Ciorbă is a type of Romanian sour soup. The sourness is obtained by adding lemon juice or sauerkraut juice. Soups that are acidified with the same-named liquid are called borș. Borș is water in which wheat or barley bran has fermented. After straining, borș is a slightly yellowish liquid that can be drunk on its own. Non-sour soups are called supa in Romania.
Soups in Romania are very hearty, and with bread, they can serve as a main course. A nice touch is the automatically added chili pepper, which is really hot. One 400 ml portion of soup costs approximately 4 EUR, and the selection is truly wide. I had the opportunity to taste a total of four representatives of sour soups, but Romanian cuisine has significantly more of them. However, do not be afraid of the sourness, it is only mild and does not significantly affect the taste.
Ciorbă de radauteana is a chicken broth softened with sour cream. The broth contains a lot of meat, vegetables, and is sometimes recommended as a “hangover cure.”
Ciorbă de cocos has nothing to do with coconut, as the name might suggest. It is a strong rooster broth, again supplemented with plenty of vegetables.
I tasted both soups at the Ciorbărie restaurant, which specializes in Romanian soups. The service here was fast, the soups were tasty, and the price was slightly higher due to the location right in the center, but still reasonable (about 6 EUR per portion, including bread and chili pepper).
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Ciorbă de burta is a Romanian tripe soup. I love tripe soup in the Czech Republic. Unlike the Czech version, the Romanian tripe soup is much more delicate, the spices are not so pronounced, and the taste is greatly softened by the cream added to the soup.
Ciorbă de perisoare is a Romanian soup with large meat dumplings. The dumplings are most often made from ground pork, but beef can also be added. The soup should be slightly spicy, but the spiciness was hardly noticeable at all.
I tasted both soups at the Rustic restaurant, which I highly recommend visiting.
Bon appetit!
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