Moldavian cuisine. Moldavian vertuta: homemade baking recipes

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 wines go 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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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 in the modern world is in the position of Cinderella. She is simple and modest, rarely leaves the house, she does not have any gloss or exoticism to shine in restaurants. Some even believe that it does not exist at all. Nevertheless, Moldavian cuisine is wonderful: it is bright, original, rich in flavors and aromas. As for its usefulness, many traditional Moldovan dishes are the standard of healthy nutrition.

There is an opinion that since Moldova was not independent for most of its history, it is impossible to talk about independent Moldavian cuisine, and all dishes common in the territory of modern Moldova are Romanian or borrowed from Turkish, Russian, Greek, Balkan and other cuisines. This point of view is easy to refute: Romania was artificially created in the 19th century from parts of Moldova, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria. The cuisine that spread there accordingly began to be called Romanian, although in fact most Romanian dishes have ancient Moldavian roots.

A large number of borrowings from neighbors is also not an argument against Moldavian cuisine, because there are borrowings even in the closed Japanese cuisine, and Moldova, with its mild climate and fertile lands, has always been a tasty morsel for numerous conquerors, it was part of the Old Russian state, Turkey, and later - Russian Empire and USSR. Moreover, being located at the crossroads of ancient trade routes between north and south and between east and west, it was simply impossible for Moldova to avoid a mixture of culinary traditions. Many processing methods and principles of combining products in Moldova are the same as in the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine; the influence of Jewish, German, Mediterranean and Eastern traditions is strong here. However, not a single recipe was borrowed completely, without changes. Moldavian chefs, cooks and housewives have always had their own view of cooking and did not copy, but created, combining all parts of the world on their dining table.

A striking example is corn. This South American cereal appeared in the Principality of Moldova relatively recently (about 300 years ago), but a dish made from it - hominy - is considered the hallmark of Moldavian cuisine. Corn was much better suited for hominy than millet, from which this ancient dish was originally prepared. It is believed that the ancestor of hominy is Italian polenta, and among gourmets there is ongoing debate about which of these poor people's dishes is tastier. Be that as it may, mamalyga, this simple but very tasty and healthy dish is still loved and revered in Moldova. Corn hominy can be an independent dish, you just need to add something for taste: butter, sour cream, milk, garlic, cheese, cracklings, mushrooms. It is not customary to cut hominy with a knife; it is broken by hand or separated with thread. Then everyone crushes a piece of mamalyga in their hands and dips it in melted butter and grated cheese: it makes an excellent appetizer for dry red wine. If this is too simple, you can prepare other interesting dishes from hominy: urs (cheese cheese baked in hominy balls), sarmale (cabbage rolls or cabbage rolls with hominy) or simply fry pieces of hominy in butter.

Mamalyga cannot be called a substitute for bread, as it once was in poor Moldovan families. Today, white wheat bread occupies a special place on the Moldovan table. There are also many recipes for pies here. The most famous Moldovan pies are placinta (placinda) and vertuta. Their main difference is in shape: placinta is a flat pie, and vertuta is a roll rolled into a spiral. They are made from unsweetened stretch dough with a variety of fillings: cottage cheese, feta cheese, onions, eggs, potatoes, fruits or nuts. Pies with fresh or sauerkraut - verzere - came from Russian cuisine and became popular.

Moldavian sweets are very unusual; they are closer to oriental cuisine than to European cuisine. Of course, Moldavian cuisine has the familiar kalachi, Easter cakes and apple pies, but especially interesting are Mediterranean sweets made from puff pastry and butter dough, honey cakes made from corn flour with cinnamon, gogosh wheat shortbread cookies, and semilune cookies glued together with marmalade. And there is also a mysterious black babka - either a cake or a pudding, which is baked in the oven for 4 hours.

In addition to sweet pastries, Moldavian cuisine also contains completely different sweets based on fruits, berries and nuts: kitonoage (quince and apple pastille), alvitsa (halva with walnuts), peltea (jelly made from fruit and berry juices and decoctions). They also know how to prepare typically oriental sweets: nut nougat, fruit marshmallows, marmalade, marshmallows and soufflé. Moldavian confectioners cannot do without wine to soak the finished sweets. Another local specialty: the use of must, thick grape juice, a by-product of wine production. Fruits and even vegetables are cooked in it.

The climate of Moldova is ideal for growing grapes, vegetables, fruits and grains. The abundance and variety of plant foods in Moldova is such that there is little room left on the table or in the stomach for meat. Therefore, for a long time, Moldavian cuisine was considered poor and uninteresting. Many traditional Moldavian dishes were almost unknown outside the country, although it is not difficult to replicate them if you have the ingredients. Today, when the view on nutrition has changed to the diametrically opposite one, and the main value of food instead of calories and fats has become antioxidants and fiber, Moldovan cuisine can be called one of the healthiest in the world, close in its range of products to the cuisines of the Mediterranean.

There is a special approach to vegetables in Moldova: they are baked whole, chopped and fried, pureed, stuffed and stewed, and pickled and salted for the winter. Simple boiled or baked corn on the cob, and it is considered an independent dish, has its own name - popushy - and is served with salt and butter or a special spicy sauce. The most favorite vegetables in Moldova are sweet peppers, gogoshar (a type of sweet pepper with a spicy taste), tomatoes, onions, eggplants, zucchini, and pumpkin. Legumes are very popular here: white and green beans, lentils, chickpeas. They are usually pureed with onions, garlic and vegetable oils. Vegetables and legumes are used in Moldova almost all year round in the form of salty snacks, salads, side dishes, main courses, soups and meat dishes.

The secret of the taste of Moldavian vegetable dishes lies in the extensive use of hot sauces, rich sour cream and feta cheese - a pickled cheese made from sheep's milk. Pickled cheeses and other fermented milk products are found in the cuisines of almost all nations, but in Moldova sour cream and feta cheese occupy a special place. They add satiety and nutrition and act as spices to create salty and sour flavors in meat, fish, vegetable and flour dishes. But this does not mean that spices are tight in Moldova. Here, aromatic herbs are used in abundance: onions, leeks, garlic, tarragon, thyme, lovage, dill, celery, parsley and classic spices: black, red and allspice, coriander, cloves, nutmeg, bay leaf, cinnamon. Simple sauces came to Moldova from the cuisines of the Mediterranean, but they changed so much that you can no longer recognize the classic pesto in the Moldavian scordola, or aioli in the mujdei.

Meat, poultry and fish are not given much attention in Moldova, but there are no bans on pork or any other meat here either. In Moldavian cuisine, tender meat of lambs, calves, and young chickens is valued. Meat is often used as an additional, optional ingredient in dishes, as a spice. It’s delicious with it, but not bad without it. For example, in giveche, lamb is stewed and baked along with carrots, peppers, zucchini, eggplants, cauliflower, garlic, potatoes, onions, tomato juice and is practically lost against this bright background. In Moldavian moussaka - a tender layered “pie” made from eggplants, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, potatoes, cabbage - minced lamb makes up less than half the volume, and may be completely absent.

Meat is the main ingredient only in ancient dishes common to all peoples of the region. These are, for example, kostitsa - fire-roasted pork marinated in wine; mushka - smoked pork ham; kiftelutse - fried beef meatballs; Resol - rooster jelly, whole fried chickens and turkeys. Often, meat in Moldova is simply fried over an open fire: on a spit or on a grill (grater). At the same time, prepare eggplants, sweet peppers, bake potatoes - and a simple, hearty, beautiful dinner with a smoky aroma is ready. According to Moldavian traditions, especially fatty meat and fish are always prepared with a sour component: tomato juice, lemon, quince, apples, apricots, wine. This is done not only for taste, but also for better absorption of animal fats, which is confirmed by modern science.

Like any truly folk cuisine, Moldavian cuisine makes extensive use of offal. The most famous offal dishes are lamb liver baked in a stuffing pan (drob), and fried beef and pork sausages (mititei and kyrnetsi).

Moldavian soups are very interesting - a mixture of ancient Russian, Mediterranean and Caucasian traditions. For example, chorba is a sour soup in meat broth, cooked from young, unroasted vegetables and seasoned with herbs, sour cream, cabbage brine or the national Moldavian bran drink, reminiscent of sour kvass. From poultry meat, onions, carrots, potatoes, lemon juice and a raw egg, beaten with sour cream, you get another sour soup - zama. And if the household only has vegetables and corn flour, you can add whey and prepare a simple soup called syrbushka.

Interestingly, hot drinks are not very popular in Moldova. The abundance of berries and fruits left tea, coffee and cocoa no chance of popularity. People traditionally drink juices, compotes, jelly, syrups, sorbets and a variety of fermented milk drinks here. The favorite drink in Moldova is, of course, red wine. Archaeologists claim that Moldavian winemaking traditions are among the oldest in the world. On the territory of modern Moldova, grape wine was known 5000 years ago. Many Moldovan villages, despite the long rule of the Muslim Ottoman Empire and the ban on wine production, have preserved ancient grape varieties that are not found anywhere else on the planet. The most famous among them are Feteasca Regale, Feteasca Alba, Rara Neagra. The climate and soils of Moldova allow the cultivation of classic French grape varieties: Pinot Gris, Aligote, Cabernet, Muscat. Divins are also made in Moldova - strong drinks using brandy technology.

The variety of wines allows you to choose your own accompaniment for each dish: light white or red wines for beef and poultry; pink for vegetables; blended reds - for hominy; Cahors or sherry - for Easter cakes and sweet pies; strong drinks - for heavy and spicy dishes. The importance and ancient traditions of winemaking in Moldova are most convincingly demonstrated by the fact that in the Moldovan village of Mileştii Mici there is the world's largest collection of wines: more than one and a half million bottles are stored in cellars 200 km long.

In the 20th century, Moldavian cuisine underwent strong metamorphoses: many ancient dishes disappeared or changed beyond recognition, but new ones appeared that had nothing in common with traditional Moldavian recipes. This is, for example, the Chisinau salad. According to some sources, it consists of cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, herbs and seasoned with sour cream or mayonnaise, while according to others, it is a pompous salad of cabbage, apples, carrots, cheese, nuts, cinnamon, citric acid and mayonnaise.

Relatively recently, by historical standards, a new meat dish appeared in Moldova: Tiraspol-style cucumbers. It's actually fried meatloaf with garlic, lard and spices. Some chefs add cucumbers and feta cheese to the rolls to match the name. It turns out to be some kind of meat similarity to sushi. Another example of New Moldavian cooking is the “Gugutse Hat” cake. This is a very complex cake in the shape of a pyramid, assembled from rolls with cherry filling and decorated with cream and meringue. Such recipes, far from tradition, mean that Moldovan cuisine is not going through its best period. But as we know from history, she is able to withstand any test and come out enriched. Even now, Moldovan cuisine is alive and continues to develop.

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.