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Another difficulty I find with Romanian cooking is the portion sizes and nutritional balance. While eating a Romanian diet I have gone a whole day only eating meat and potato/ bread. This makes the diet feel heavy as, the diet I am used to is more carefully balanced. This lack of fiber is sad as there is such excellent and delicious fruit and vegetables readily available in most areas that more of it should be promoted in the day to day diet. However Romanian cooking is very similar to the types of food eaten in most countries when the main work was manual labor and there was a need for high levels of protein and carbohydrates. However Romanian society is evolving and it is only right that its cuisine should evolve with it and become more suited for the modern Romanian. Luckily, in Romania, most people still know how to cook, and the more cooks there are, the faster people can adapt their cooking to suit their lifestyles. Also, most people in Romania can cook from scratch so the basic food knowledge is greater than that in many other cultures. Although I go on about the quality of produce in Romanian cuisine, there is another aspect that makes Romanian food special and well worth a try: its multiculturalism. The history of Romania as a country is a very interesting one and with its proximity to so many other countries and lots of different invasions there have been many influences on their cuisine such as: Saxon, Hungarian, Polish and German, just to name a few. Throughout the world food and history are inevitably linked and countries can be associated through the similarities of their food as although society changes the echoes of a country's history can be found in its cooking. For a country such as Romania, with its diverse, interesting and multicultural history, it is only natural that the food reflects this. This makes Romanian food less generic as it is more influenced by areas that still surround it (e.g. Hungary) but provides adaptations and improvements on dishes from other cultures and really makes them its own. Overall, although there are a few small issues with the Romanian diet, Romanian food as a cuisine is well worth a try. With its excellent, fresh, local produce and many influences making for a truly interesting experience, there is something about it my mind and my mouth will never forget. I can’t say I could live off it all day every day, but much like many other cuisines, it will defiantly incite a craving in me every now and then. By Frances Reilly Frances Reilly is a graduate of Oxford Brookes, BA in Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism Management. She has worked in the hospitality field in Oxfod, London and Brisbane, practicing cooking with well-known chefs. She is currently involved into the Transilvania Fest, a traveling food and culture festival which will take place between July 29 and 31 at Blaj, in Alba county. More about the festival here. (photo sources: Photoxpress.com, Transilvania Fest)