The national dish of Moldova is sweet baba. Moldavian cuisine! Photos of traditional dishes of Moldova! Basic cooking methods

When I first started thinking about traveling to Moldova and told my family about it, they immediately began talking with admiration about Moldavian cuisine. For some reason I thought that it was similar to Ukrainian or Russian, but it turned out that Moldovan cuisine is distinguished by its uniqueness. As it turned out, the national cuisine of Moldova was formed under the influence of Turkish, Greek and Western European cuisines. Of course, the influence of Ukrainian and Russian cuisines also did not pass by.

I always learn more about a country through its cuisine, as in the famous saying “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Moldavian cuisine was no exception. Looking ahead, I’ll say that in the national cuisine of Moldova my top 3 dishes are hominy, pancakes with cherries and placinda with feta cheese. Nevertheless, we tried most of the Moldovan dishes and I can confidently say that I liked everything! You know, Moldova for me has become one of those countries where I would return specifically on a gastronomic tour.

In this article I will talk about the dishes that we tried over 3 days in Moldova, and also share delicious cafes and restaurants. We have breakfast included in the hotel, so we only thought about food twice a day) By the way, when traveling I prefer hotels with breakfast, I don’t have to think in the morning about where to go and where exactly what I like for breakfast will be. Moreover, I'm not a fan of overeating for breakfast.

I'll start, perhaps, with the placinda. In general, all the names of Moldovan dishes sound very unusual and sometimes funny Placinda- delicious flatbreads of various shapes with feta cheese, cottage cheese, cabbage, potatoes, meat or fruit (cherries or apples). At our hotel for breakfast we had placindas with almost all flavors, but for me the most delicious was the one with feta cheese.

An analogue of placinda, but only from puff pastry - twirls. They are shaped like tubes, and the fillings are almost the same as Moldavian flatbreads. True, unusual ones can be found with sauerkraut or fried onions.

In Vietnam I love Pho soup with beef, in Thailand - Tom Kha with coconut milk with seafood, and in Moldova - Zama. Light chicken soup with homemade noodles and herbs. At home, I sometimes cook something similar with the addition of frozen vegetables, now removing them from the soup, I get Moldavian zama soup. The second most popular soup is Chorba. I didn’t have time to try it, but its composition is more unusual. It is prepared using giblet broth with the addition of kvass or brine, which gives the dish a sour taste. Vegetables include peppers, beans, cabbage or rice (instead of potatoes), and giblets can be replaced with beef.

It is interesting that the name “Chorba” comes from the Turkish “Shurpa”, which is how soups were called in the Ottoman Empire.

Among the Hutsuls Banush or Banosh, and among Moldovans - Hominy. This is finely ground corn grits. I like best the form in which it was served in the cafe, like medallions.

Previously, mamalyga replaced bread for Moldovans, but this was caused more by necessity than by tradition, and now this dish is popular even in elite restaurants. Basic dish served with cracklings, feta cheese, egg, sour cream and sauce Husbands(garlic sauce based on broth with the addition of vegetable oil and dill).

If you replace the cracklings in mamaliga with pork, you get a dish Tokana. Pork is fried in pieces with onions and sometimes wine and sauce are added. Almost every dish is added crushed garlic, which adds a rich aroma. Garlic occupies a special place in Moldovan cuisine; not only the taste preferences of Moldovans are associated with it, but also superstitions (for example, vampires).

Funny names of national dishes of Moldova include Mititei- grilled beef sausages with the addition of lamb and spices.

What do you like more: dolma or cabbage rolls? I’m doing dolma, and the Moldovans have their own name for these dishes - Sarmale. Instead of regular cabbage, pickled cabbage or grape leaves are often used. According to tradition, it is stewed in a cauldron. Of the baked dishes, the meat pancake captivated me. Having seen the photo on the menu, I did not expect that in reality the dish would be large and filling.

I would especially like to highlight the Moldovan pickles. Either I haven’t eaten them for a long time, or they were really so different from ours. For 3 days in Moldova, we completely ate all the pickles that were brought to our dishes, and on the last evening we went to the Moldovanesc restaurant of Moldavian cuisine and ordered a plate of pickles there separately.

Cake became the king of desserts for me Gugutse hat. It combines my favorite pancakes and cherries. The cake is soaked in sweetish cream and sprinkled with chocolate on top. It's just something with something! I usually don’t eat sweets for breakfast, but in Moldova I made an exception. Just looking at the photo makes my mouth water.

Let me remind you that for sweets there are also placintas and vertutas with fruit.

Cafes and restaurants in Chisinau

It’s good that I didn’t devote this article to a cafe in Chisinau. To be honest, we were regular visitors to the network Cafe La Placinte. It was just a few minutes from our hotel, the Bristol Central Park Hotel. The cuisine here is amazing, and the prices are very affordable, even cheaper than in Kyiv.

Several menu pages with prices at La Placinte.

We also went to the Indian cafe Himalayan Kitchen and Bar for dinner; it has a good rating on TripAdvisor, but I was not very impressed with the cuisine.

The second place we visited to get to know Moldovan cuisine better is a new Moldovanesc restaurant. It just opened in the Sun City shopping center in the city center. It is expected that every evening there will be Moldovan dances and performances. When we arrived, there were very few people, or rather we were the only ones that evening, so we didn’t see any dancing.

Food in which Germans and Russians, Turks and Romanians, Ukrainians and Greeks will find something familiar - all this is about the Moldovan national cuisine. The history of the country has formed an international system of bright and satisfying dishes, colorful and aromatic. While studying the cuisines of the world, it would be simply a crime to bypass the Moldavian one. It’s worth returning to it every time you want something truly traditional, no matter where you live.

Differences in the national cuisine of Moldova

Moldavian national cuisine is very similar to the cuisines of neighboring countries, but at the same time it is different from all others. She has individual traits, which we will learn about today. Like the culture of other states, Moldavian culture was formed under the influence of history. It was its unexpected twists that ensured the modern habits and taste preferences of Moldovans. Before the formation of the Principality of Moldova in the 14th century, the lands of modern Moldova were inhabited by several ethnic groups. The emergence of national cuisine is attributed to the period of the principality, and the gastronomic preferences of the first settlers are not taken into account. With independence, the principality began to trade with neighboring countries, which did not bring much novelty to the cuisine.

The initial basis for national cuisine were those products that grew or were grown in a given territory. Although this is also a lot: the geographical location of the country is simply created for agriculture. The local climate allows you to successfully grow both root vegetables and herbs, as well as grains and fruits. Back in the Middle Ages, Moldavian housewives learned to combine vegetables in a variety of combinations, because there were a lot of these ingredients here. And today you will not learn anywhere to combine vegetables so perfectly as in Moldova.

The fertile lands attracted the attention of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. And the Turks had a rule to conquer whatever they liked. So Moldova fell under the rule of the Ottomans for 300 long years. During this period, the country's culture adopted some of the characteristics of its enslavers, including its cuisine. So the Moldovans learned from them the combined processing of dishes and the use of vegetable oils. They began to use it more and more often, which was previously preferred to poultry. And today you can find dishes that are the same for both cuisines, for example chorba or givech.

The close relationship with the Slavic peoples also left its mark on this culture. The greatest contribution of the ancient Russian peoples to Moldavian cuisine is considered to be the tradition of pickles and marinades. This technique of procuring food for future use was here even without the influence of the Russians and Ukrainians, but the latter made their own adjustments. For example, using a large amount of greens in salting, cabbage sourdough technique, etc. Thanks to the Turks, the Moldovans became more familiar with spices, and they knew how to mix different components themselves. Thus, various pickles and marinades in Moldavian cuisine acquired their own individual character.

Popular products and dishes

Here they equally often use vegetables, dairy products and meat; they love fish and sweets. In the cuisine of Moldova it is impossible to single out one traditional product; everything is used here. Vegetables can most often be found in dishes; they are used to prepare stews, stuffed, and fermented for the winter. Among sweet peppers, they prefer the native Gogoshar - a special resistant variety, similar to the Bulgarian one. In general, Moldovans really like stuffing vegetables, unlike the common stuffed peppers; here you can also try eggplant stuffed with minced meat. Moreover, such dishes are found more often in home kitchens than in restaurants.

Among the spices in Moldova, they prefer greens and paprika. Classic seasonings like these allow you to create something delicious at the same time. But a no frills dish. It is very popular; sauces are prepared on its basis and added to main courses for taste and aroma. The most popular garlic-based sauces are mujdey and skordola. The latter is especially good, prepared with nuts and herbs.

All types of meat are used in Moldova; a distinctive feature of the cuisine is a large number of lamb dishes. Unlike neighboring peoples, in Moldova they prefer young meat: lambs. This product has a delicate, slightly expressed aroma and taste.

A lot of national dishes are prepared from meat, such as:

1. Mititei - similar in appearance to small sausages, but prepared without lamb casing or with spices. They are fried over an open fire using charcoal, which gives the dish a subtle smoky flavor.
2. Moussaka is a casserole with meat and cow, the dish was adopted from the Greeks, where it is called the same.
3. Kostitsa is pork roasted over a fire, before cooking it is marinated in red wine and pepper. It is prepared in the traditional way on a grater (a special coarse grill).
4. Kyrnetsei are sausages very similar to mititei, but they are made from lean pork meat with spices.
5. Jelly is an ordinary jellied meat, with the obligatory addition of spices and garlic.
6. Pastrama is a dish common in Turkic cuisine, essentially an ordinary basturma.

Most meat dishes are eaten with mujdey and skordolja sauces. Beans and vegetable stews are also popular as side dishes here. Paprikash is the most popular of them, prepared with meat, pepper, onions and other vegetables. The best combination of vegetables is still obtained in the Moldavian manja. This is a paste made from eggplant or zucchini; vegetables are usually fried over a fire before cooking so that the dish gets that smoky flavor. Manja is also considered the most popular cold appetizer in Moldova; it is eaten fresh or prepared for the winter.

As for cold appetizers, you should definitely try the facaluite beans. This dish is borrowed from Jewish cuisine and is similar to hummus, but is made with beans. You can eat it as a substitute for mashed potatoes or spread it on as a snack. Also among the cold dishes, dried gogoshars (peppers) - makareshti, sweetish with a woody caramel aroma, deserve special attention. However, you can try such a simple and tasty dish almost only in Moldova.

The first courses of Moldovan national cuisine are a real kaleidoscope of ingredients. Soups and borscht turn out colorful and rich. They prepare both cold options for refreshment in the summer, and hot ones to warm up in the winter. The most popular of them:

1. Chorba is a hot soup based on bread kvass with a vegetable mix, resulting in a thick, rich dish with sourness.
2. Zama is also a kvass soup, but it is customary to cook it based on a bran drink; it also includes egg noodles and fewer vegetables, a lot of greens. Can be with fish or meat.
3. Syrbushka is a liquid hot soup made from whey and semolina or corn grits. As a rule, nothing else is put into the soup, except maybe greens.
4. Buryakitse - soup with dumplings and tomatoes.
5. Shurpa is a vegetable soup made from lamb or veal. A distinctive feature is the characteristic smell of meat in the dish.

Of course, in addition to unusual Moldavian dishes, you can also find the usual Ukrainian borscht, light broth or rassolnik. True, they mostly eat first courses with traditional sauces, most often muzhdey.

A separate branch in the national cuisine is occupied by various flour products. Vertutas made from stretched dough are very popular; they are often replaced with something easier to prepare -. The presence of baked goods in the house is considered an indicator of wealth, and at the same time a test of the hostess. The filling is an egg with herbs and meat. Bryndza is especially popular, and not only as a filling. This pickled cheese is also used here as a snack for sweets, as an addition to salads, and as a substitute for hard cheeses. Cheese cheese from sheep, cow or goat milk is produced on an industrial scale and simply at home.

When it comes to baked goods, we can’t help but mention placindas. They can be in the form of whole baked pies or resemble a large round pie. Traditionally, they were still fried in vegetable oil with feta cheese, although today the filling can be anything: cabbage, eggs, meat, pumpkin. Under the influence of Russian and Ukrainian cuisine, people here are addicted to Easter cakes, rolls and loaves. Although such delights of baking are prepared mainly only for the holidays.

On memorable days one cannot do without a sweet table. Desserts are mostly from Turkish cuisine, popular here: halva, sorbet, nut nougat, kitonoage (quince pastille), marshmallows. But there are also our own sweet “inventions”. These include peltya, which is jam or preserves made from the juice of berries and fruits. This way they get rid of small seeds and get a delicate consistency of sweetness, which is prepared for the winter. Another classic Moldavian dessert is gogosh, these are flat thin cookies made from egg dough; when baking, they are sprinkled with crushed cookies and placed in the middle.

Delicious recipes

When discussing national cuisine, one cannot help but consider individual Moldovan recipes. This way you can cook something unusual yourself, even from familiar products. Finding a recipe with photos and step-by-step preparation today is easier than ever.

Of all the flavors of this cuisine, we will choose only the most popular ones.

Hominy

Products for cooking:

• – 1.25 l;
• corn flour – 400 g;
• salt to taste.

Cooking steps:

1. Pour a measured amount of flour onto a baking sheet and place in the oven for a while to dry.
2. Sift the dried flour through a fine sieve. At this time, put a cauldron of water on the fire.
3. When the water boils, add salt and reduce heat. Slowly add flour, stirring the porridge constantly. Stir so that no lumps remain.
4. The porridge sticks to the walls very easily. You need to cook it constantly stirring, with breaks for 1-2 minutes. Cook the mamalyga in this way for half an hour, then turn the heat to low and leave for another 15 minutes. The porridge should thicken well.
5. After this, you need to moisten a wooden spoon in cold water and run it along the edges of the cauldron, this way the hominy will separate from the walls of the dish. Dump the contents onto the board and cut into pieces with thread.

They eat this dish with their hands, dipping it in melted butter and feta cheese. Oil can be replaced with fried (cracklings).

Buryakitse

To prepare you need:

• – 800 ml;
• water – 1 liter;
• - 2 pcs.;
• onions – 4 pcs.;
• root - 1 pc.;
• celery root – 1 pc.;
• dumplings – 500 g.

Vegetables are cut into large pieces, onions into four parts, carrots into large circles. Pour water and tomato juice over all prepared vegetables and put on fire. When everything boils, reduce the flame and add salt, cook under the lid until the vegetables are completely softened. After the vegetables have boiled sufficiently, you can add dumplings and cook everything until they are ready. Served with mujdey or sauce.

Sauces

The mentioned mujdei and skordola sauce are present in almost every dish in Moldavian cuisine. Traditional national sauces are the best option to try the cuisine of another country. After all, they can be applied to native dishes. For muzhdeya, you just need to grind the garlic and salt into a homogeneous mass, add a couple of tablespoons of meat broth and a little vinegar. This dressing can complement dishes of fried or baked vegetables, meat, and potatoes. In Moldova it is even added to fish.

Skordola is also a garlic sauce, but tastier due to walnuts. So, grind the garlic and nuts to a paste, add soaked bread crumb and vegetable oil to it. All ingredients should turn into a homogeneous mass, which is best done with a blender, but for those who want to achieve authenticity, you can grind it in a mortar. Wine vinegar or is added to the finished sauce. The sauce tastes better if it contains more nuts.

Drinks from Moldova

Non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks also form part of any national cuisine. As for non-alcoholic drinks, Moldova is no different from neighboring countries. Homemade berries and fruits are often prepared here; uzvar, a compote made from, is very popular. They are also cooked from the same compotes or jam. The productivity of this country allows you to come up with a lot of natural homemade drinks.

Borsh is considered an unusual Moldavian drink. This is boiled homemade kvass made from wheat bran and boiling water. The ingredients are infused for several days, filtered and drunk. In appearance, it is completely different from the usual one, as it has a milky color. It is also added to chorba or beetroot borscht.

Regarding alcoholic beverages, Moldova has earned itself fame almost throughout the world. Local is an integral attribute of both the entire culture and cuisine in particular. Making wine at home is also popular here, with the red variety occupying a large share. Although you can find here mono and sherry, and rose wine, and Cahors, and dozens of other varieties. Moldovans also prepare their own version of brandy – divin. National alcoholic drinks can brighten up your acquaintance with local cuisine; the main thing is not to overdo it with either alcohol or hominy.

As we have seen, the gastronomic traditions of Moldova consist of many branches. Anyone who wants to experiment with cuisines around the world should definitely pay attention to this one. After all, the traditions of several nations come together here, and therefore there will be a whole lot of amazing discoveries.

How should you prepare Moldovan vertuta? The recipe for this unusual dish with various fillings will be presented below.

general information

What is vertuta moldaviana? Almost every Moldovan knows the recipe for this dish.

According to experts, a vertuta is a roll made from, which is very common in the world. To prepare this product, the same base is used as for the placinda. However, eggs and a large amount of sunflower oil are additionally added to it.

Moldavian vertuta, the recipe for which will be discussed below, is made from dough that is rolled out and then stretched by hand to the thickness of ordinary paper. Next, it is covered with a small layer of filling, after which it is tightly twisted into a tight roll, which is subsequently rolled into a spiral.

Moldavian vertuta: homemade baking recipes

To prepare the dish in question, you must use the following components:

• wheat flour - about 3 cups;
• drinking water - approximately 1 glass;
• fresh chicken eggs - 2 pcs.;
• butter - no more than 50 g;
• vegetable oil - about 0.5 cups.

All of the ingredients listed are necessary for kneading the dough. As for the filling, to prepare it you should use:

• village cottage cheese - approximately 500 g;
• table salt - 5 g;
• fresh small eggs - 2 pcs.;
• fresh green onions - a small bunch;
• aromatic dill - a small bunch;
• not very thick sour cream - 10 g;
• egg yolks - 2 pcs. (for lubrication).

Knead the dough

How should you make Moldovan vertuts? The recipe for such products requires careful kneading of the dough. To do this, sift wheat flour into a bowl, then add eggs to it and stir with a wooden spoon. Also, separately pour vegetable oil into a glass of warm water and add salt. The resulting mixture is added to the flour, after which the products are intensively mixed until an elastic dough is formed. Cover the base with a napkin and leave it to rest for 30 minutes.

Preparing the filling

The prepared layer is rolled into a tight roll and carefully twisted into a rope. After rolling the sausage into a snail shape, place it in the middle of the dish.

Exactly the same semi-finished products are made from the remaining layers of dough, which are also placed in the mold. At the very end, the previously prepared egg yolks are mixed with 2 large spoons of water, after which the Vertutas are generously greased with them.

Baking in the oven

How are Moldovan vertuta baked? The recipe requires an oven preheated to 197 degrees. All products are sent into it and baked for 40 minutes (until lightly browned).

We present it to the table

The dish in question should be presented to the table immediately after heat treatment. Although some housewives prefer to eat vertuta cold. Sweet hot tea should also be served with Moldavian pastries.

Moldavian fruit vertuta: step-by-step recipe

Few people know, but the products of Moldovan cuisine in question can not only be fried in a frying pan. We will describe below exactly how such a process should be carried out.

So, to prepare vertuta you need to purchase:

• large egg - 1 pc.;
• wheat flour - 1.5 cups;
• vegetable oil - approximately 150 ml (20 ml for dough, and the rest for frying);
• drinking water - 0.5 cups;
• 9% apple cider vinegar - a few drops;
• fresh sweet and sour apples - 4 pcs.;
• light sugar - 40 g;
• table salt - a pinch;
• fresh butter - 30 g.

Making the dough

The recipe in question for the Moldovan vertuta pie requires compliance with all the described requirements. To prepare such a product, you should mix ordinary drinking water with natural vinegar, table salt and vegetable oil. Next, you need to sift the flour into a separate bowl, break the chicken egg and pour in the previously prepared mixture.

Mix the ingredients with your hands to obtain an elastic dough. Cover it with a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Preparing the filling

To make the filling for vertuta, sweet and sour apples are peeled and grated on a large grater. To prevent them from turning black, sprinkle them with a small amount of lemon juice.

Formation process

Once the dough has rested, it is divided into 5 parts and rolled out very thinly using a regular rolling pin. Next, the surface of each layer is greased with soft butter. After that, they are covered with apple filling and sprinkled with sugar.

Having rolled the rolls as described in the previous recipe, the edges of the product are tightly sealed. After this, each roll is rolled up like a snail and lightly passed over it with a rolling pin. In this case, take into account the size of the frying pan on which the vertuts will subsequently be fried.

Frying Moldovan products on the stove

Frying vertuta in a frying pan is quite simple. To do this, heat the dishes over high heat and add vegetable oil. Having laid out the formed product, it is fried for two minutes at a time (over high heat).

After the vertuta turns golden brown, cover the pan with a lid. At the same time, the fire is reduced to a minimum. In this form, the products are cooked for about 5 minutes on each side.

Proper serving at the dinner table

You can eat Moldavian vertuta both as a snack and as a dessert. In both cases, such products should be served hot. This should be done with tea or other drinks.

In this article, we presented you with two of the simplest and most accessible ways to quickly and easily make Moldavian vertuts. However, it should be noted that there are other options for preparing this dish. For example, some housewives make it using cheese, including feta cheese, fried onions and even meat (minced meat). By the way, with this filling, vertuta turns out no less tasty and satisfying than with cottage cheese and apples.

Moldavian cuisine or the national cuisine of Moldova has a rather long history of existence. Its formation was influenced by Greek and Byzantine culture. For example, Moldavian cooking has been enriched with a recipe for such a dish as vertuta. In addition, the influence also affected the emergence of specific technologies and techniques in cooking. Also common in traditional Moldavian cuisine is the use of puff pastry, butter and stretch pastry, the use of vegetable oils in cooking, as well as the use of wines for preparing vegetable dishes and meat dishes. In addition, you can find in the national cuisine of Moldova some Russian notes, since this country was part of the Old Russian state from the 8th to the 13th centuries. Slavic influence greatly affected the tradition of making preparations for the winter. In addition, thanks to the Russians, Moldovans fell in love with cabbage pies! It is also worth noting that Thanks to almost three hundred years of subjugation to Turkey, Moldavian cuisine has also been enriched with oriental notes. For example, Moldovans prefer lamb as a meat product, and during cooking, products lend themselves to combined processing, which is typical for Turkish cuisine.

As for the list of types of dishes of national Moldavian cuisine, among them you will find first and second courses, snacks, a variety of pastries, and desserts. Traditional soups are distinguished by a hint of sourness in their taste and the constant addition of a whole bouquet of various greens: parsley, dill, celery, tarragon, thyme, mint, lovage. They are prepared on the basis of vegetable, meat and fish broths. First courses are acidified with bread kvass called Borsh or with citric acid. Flour with beaten egg is used as a dressing. In general, two types of soup are most famous in Moldavian cuisine: chorba or thick soup and zama or chicken broth.

Main courses in Moldavian cuisine can be very varied, but they always include vegetables or fruits, which grow in abundance in sunny Moldova! Greens of all kinds are also an invariable component in the preparation of such dishes. Thus, the taste of the dishes is rich and spicy. As for cooking methods, one of the most popular is baking in clay pots. In restaurants of Moldovan cuisine, fish and meat are often cooked over coals, which gives such dishes an incredible aroma!

Recipes of Moldavian cuisine are very diverse. This directly applies to flour products. They are represented by pies, pies, Easter cakes, and rolls. The filling can also be very varied, but the most common is the filling of cheese, as well as nuts and pumpkin. In addition, Moldovans bake all kinds of cakes, pastries and cookies. The filling of such desserts, as a rule, consists of local fruits and berries.

Speaking about the national cuisine of Moldova, one cannot fail to mention the wines of this country. They are truly diverse! The nature of the Moldavian region allows for the cultivation of various varieties of grapes, which in fact determined the development of winemaking.

You can get acquainted in more detail with the national Moldovan cuisine, or rather, with the recipes for its dishes, on our website. All of them not only have detailed descriptions, but are also equipped with photos of all stages of preparation.

Greetings, dear guests of the site! Thanks to its traditional dishes, it is considered one of the healthiest cuisines in the world. And this is not an exaggeration at all - the climate of Moldova is ideal for growing fruits, vegetables and grains. The variety of plant foods leaves virtually no room for meat on the table of Moldovans, Gagauzes and Bulgarians living in the territory of modern Moldova.

About what is rich in Moldavian cuisine, what dishes are the hallmark of this country, what chorba, zama and vertuta are, and much more equally interesting. By the way, I haven’t written anything on the site for a very long time - so maybe you can guess why this particular article was published?

There is an opinion that the cuisine of Moldova does not exist at all. This is, of course, not true. It may not be so bright as to shine in restaurants, but nevertheless it exists, and it has its own characteristics that are simply impossible not to notice (I will talk about them later).

Of course, there was some borrowing from Turkish, Greek, Russian, Balkan and Romanian cuisines. It is quite normal for neighboring cultures to influence each other, this always happens. However, it is worth noting that not a single recipe was copied completely without changes. Moldovan chefs and culinary specialists put their own twist into each dish; this is creativity that brings together all parts of the world on one dining table.

What dish is the hallmark of Moldova?

Let's start with the most important dish of this country - mamalyga! It is prepared from corn, more precisely from corn flour. By the way, corn itself appeared in the Principality of Moldova relatively recently - about 300 years ago, and a dish made from it has already acquired a national character. Mamalyga is a very ancient dish, and was originally prepared from millet. It is believed that the ancestor of hominy is Italian polenta.

This simple and at the same time very healthy dish has always been attributed to the food of the poor, and once upon a time in poor Moldavian families, hominy was a substitute for bread. It can be served as a separate dish, but usually something is added for taste: it can be sour cream, grated cheese, butter, milk, garlic, cheese, cracklings or mushrooms. The most interesting thing is that it is not customary to cut hominy with a knife; it is separated with a thread or broken by hand (I don’t know why with a thread: would it be easier to use a sharp knife? - but it just so happens, let’s not betray ancient traditions). Next, a piece of mamalyga is crushed in your hands and dipped in sour cream or grated cheese.

This, of course, is a classic version of cooking mamaliga. I was once treated to lazy hominy, i.e. pieces of mamalyga fried in butter mixed with feta cheese, and sour cream as a sauce - I really liked it. Other tasty modifications are also prepared from it: Sarmale - cabbage rolls or cabbage rolls with hominy; Urs – feta cheese is baked in hominy balls.

I must say that white bread takes pride of place among them: all my attempts to find pure rye bread were unsuccessful (see the article where I talk about the healthiest flour, guess which one?). Therefore, they know a considerable number of recipes for pies, the most famous of which are: vertuta and placinta (placinda) (we visited a restaurant named after one of them: “La Placinte”, located in Chisinau).

Both placinda and vertuta - both are prepared from stretched dough with a variety of fillings: cottage cheese, feta cheese, nuts, fruits, potatoes, onions and eggs. Their main difference is in shape: vertuta is a roll rolled in a spiral, and placinda is a flat pie. We tried cherry twirls - I was amazed at how much filling they had! It’s immediately obvious what the country has a surplus of.

The well-known kalachi, Easter cakes and apple pie are also baked there. Very often they use puff and butter dough for baking sweets, gingerbread with honey made from corn flour, cookies with a layer of marmalade called semilune, and gogosh shortbread cookies. By the way, our well-known cabbage pies were called there - verzere.

What sweets are typical for this cuisine?

The peculiarity of the sweets is the use of mainly nuts, fruits and berries, which is very similar to typical oriental sweets. For example, quince and apple pastilles, jelly from fruit and berry juices, nut nougat, fruit marshmallows, soufflé, pastille, marmalade. Another characteristic feature of Moldovan sweets is the use of thick grape juice, a by-product of wine production - must. Fruits and vegetables are cooked in it.

The result of the evolution of Moldavian cooking is the “Cap Guguta” cake. This cake has the shape of a pyramid, assembled from rolls with cherry filling, decorated with cream and meringue.

As I already said, the climate of this sunny country allows you to grow a whole variety of vegetables: eggplants, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, beets and others. They are fried, steamed, stewed, baked whole, chopped - made into adjika, stuffed. You can see vegetables and legumes on Moldovan tables all year round in the form of salads, pickles, side dishes, first and second courses. In the summer, people prepare pickles for the winter, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, etc. Look how much you can find in their basement at home - as I was told, this is still not enough.

The most popular vegetables here are: bell peppers, sweet peppers with a spicy taste, which has its own name - gogoshar, and, of course, tomatoes, onions, pumpkin, zucchini and eggplants. By the way, many of you probably like boiled corn. It has its own name there - popushoy. As a rule, popusha is served with salt, sometimes butter or spicy sauce is added to it. Legumes are also very popular here - various purees are prepared from them: with onions, garlic and vegetable oil. The most common: beans - white and green, chickpeas, lentils.

What is the secret of the taste of Moldavian vegetable dishes?

A special place on the table of these peoples is occupied by feta cheese - pickled cheese made from sheep's milk and sour cream. These dairy products are added to meat, fish, vegetable and flour dishes to add salty and other flavors, i.e. they act as if they were spices and at the same time make the dish more satisfying and nutritious.

In the same way, various hot sauces are widely used. For example, Moldavian skordola is a sauce made from walnuts with garlic, and mujdey is a sauce made from garlic, salt and meat or vegetable broth. The following spices are used in abundance in Moldova: red, black and allspice, thyme, tarragon, leeks, garlic, celery, parsley, dill, tarragon, coriander, cloves, bay leaf, nutmeg, cinnamon.

How are first courses prepared?

The soups they prepare represent a mixture of Russian, Caucasian and Mediterranean traditions. The most famous and beloved national soups: zama - soup made from potatoes, onions, raw eggs and poultry; chorba - soup cooked with fresh, unfried vegetables in meat broth and seasoned with fresh herbs and a sour drink, which I will talk about below; chorba is served with sour cream. There are also simple soups - for example, sirbushka - soup with vegetables and corn flour.

The national Moldovan drink, which is added to soups and other liquid dishes to add a sour taste, is sour bran kvass. This drink is very popular among the people.

What can you say about meat?

There are no bans on any types of meat here. In villages and villages, many people keep geese, ducks and chickens, since running such a farm is easier than keeping livestock. However, sheep, goats, lambs and even cattle are also present. The meat of lambs, calves and young chickens, geese and ducks is especially valued.

Meat is the main ingredient in traditional ancient dishes of this region, and in modern cuisine it is more often used as an additional optional component of dishes. One of the ancient meat dishes is, for example, kostitsa - pork marinated in wine, baked over a fire; kiftelutse – fried beef meatballs; resol - rooster jelly; mushka – smoked pork ham; whole cooked chickens and geese. Very often, meat is fried over an open fire: on a spit or on a grill.

A meat dish in which meat is a minor component is givech - it is something like a vegetable stew that can be prepared with or without meat. Vegetables are stewed and baked in giveche: eggplants, peppers, onions, garlic, mokrov with the addition of tomato juice or tomato paste with pieces of lamb. Moldavian moussaka is a vegetable dish in which less than half the volume may be minced lamb, or may be completely absent.

A characteristic feature of cooking fatty meat and fish is the use of an acidic component: lemon juice, tomato juice, fruit and wine. The sour taste stimulates the liver and pancreas, which in turn facilitates digestion and absorption of heavy foods.

Various delicacies are prepared from meat by-products in Moldova. For example, drob is lamb liver baked in a cauldron. Mititei and kyrnetsei - fried pork and beef sausages. Mititei are small fried beef sausages without casing, somewhat reminiscent of cutlets, but different in taste. And kyrnetsei are pork sausages in a casing.

Recently, a meat dish has become popular: Tiraspol-style cucumbers. They are fried meatloaves with lard, garlic and spices. Sometimes cucumbers and cheese are added to them.

What is the most popular drink in Moldova?

You can guess it yourself. The most favorite national drink is, of course, red wine! Scientists claim that Moldovan winemaking traditions are among the most ancient in the world. This low-alcohol drink was known here 5,000 years ago. Many villages have managed to preserve the rarest grape varieties that are not found anywhere else on the planet. A large selection of wines allows you to choose your own drink for each dish. So, for example, dry white and red wines go with meat and poultry, blended wines go with hominy, Cahors wine goes with sweet pastries and pies, rose wines go with vegetables.

To confirm the wine glory of Moldova, I will cite the following fact: the wine galleries in the Moldovan village of Small Milesti in 2005 were included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest in the world! Their cellars, which stretch over 200 km, contain more than 1.5 million bottles of wine.

What other drinks do Moldovans drink?

The variety of fruits and berries has made drinks such as compotes, jelly, juices much more popular than hot teas and coffee. In the summer, many different compotes are prepared: apricot, peach, strawberry, apple, pear and others. In my opinion, this is the best alternative to those juices that are sold in stores.

Have you already guessed why this article was born?

In the article I have already spoken a couple of times about my festivities in Moldova. This summer, during my vacation, I went there to visit my relatives. This was my first visit to sunny Moldova. I was in Gagauzia - the region of Moldova where the Gagauz people live - the nationality closest to the Turkic linguistic group. By the way, Moldavian and Gagauz languages ​​are completely different. And in general these are two different nationalities. As an example, a flat pie, which the Moldovans call placinda, is called kyirma by the Gagauz. There are other linguistic differences for the same things, but this is a topic for a completely different article.

In conclusion, I want to show you a photo of the land in the field: the climate of this country is quite dry.

That's all for me. Thank you all for your attention!

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