What to Eat Around the World | Page 3 of 70
Harbuz Murat: Barrel-Fermented Watermelon
Harbuz murat is a whole watermelon fermented in salty brine - small, firm and eaten rind and all. Moldova shares this winter staple with Romanian Moldavia, southern Ukraine and Russia's Don region. I'd picked out pickled watermelon as the number one curiosity of my whole trip, and yet I still missed my chance to taste it.
Gogonele: Pickled Green Tomatoes
Gogonele are unripe green tomatoes from the last harvest of autumn, fermented in salty brine with horseradish, celery and dill. Romanian has its own word for them, but all of Eastern Europe pickles them the same way - from Moldova to Russia. In winter they go with heavy meat dishes, and once they're well fermented, they can fizz gently on the tongue.
Divin: Moldova's Wine Brandy with a Divine Name
Divin is Moldova's wine brandy: a spirit distilled from white wine and aged for at least three years in oak barrels, sold under a protected designation that covers all of Moldova. The name, coined in the 1990s, is both an abbreviation of distilat de vin and the Romanian word for divine - a stand-in for the forbidden word cognac. Its grades from VS to XXO copy the cognac model, and unlike Romanian vinars, the blend may also include sugar syrup.
Trandafirată: Rose Petal Liqueur
Trandafirată is made by steeping Damask rose petals - first with sugar and lemon, then with brandy. This sweet liqueur is a homemade classic in Moldova and Romania, although in Romania the same word these days more often means a summer lemonade made from roses. In Moldova it's also bottled by a liqueur house in Bulboaca, from petals picked by hand in the Anenii Noi district.
Nucată: A Liqueur Made from Unripe Walnuts
Nucată is a liqueur made from unripe green walnuts, the way households in Moldova and Romania know it - a cousin of Italian nocino, French vin de noix and the Czech walnut liqueur. The Castel Mimi winery in Bulboaca turns it into a "princely" balsam: it adds wine from Traminer and Muscat to the walnuts, plus two kinds of wormwood and hops, so the sweet start ends in a vermouth-like bitterness.
Must: Grape Juice Halfway to Wine
Must is fresh grape juice from the new harvest, the way it's drunk in autumn in Moldova and Romania - sweet, cloudy and wilder by the day as the yeasts get to work. Once it starts to fizz, it's the counterpart of Czech burčák; the next stage Moldovans call tulburel, literally "the little cloudy one". Because it can't be transported, it's drunk only a few weeks a year, and only where it was born.
Piața Centrală: The Main Market in Chișinău
Chișinău's main market has been feeding the city since 1825: covered halls with dairy, meat and live fish, outdoor rows of counters piled with Moldovan grape varieties, vegetables and even jujubes, and stalls selling fried pirozhki called pateuri by the entrances. A lady in an apron pours soda from the machine, and on the benches around the grounds, village women sell homemade brynza and raspberries.
Acasă la Mama Restaurant: Home-Style Moldovan Cooking in Chișinău
Acasă la Mama is a Chișinău restaurant serving home-style Moldovan cooking - the name means "at Mom's house", and the place looks and tastes the part: woven rugs, folk pottery and recipes from village housewives. The flagship dishes are chicken zeamă and mămăligă with fish and mujdei, but the menu brings together Moldovan, Romanian and post-Soviet layers.
Bucuria: Moldova's Legendary Candy Maker
Bucuria is Moldova's largest confectionery maker, founded in Chișinău in 1946. The factory's name means joy, and its candies - sour cherries and grapes in chocolate, Meteorit brittle and the Chișinăul de seară prunes - are among the country's best-known flavors. Two of its directors went on to become prime ministers, and visitors take home boxes of chocolates with the oval logo as a typical souvenir.
What to Bring Back from Moldova?
What I mostly brought back from Moldova was prunes - stuffed with walnuts from Rifero and coated in chocolate from Bucuria - along with Noor kozinaki, Galfim covrigei and gingerbread from Cahul. Borodinsky bread with coriander and Moscovita salami cover the Soviet side of my shopping. A bit of Ukraine comes in the form of fish jerky and gingerbread from Kyiv.