One time at the beginning of my stay in Romania, I went to a restaurant with some of the other girls on my study abroad. Because we had just gotten to the country, we were feeling adventurous, and so we decided to order traditional food items off the menu, even if we weren't sure exactly what those items were. So everyone ordered, and it was my turn. I looked at the menu, and decided that "ciorba de burta" was what I was going to have. I knew that this was some sort of soup, but I had no idea what was in it. I got my soup, and it looked different, but that didn't bother me too much. Then I tasted it... The chunks of meat in that soup were so chewy and tasted pretty bad. I stopped eating the soup, and could not wait to get back to the hostel so I could ask a Romanian what ciorba de burta was. Everyone else finished eating, and we got back to the hostel. I went to my facilitator, and told her I had eaten this horrible soup, but that I did not know what it was. She asked me the name and I told her. All of the sudden, she burst into laughter, and I knew it wasn't good. Through her laughing she barely managed to say, "You ate stomach soup..."
Ciorba de burta is a soup widely enjoyed by many Romanians. In addition to this soup, a big traditional food is a dish called sarmale. This is a small wrap of rice and sheep meat in pickled cabbage leaves. That dish is actually really good, but it takes a long time to make. Another food that is made a lot is stuffed peppers. They put rice and sheep meat in those as weel, and slow cook them in the oven. Romania also has many types of cheeses. When you go to the market, there are multiple stands soley for cheese. The most interesting kind I tried was sheep's cheese (which was not that good...). The food there is not too extreme, but Romanians definitely have foods unique to them.
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