Bucatele noastre: Carte cu preparate mai mult sau mai puțin românești

Horia Virlan compiles a technical guide to the contemporary Romanian table, categorizing recipes into traditional mainstays and foreign imports that have become local fixtures. The text details the preparation of soups, stews, and desserts, focusing on the specific spicing and slow-cooking techniques characteristic of the Balkans and Central Europe. Virlan provides exact measurements for dishes like sarmale and ciorba, while identifying how Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and French culinary traditions merged to form the current national repertoire. The instructions emphasize seasonal ingredients and specific meat-curing methods.

Home cooks and students of Eastern European gastronomy use this manual to replicate regional flavors with precision. It serves those who want to distinguish between indigenous cooking styles and adapted international recipes. Readers walk away with a functional understanding of how to balance souring agents like borș, the manual skills required for traditional doughs, and the historical context behind why certain foreign ingredients are now considered staples. It provides a practical framework for mastering a kitchen that is both geographically specific and culturally hybrid.

Practical, outward-looking and clear-cut; an easy read.

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