spoke little English there was no trouble communicating menu selections, but I can't help wondering, as did Rene, if there was more to the wine list than one Romanian merlot, which, for the $18 price, was fine in an interesting fashion. The merlot, oddly, was served cold, not chilled to cellar temp on a hot day, but icy beer cold.

Romanian Merlot


We started with darn good bread, tender tripe soup, pickles, which were simply hot pepper and cucumber pickle, and eggplant salad that was quite similar to baba ganoush. Oh, and sour cream, lots and lots of sour cream.


Coincidentally as soon as schnitzel was mentioned we heard a pounding from the kitchen, hard to believe ReneG was only there one as he sure has Nelly's down. Unfortunately Nelly's schnitzel was not to our taste, the pork flesh was good, but the coating was of the eggy variety, a style choice on their part, good if you like that type, just ok if one is of the crisp coating school of thought. Potatoes were fresh tasting, but there was a split decision on like/~shrug~. I was in the like category

Schnitzel de Porc


Special of the day was Chicken Stew, bone-in chicken in a rich gravy w/mashed potato. We also had an order of delicious Mititei, grilled skinless sausage, which I thought terrific. French fries had very nice flavor, leading us to wonder what they were fried in.

Mititei


I liked the Mamaliga cu Branza, cornmeal (polenta) w/feta cheese and sour cream, but it's a large portion served as a main course and, at least in my non Romanian opinion seems much better as a split side dish, which is what the four of us did, as opposed to a stand alone meal.

Mamaliga


Dessert was crepes filled with nutella and a type of custard/flan with caramel. Both were quite eggy, though tasty, a little went a long way.

Clatite (crepes)


Flan


All in all a nice meal, fairly priced, though I can't help but think the four of us only scratched the surface of Nelly's. A friend of my wife, who is Romanian and a very good cook, has volunteered to organize an outing to Nelly's, as soon as I get a date from her, Dorina, I will post to the Events Board.

Enjoy,
Gary

Nelly's Saloon
3256 N Elston Av
Chicago
773-588-4494

petit pois and I were happy to accompany the Wivs to Nelly's that evening and I have a little to add to the spot-on review above.

The tripe soup, briefly mentioned above, was the highlight of the meal for me and among the best tripe preparations I've had in Chicago. I've grown weary of Mexican preparations that I've found less than palatable to me. This tripe was tender and flavorful in a bright garlicky-lemony broth that left me nearly licking my bowl. The broth reminded petit pois of mageritsa, the lemony Greeky soup traditionally served on Easter.

I found the bowl of mamaliga to be a bit shocking. Gary was clear to ask that this was intended to be served as an entree, and our waitress confirmed that to be true. What the picture may not show you is that this was a rather large bowl. I'd really like to meet the diner who sits down in front of 2 pounds of cornmeal, cheese, and sour cream and calls it dinner. While it was delicious, after about a third of the bowl I think that I'd feel like a inmate eating in a Dickensian orphanage.

If I had to design a perfect menu for two at Nelly's, I'd say to split a bowl of tripe soup (it's big), and share a plate of the flavorful mititei and a bowl of mamaliga. I'd be shocked if you didn't have leftover polenta, but you'd definitely see the best of what Nelly's regular menu has to offer.

I hope the group dinner at Nelly's comes to fruition.

Best,
Michael

I'd really like to meet the diner who sits down in front of 2 pounds of cornmeal, cheese, and sour cream and calls it dinner.

Um... the entire nation of Romania during the Ceausescu years, maybe?

Only a few tables occupied, mainly due to competition from the Romanian Festival in......Niles/Skokie (?),

As it happens, after seeing Miami Vice* yesterday I passed right by the Taste of Romania, now being held in the parking lot of the Village Crossing shopping center in Skokie, near the Buffalo Wild Wings and Macaroni Grill. In that heat, at least, they weren't competition for anybody.

* Murky, tedious and entirely interesting-character-free, works better as a lifestyle catalogue for aspiring drug kingpins than a movie.

Mike G wrote:

I'd really like to meet the diner who sits down in front of 2 pounds of cornmeal, cheese, and sour cream and calls it dinner.

Um... the entire nation of Romania during the Ceausescu years, maybe?

That's why I said "diner" as opposed to "person". I was trying to make a distinction between the person dining at Nelly's and the person eating to survive. I'm sure that this is a hearty, useful meal for people of limited resources. But, for eight bucks a bowl, it's hardly common-folk fare at Nelly's.

I still want to meet the guy that walks into Nelly's and says, "Gimme a bowl of mamalinga" and polishes it off.

Best,
Michael

G Wiv wrote:...but I can't help wondering, as did Rene, if there was more to the wine list than one Romanian merlot, which, for the $18 price, was fine in an interesting fashion. The merlot, oddly, was served cold, not chilled to cellar temp on a hot day, but icy beer cold.

For a full selection of Romanian Murfatlah wines, Andy's Fruit Ranch on Kedzie has the label's full array of offerings, from pinot noir to chardonnay, all at $4.99 per bottle. (That's a healthy markup at Nelly's)

Andy's Fruit Ranch
4733 N. Kedzie

Best,
Michael

As I recall from my days in Ceausescu-era Bucuresti, mamaliga cu brinza was served in small restaurants specializing in dairy dishes. I never saw it on the menu at any of the beer halls or more formal restaurants in Bucuresti or in the train station cafes or smaller eateries in different parts of the country I visited. Perhaps this is because it was a dish to eat at home. Indeed, mamaliga cu brinza is considered the national dish of Romania. Sarmale (cabbage rolls stuffed with pork and rice) seem to be the holiday food of choice, however.

The one exception in my experience was the mamaliga served cooled, sliced, and fried with lamb pastrami at outdoor restaurants when the new grape juice (must) was pressed in the fall. At 18, a girl from Minnesota, I had no experience with kosher dairy restaurants, but, in retrospect, the Romanian dairy restaurants were like some of the kosher dairy places I would frequent a few years later in New York's garment district. They offered no meat, but they did serve up big plates of mamliga cu brinza much like the one GWiv and company had at Bucovina. I often stopped at one of these dairy restaurants near the American Library in Bucuresti for jumari cu brinza (scrambled eggs with fresh cheese). I'm remembering wire crates of milk in glass bottles stacked near the entrance of the restaurant, and grandmas coming in to buy the pint bottles to take home. Fresh milk and cream could be hard to come by in most of the markets, where refrigeration was limited, though cheese (brinza and cascaval) seemed available.

As far as mamaliga being daily fare for the masses, my impression was that bread was the staple for most families. At least that was the case for one working-class family with roots in the Moldovia region that I spent time with in Bucuresti. The meals we shared involved vegetable spreads featuring eggplant, peppers, onions and tomatoes, some tinned fish, and local melons, grapes, or apples.

Pastry ingredients and imported things (purchased from China) like citrus fruits tended to be unavailable in the stores, though they were served at restaurants. The Patisserie in the Athenee Palace Hotel had huge profiteroles, though few Romanians could afford such things, with the average worker's monthly salary at $65 (in 1973 dollars). In the older quarter of Bucuresti (since destroyed by Ceausescu, I am told), the workingman's beer halls served palacinta -- huge thin rolled pancakes filled with sweet cheese and soaked in butter and sugar. Another brinza-based treat I remember was like a small burek. (Deta's on Ridge just south of Howard makes a large cheese burek with the same tastes I remember). This pastry was typically eaten by the beret-topped professors at the cafe near the Academy Library along with their afternoon cafea turceasca -- Turkish coffee.

I wonder what the new Romania is like, food-wise. I would like to visit and find out.

Oh, and a note on Romanian wine: stick with the whites no matter what you are eating. Devon Market has a small but respectable selection of Romanian wines.

Thanks very much for the account, Josephine. I've learned a lot about Romanian food this weekend.

Best,
Michael

I was not in Romania during the Ceausescu years, though I have been twice since 2000. (Indeed, one of the people I visited on my first trip was the Secretary-General of the Romanian Senate--akin to our Majority Leader--whose offices in the building that used to house the Romanian Communist Party included the rooms where Ceausescu would sleep... The creep-out factor was rather surprisingly high; indeed, the ornate building itself was still marked by the occasional bullet and the nearly destroyed Securitate--secret police--headquarters across the street was left standing as a monument cum memorial.)

My first visit was spent largely in Bucuresti and Transylvania (a chunk occupying roughly the middle third of the country that was awarded to Romania in 1920 by taking it from the Hungarians, who backed the wrong side in WWI). It has a Hungarian and Saxon history and pockets of both survive. My second trip was spent largely in Maramures (in the far northwest corner near Hungary and the Ukraine) and northern Moldavia (just south, don't you know, of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia). The countryside in both is largely untouched by the the 20th century and in Maramures it is common to see people still wearing traditional "costumes" and working the fields as if the 1800s were still ongoing.

But the food. Contrary to Josephine's experience, I found mamaliga cu brinza on menus throughout both Transylvania, Maramures, and Moldavia. It is, indeed, a plain dish and will tend to be found in the less...ambitious...places, but even there is quite good. Restaurants, if they existed at all in many of the small cities I visited, tended to be melancholy places catering to tourists who had more money than luck. I can't say how many times I had the same meal, over and over. Those aggressively spartan places put me in mind of the restaurants in the loop (e.g. Marquette Inn) where the menu is everywhere identical and even the food tastes as if it were prepared in a large central kitchen.

Eating out in the early 2000s (or even now) was not something most could afford to do. You won't even find restaurants in much of the more rural parts of the country. And yet, where good restaurants exist (and there are more and more almost every day), the food can be quite impressive. I can easily list many restaurants in Bucuresti alone and others elsewhere offering not only excellent food at reasonable prices, but a good selection of dishes and even some great wines and beers to accompany the meal. There are even restaurants specializing in regional cuisine in Bucuresti itself.

Grocery shopping, too, has changed substantially since the Ceausescu era. Just as in Russia, all one needs is money--and the rising tide is slowly lifting the country in general. While poverty is still widespread and the country has a ways to go, the adventurous traveller can still eat well, particularly if he or she has a knack for meeting people. My experience--although I am reluctant to characterize an entire nation in a single sentence--found the Romanians outgoing and friendly and tremendously interested in just talking. My Romanian isn't even at a conversational level, but I had some absolutely lovely visits with total strangers, many of whom went quite out of their way to help.

But to return to the food: mamaliga cu brinza is comfort food at its finest. Simple, filling, delicious. So too sarmale (though no one ever seems to make it like they did at home). Our group visit to Bucovina (the restaurant on Addison, not the region) a year ago or so was disappointing in part, though the atmosphere was right. Some dishes were quite good, some less so. Kind of like the food I've had in Romania. I'll be quite curious about Nelly's and am embarrassed that I haven't made it before this.

Josephine and Gypsy Boy,

Thanks for your posts on eating in Romania. Very interesting.

*

For Romanian wines and Romanian food products (as well as things from other Balkan lands and, of course, from Greece), a good source is Minos Market in Addison:
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=68649#68649

*

Gary,

Thanks for the write-up of (EC too) and pictures from Nelly's. I definitely would like to go there for a meal.

Antonius

Gypsy Boy wrote:Restaurants, if they existed at all in many of the small cities I visited, tended to be melancholy places catering to tourists who had more money than luck. I can't say how many times I had the same meal, over and over.

We were only in Bucharest for a few days in 1980 - right before the Olympics the US boycotted. We very quickly left for Bulgaria and Greece. I remember fried cheese for dinner, it was very good, though it was not fun when they turned off the water in the hotel at night and we couldn't flush until the morning. Breakfast was bread, cheese, and a hardboiled egg.

In all 3 countries we were in off-the-beaten path restaurants (unpopular places that could seat 40 teen-aged tourists). We mostly had pork and potatoes, over and over again, in Greece we had fish steaks (none of us had ever had fish that didn't come out of a box in the freezer). And bread, lots of bread. Unsifted, unbleached, but not whole wheat. We called it dirt bread, it looked like it had dirt in it. Cucumbers, cucumber yogurt soup.

Gypsy Boy, I'd love to hear more about your time in Romania and to compare notes.

I'm glad that your exposure to the Securitate was limited to an appraisal of their headquarters. Though being followed gave me nightmares at the time, and the fact that I couldn't turn off the "radio" in my dorm room annoyed me no end, I'm guessing that the agents they assigned to tail our little student group got more than they bargained for. They must have been baffled more than once by our associations (with a very religious Moldavian grandma, the son of a Russian general, and two Ethiopian medical students from families in Haile Selassie's inner circle), and they were no doubt worn out by our tsuica-fueled nocturnal wanderings around the city. Protected as we were by our American passports, we could afford to make light of our surveillance, but Romanian citizens were not so casual about the Securitate. For those who are interested, the fall of the Ceausescu regime is documented in The Hole in the Flag (1991), Andrei Codrescu's mostly first-person account of his return to return to Romania during the revolution.

Gypsy Boy wrote: Restaurants, if they existed at all in many of the small cities I visited, tended to be melancholy places catering to tourists who had more money than luck. I can't say how many times I had the same meal, over and over.

I'm curious what that meal might have been.

I find myself wondering if when you were there it was still the case that the menu was typically very long, but that, in reality, there was that one plat du jour on offer. I recall that until we wised up to this we ended up playing out that Monty Python cheese shop scene with every waiter we encountered. This resulted in many drinks being consumed before we could pin the waiter down, which made the process even more hit-and-miss. Finally, we developed a strategy to order successfully: 1) grab the waiter by his jacket (a thing surprisingly well-tolerated), 2) before even a few seconds elapse, demand to know what is on the menu that night, 3) order those items unanimously for the whole table in one clipped command, and 4) settle on the price right then and there, for later reference. And, under no circumstances permit the waiter to leave the table before you have ordered, as you may not be able to catch him again for a good hour! (I'm guessing that there is no longer a need for such aggressive customer behavior, and I find myself worrying that this account strains credulity, but I am not exaggerating.)

Gypsy Boy wrote:And yet, where good restaurants exist (and there are more and more almost every day), the food can be quite impressive. I can easily list many restaurants in Bucuresti alone and others elsewhere offering not only excellent food at reasonable prices, but a good selection of dishes and even some great wines and beers to accompany the meal.

Gypsy Boy, would you indulge my nostalgic streak and tell me if any of these restaurants are still in Bucuresti: the private university restaurant near the American Embassy, the party-only French-inspired restaurant "Minion," the large beer-hall Caru cu Bere, and the faux-rustic courtyard restaurant, Hanul Manuc (near the Roman ruins)?

Gypsy Boy wrote:My experience--although I am reluctant to characterize an entire nation in a single sentence--found the Romanians outgoing and friendly and tremendously interested in just talking. My Romanian isn't even at a conversational level, but I had some absolutely lovely visits with total strangers, many of whom went quite out of their way to help.

That was my experience over and over again. Strangers invited me and my friends to the groom's family table at a country wedding, then took me in sick with a high fever while my friends partied all night. Other times, in Bucuresti, people walked with us for miles to show us the way because it was too hard to explain the directions to us. That grandma I mentioned? Doamna Martinovici. We met her on a bus. She said that she could tell we were from the West and she was worried we didn't "know about Jesus", and that she was moved to speak to us. But she never really followed up on that. Mostly, she fed us. The night I left Romania she packed me some pickled red peppers (gogosari) because I had told her there weren't any where I came from. One thing she liked to say was " In Romania, casa mica, inima mare." (In Romania, small house, big heart.) Indeed.

After overcoming more obstacles than I thought could possibly exist, I finally made it to Nelly's Saloon last night to meet a former student who just happens to be Romanian. ReneG offered a positive recommendation quite some time ago and that's good enough for me. He also thoughtfully posted the menu which hasn't changed a bit.

The place is standard issue Eastern European place, though spic-and-span in a way I'm not used to. It's a large, spartanly (?) decorated room with a large dance floor in the middle. Very unprepossessing from the outside but comfy enough once in. Two large screen televisions with the latest from Romania and the requisite smokers. Our waitress was minimally competent in English but friendly. I have no doubt that the absence of a Romanian speaker in your party will not impede anyone.

Although we found the menu rather small, we were both more than pleasantly surprised by the food. We had the recommended soup, ciorba de burta--tripe--a Romanian classic. It was, perhaps, the best I've ever had. The broth was rich, creamy, buttery, and the slices of tripe (which I would ordinarily never approach) were as toothsome as could be wished (for tripe, that is). Christian was quite impressed with the soup and commented favorably on the meal, unbidden, several times. Even the bread reminded me of Romania, baked in a way you'll often find in certain Greek restaurants here.

We each had the mic (a/k/a mititei or beef/pork/lamb garlic sausages) and split an order of mamaliga cu branza si smantana, known to the rest of the world as polenta with (salty) cheese and sour cream. I am used to mamaliga being a pretty heavy and hearty dish. And I like it like that. This was, dare I say, ethereal. I've never had lighter mamaliga. Though not in the style to which I am accustomed, it was quite wonderful. The mititei were really quite good. Christian and I agreed that while they might not be the very best that either of us have had, they were quite well up the scale. The french fries--a bow to American tastes, I suppose--were limp, lifeless, and lousy. I brought the ever-diminishing remnants of homemade ţuica--plum brandy--acquired on my last visit to Romania. Potent and seemingly improving with age. At the rate it's going, I may need to return to Romania to stock up

No dessert. Would I go again? Yes, without hesitation. But I'd need to want something on their smallish menu.

Nelly's Saloon
3256 N Elston Av
Chicago
773-588-4494
(closed Mondays)

It's funny. I bumped into this thread looking for opinions on the Romanian restaurants of Chicago... and then I spent half an hour reading your looong conversation spanning.. a year and a half?!
I moved from Romania about 5 years ago but I was quite young leaving the place [18 or so] so I have the inverse perspective of you, Josephine. I can tell you things about the American culture that strike me as interesting; but ask me to talk about 'my people' and I'm stumped.

Josephine wrote: One thing she liked to say was " In Romania, casa mica, inima mare." (In Romania, small house, big heart.) Indeed.

I know this is unrelated to food, I apologize, but this last line brought tears to my eyes. Not only because it so beautifully condenses the soul of my people, but it brings a torrent of memories and along with it a longing for my beautiful country. Thank you.
A lot of things have changed since the years you visited. It was an interesting observation GP made about restaurants starting to serve food that was previously not considered worthy of such establishments. The reason why this happened is because with the fall of dictatorship a lot of people migrated in search of work. So the number of people coming to visit with heavier wallets and stomachs longing for soul food increased, forcing the economy to adapt. At least this is my point of view since I was a hungry visitor not too long ago.

I don't want to send this thread on too big of a tangent. To bring it home, I have a few recommendations for Romanian wines. Most of the European stores have our wines, and although this sounds funny the price can guide you to the really good wines: Lacrima lui Ovidiu is a nice dessert wine, any sort of Feteasca is a good bet and Cotnari. I'm not at home right now to give you a thorough list of my personal favourites, but this should keep you busy for now... eh?

Look forward to hearing more about your Romanian adventures.

Oh, and of course I am planning a trip to Nelly's in the very near future!!

Welcome to LTHforum!

Oh, and of course I am planning a trip to Nelly's in the very near future!!

If you want company from a few people who have been your country, then do speak up! Perhaps you can unlock from the kitchen some food we would not otherwise get.

As for speaking too long, frankly this website is very forgiving of long winded information when the content is interesting.

If you want to discuss your observations of Americans, especially from a food point of view, then do write a post on the Other Culinary Chat board.

Again, welcome!

Regards,

Romanca get beget,

I am happy that you have joined the conversation, and I am glad that you were touched by my fond memories of Romania. I hope we will have a chance to meet, perhaps at one of the Romanian dinners. You could certainly add a lot to our understanding. I am grateful to have discovered that there are many little pieces of Romania in Chicago, something that must come as no surprise to you. Thanks also for your wine recommendations, as my memory for wines is quite vague.

I have been meaning to post on a restaurant that Cathy2 and I visited not long ago, Restaurant Perla on Belmont. (Check out the website for a glance at their rather pretty bar.) The menu reflected the "greatest hits" approach to Romanian dining. Tripe soup, pickled peppers, eggplant salad, stuffed cabbage, mamaliga and mititei. I thought the cascaval pane (breaded and pan-fried cascaval cheese) was perhaps mozzarella, as it seemed too bland to be the cascaval I remember. The gogosari, similarly, were good, but rather too fresh, and I missed the slightly sweet pickled flavor that I remember so clearly. However, the sarmale (stuffed cabbage) was very good, as was a veal stew studded with gnocchi (no Romanian or Hungarian term was given for these.)

The big story at Restaurant Perla was the utterly authentic, coarse ground, char-grilled mititei. Here, finally, was the taste I remembered!
I don't know for certain if these were cooked outside on a grill, but they certainly had that taste, one that is absolutely essential to get the full effect of the dish as served in Romania. I would travel across town to taste these again, in fact, I intend to do so. (I recall that some participants in the first Romanian dinner were underwhelmed by the mititei, but I feel sure that Perla's mititei would not disappoint.)

Something I did not do that evening was follow my meal with a shot of tsuica (plum eau-de-vie) but I asked the proprietor if they serve it and she mentioned three varieties. Next time, perhaps. The desserts were nothing special unfortunately, and rather overpriced, it seemed.

On our way out, I picked up a copy of a local Romanian language newspaper, and spotted an ad for La Palma Cafe & Restaurant, which is located a few doors south of Arun's on Kedzie in Albany Park. The ad stated that every weekend Romanian food is offered there. Planet 99 lists the same La Palma as a Mexican place, but the ad featured pictures of various Romanian sour soups flanked with intact hot peppers (This is a style I remember from 30 years ago, but for the wrong reasons. Naive, I chomped down on one of the peppers, only to have a numb spot on my lips for more than 24 hours afterwards.) The ad also referred to home cooking and ardelenesc (Transylvanian regional?) specialties. I am eager to try this place. There is also a watering hole on Lawrence east of Kedzie call Buna Seara Cafe that bears investigation on a weekend evening. Board members who would be game for a shot-in-the-dark visit to these spots could PM me to devise a plan.

For a listing of all things Romanian in the U.S. visit
http://www.romanian-portal.com/us/eng/c ... .asp?id=10

Restaurant Perla
5522 W Belmont Ave
(773) 282-5522
http://www.restaurantperla.com/

La Palma Cafe & Restaurant
3868 N. Kedzie

Bine ati venit!

It's nice to see this thread resurrected; for what it may be worth, I should perhaps also point out this thread for those interested in a review (unenthusiastic would best describe it) of Bucovina (the restaurant, not the region) and (much more enthusiastic) of Saravale (the meat market).

As memories of my happy visit to Nelly's linger, I realize that La Scala is yet to be visited and, between those with first-hand experience of Romania, a smattering of expatriates, and those generally interested in learning more, perhaps it's time to arrange a group visit somewhere.

La Scala has a new name, but is still Romanian. I was there for a Halloween Party this year. Don't know about it's food, however, but Romanian people still run it.

I have tried visiting to La Palma on Kedzie 3 times on 3 different afternoons and they were locked up each time with NOTHING visible through the window/door. I assumed they were out of business as there are no signs (in any language) on the door giving hours of operation.

There are still running ads in the Romanian Tribune, but no one answers the phone number given.

(I edit this post after having read many more entries to this forum and see someone mentioned La Palma is only open on weekends?? Wouldn't that be something to post on their door, at least?)

I wound up going to Bucovina and had a super plate of "sarmaluta simple." God, I love that stuff,

(By the way, where do I find covrigi? LOL)

John
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/we_love_romania/
http://www.AThousandBooks.us


.

Gypsy Boy,
Having a wife who is FOTB from Romania, I'd like to offer a counterpoint to some of your comments. Regarding mamaliga, it is often referred to as polenta on Romanian menus and my wife refers to it as polenta...I don't think it's too out of line for Americans to refer to it as polenta.

Additionally, you seemed very dismissive of Hungarian dishes...it may be interesting for many posters to know that a large percentage of Romania is populated by Hungarians (probably more than half in land area). In many of the most treasured parts of Romania (the szekely region), you will find people who don't even speak Romanian. In my travels of Romania (albeit, limited to all areas of Transylvania from Satu Mare to Timisoara to Brasov to the Szekely region...this is an annual trek over the last 6 years), it is very common to find Hungarian dishes intermixed with Romanian dishes...in fact, while I don't think the Continental Cafe is the best Romanian food around, the menu is rather representative of many of the menus I saw in Transylvania. I must bring this up because Romanians in general seem to be quite dismissive of ethnic Hungarians, even though they account for a HUGE part of their culture. I once had a Romanian come up to me and say "Do you understand that Hungarians in Romania are like Mexicans in the US (being derogatory toward Mexicans and my wife, who is ethnically Hungarian)" To which I responded "But there is one difference...in the US, the Mexicans came across the border, in Romania, the border went across the Hungarians." In all seriousness, the plight of ethnic Hungarians in Romania has been quite tough...they are a people without a home.

As for my experience of Romanian food...it is very interesting. In some regions I find the food to be very institutional, but in other areas it is full of flavor and a wide variety of dishes. One of the things I found particularly interesting was the Ciorba...sometimes it is bland and tastes like beef and vegetable soup, other times it is full of flavors that are diverse in nature (the sour from the bors, with the meat taste and vegetable taste). The higher end restaurants tend to have wild game, which adds a lot of diversity to the menu.

In doing a search for Romanian Restaurants, it appears that only Continental Cafe, Nelly's and Bucovina remain.

A couple of months ago, my wife and I ate at Nelly's. Upon arrival we saw a rather empty space, which was disappointing. However, my wife was glued to the Romanian National TV station being projected onto the big screen. We ordered our food...both of us found the ciorba to be fantastic and full of the flavor we appreciate. I ordered the mici (meech) and loved it. I found it was absent the bone chips I often find in the links, both here and in Romania. They carry my favorite mineral water, Borsec, which can also be found in a few shops around town...if interested let me know and I can look up the store names (one of which also carries Ursus). I don't remember what my wife ordered...i just remember she loved the bread so much she carried as much of it as she could out of the restaurant for later consumption. They do not have tuica...if you want that you should visit the Hungarian Epicurian restaurant...while it serves typical Hungarian cuisine, my wife and I believe the owner is from Transylvania...regardless, he has tuica. After our visit we went to the Continental Cafe...while we weren't impressed with the food being served there, we felt the atmosphere was very much in line with a typical Romanian night club.

Regarding the wine...I can't say that I'm impressed with Mufatlar...in fact Romanians aren't much impressed with it either since they tend to mix it with coke. There is a grocery store in the mall at 127 Skokie Blvd in Northbrook that carries a large variety of wines from Moldova...this is the Romanian related area most famous for wine...they had a large number of desert wines, and if memory serves me correctly, even an ice wine or two (Moldova is famous for ice wine). As for Mufatlar, you can find it at your local Binny's or Sam's Wine for $5. I was appalled when I saw the $18 price tag at Nelly's.

If you want some mici (meech) I've found the meat market on Leland and Lincoln that has some good mici.