Monday, August 22, 2011

Amaze me August #51~ ROMANIAN PARTY FOOD ~ Come eat with me!!

Welcome to the 51st edition of:



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I'm totally happy you are here, you can link up below, just make sure to grab a button will ya!!

ROMANIAN PARTY FOOD

Do you all know I'm Romanian. Well I am, I was born in Romania, but raised in the US, 24 years in California before moving to the south! If there is one thing you must know about Romanians it's that we love our food, A LOT! Oh and we are also really loud, especially the woman.

Back in Romania people used to raise much of their own food, especially if you lived in the country, which is where most of my family lived. Pork was a staple food back then, and still is for many. Even though we all pretty much have lived here for over 20 years, we still eat like we are back home, especially when it comes to party food.

While many of you know that I am really trying hard to eat healthier, local, organic food, I have a major weakness for Romanian food. I just enjoy it too much, so thankfully we don't party all the time, and I stay clear of it most of the time. If you are not a meat eater, you might just FREAK OUT with the amount of meat here, but hey, it is how Romanians typically eat, so I am happy to share it with you today. I hope you enjoy the tour.
Without fail if there is a Romanian party going on, you will ALWAYS have the same kinds of food, EVERY SINGLE TIME. You will have appetizers, which consist of all kinds of PORK lovely meat. Salamis, bacon, head cheese, PORK, PORK, PORK. Typically there will be sausages too, usually homemade by the uncles, which I have two of here, so we always have a good supply of this. Then we have the main meal, which is more MEAT, but we vary, sometimes chicken, beef, and usually PORK as well. Cabbage Rolls are a very traditional food, and those are made typically with pork. Then of course we have dessert. 

I wanted to take you with me through the buffet line at my aunt and uncles house. We had a party there this weekend, celebrating a birthday and a graduation. It was tons of fun, and  i thought you might enjoy this little walk through of what you can eat at a typical Romanian party. Ready??? Lets GO.
This was my FIRST appetizer plate. I kind of had seconds. The appetizers are probably my most favorite part of the meal. I just LOVE them. 
These are my uncles getting ready to drink some Romanian plum whiskey, homemade, and pretty much DEADLY if you aren't used to it. My nose hairs literally burn just smelling it. I can't drink that NO way, but it is a tradition, and men regularly take a shot OR two EVERY SINGLE day back in Romanian after a long days work, to get ready for dinner. It's supposed to work up an appetite :)

You see, we eat fruits too, lol. There were green grapes, and peaches in the basket.

ALRIGHT lets get started. This is where the food starts.
BREAD!!
YUMMY meat platter. That in the middle is bacon, raw smoked bacon, and thats just how we eat it, thank you very much. It is SOOOO good too. (sigh)
Green onions, and hot chillies, yes please. We totally have onion breath at out parties, and nobody cares.
An assortment of lovely veggies, because this is how we eat our appetizer. MEAT, VEGGIES, BREAD. That is a very typical snack food too. Just grab some salami from the fridge, cut some tomato a cucumber, some feta cheese, some olives, garlic, or onion, and bread. YUMM!!
Did I mention the onion breath??
Tomatoes!
Cheese!!
Eggplant salad - VINETE - or baba  ga something, lol.
The tastiest homemade meatballs EVER!!
Chicken liver cooked with onions, moist, delicious, and oh so good.
Bell pepper and onion roasted goodness.  - ZAKUSCA -

READY FOR THE SECOND COURSE???
Oh another thing, our parties usually only start at around 7pm, whit everyone usually showing up between 8-9pm, because Romanian are ALWAYS, ALWAYS late. So dinner is usually served at around 11pm, or even later sometimes. We are crazy, and the party lasts easily until 4-5 am in the morning. Lots of dancing, and always lots of homemade drinks. 
Potatoes, seasoned with vegeta, and paprika, and surely some pork drippings.
Turkey!
Rice!
Cabbage Rolls, OMG I love these. I can't wait to share some recipes with you!!
Our veggie for dinner. A cabbage salad, he he.
Chicken! NO thats not ALL fat, :)
Pork, SHNITEL. I dont' know what to call this in English people, HELP??
Chicken!
More chicken!
Pretty flowers.
My dessert plate, OMG, totally had seconds too.
Walnut croissants, with powdered sugar. - CORNULETE-
A delicious coffe mocha cake, with crunchy chocolaty something in the cake. FINGER licking good.
A plum preserve honey cake, with some tasty cream and fluffy whipped cream on top.
Plum jelly rolls.
A lemony dessert.

Cozonac- A sweet bread.
Oh and the CAKES. If you want to see the close ups make sure to stop by my cake blog. 
They were pretty amazing. A jewelry box cake, and a graduation star cake.

I'll be posting them tomorrow!!

EURO STYLE CAKES.

So there you have it. A tour of our party food. Lucky for you, I don't think you can gain any weight by looking, but I assure you, take one bite, and you can't stop. 4 pounds later, I think I'm full, lol. 

Actually this is NOT funny, I seriously PIGGED out. I need to work on saying NO to the party food. Tell me, do you have a hard time eating well at parties? Do you even care? Obviously I don't, which is kinda bad, since I am trying to get healthier here. Hopefully I will do better next time :)

Oh and have you check THIS out yet. Make sure you do, I promise, you don't want to miss out. 
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17 comments:

  1. OHHHHHH MYYYYY GOODNESS!!! That all looks so amazing...well maybe not the chicken liver, that scares me. LoL But seriously I understand what your saying, I have a big problem with buffets, if there's more left and it's good, chances are I'm getting 2nds ...and possibly 3rds. LoL Can't wait to get some of those recipes you were talking about!

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  2. OH YUM!!!! I would like an invite to the next Romanian dinner and I will invite you to the next Paki night over here! I'm back home now, remember? AND there is NOTHING more delicious than fresh homemade Paki food made by my dad!!

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  3. Holy Cow! It all looks soooooo yummy!

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  4. Oh Bella What a tempting feast to my eyes and more when I am on fasting... what a sweet treat.. delicious and so inviting and chickenS... oh I want some ...please invite me dear....
    Thanks for the linky party I am joining you there hope you like to visit again for a pretty pincushion
    http://craftaworld.blogspot.com/
    Love
    Farah

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  5. The food looks amazing but there is no way I could stay up that late and party

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  6. I want to be Romanian too! There's no way I would restrain myself at that buffet. I'm a meataholic. If I were condemned, my last meal request would be a plate of meat fat. There, I said it..

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  7. Thanks for the link up. You really know how to make me hungry. I'm almost curious to try that whiskey. Maybe if I wasn't such a light weight ...

    www.luxeboulevard.blogspot.com

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  8. WOw.. I got full just looking at those pictures!! haha I love learning about your culture Bella! It is so interesting. I was laughing at that drink that burns your nose hairs! haha
    Love that they take it to work up an appetite! lol

    Thanks for sharing all this. :) So neat.

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  9. Thanks for hosting Bella! And thanks again for the pizza quesadilla idea! ;)

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  10. Dear Bella all that does look Romanian indeed:)) I miss egg-plant salad the most!
    come celebrate with me 3 yrs since North Cape

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  11. Thanks for hosting, Bella! It was so fun to see all the Romanian food and learn about your traditions!

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  12. Oh my goodness, what an amazing array of food! Thanks for sharing that fabulous feast with us and for hosting another great link up.

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  13. So glad I found your site today.
    I fly out to Romania on Wednesday this week. Visiting a Dutch family who work with the poor gypsy communities near Romosel in Hunedoara (hope I spelt those right).

    I'll be teaching the gypsy ladies sewing class some projects that they can then sell at local markets.

    I do hope the food isn't like this all the time, heeheee. My trip is only 2 1/2 weeks but I want to be able to fit in my clothes when I get home!

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  14. pretty sure i just gained like 20 lbs from just looking at all that delish food. YUM!
    YOURS, MINE AND OURS

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  15. Thanks for sharing! It is making me homesick. Every time I go visit my parents they just smother us with wonderful Romanian food.I can't wait to see some recipes. I want to learn how to make sarmale and cozonac.

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  16. Oh my GOSH, all that foooood looks so good! And I'm sick, gosh darn it, so I haven't been able to eat much. :0( Thanks a lot!!! ;0) The fresh veggies and the rice dish look so tasty. And the desserts, of course.
    Romania must be where it's at!

    I must have had a bit of dyslexia for a moment, because I read that your uncles took a shot of that plum stuff to get ready for a long day at work and I was thinking, "whaaaaaaaat?" I had to do a re-read. LOL!

    I'm going to leave a clickable link here, but only cause you said so. Here ya go!

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  17. Cabbage rolls without "mamaliga" (polenta) and sour cream??? All that meat and no garlic sauce???...what kind of romanian party is this???...lol...
    I haven't had "cornulete" in ages...one of my favorite deserts...along with "cozonac cu rahat" ( turkish delight sweet bread)...the lemon cake...honey cake...and everything else that has butter and sugar in it.
    Thanks for posting the pictures !!!!

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Hugs, Bella

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In my spare time I enjoy cooking, and baking. In fact my mother and I have been making cakes for over 30 years. I also love gardening, traveling, and all things crafty. I struggle daily to keep my like organized, along with my never ending battle to keep the house clean. I adore my three kids MOST of the time, and can usually be found doing the mom thing from morning till night. I try to catch a few mommy moments, but those are hard to find in this wonderful life of mine. I am blessed and happy, and am thrilled you stopped by today :)