About 15,000 Slovaks live in Romania. In Bihor and Arad counties are the largest communities. In Sălaj county there are several communities (Huta-Bogdana, Buciumi commune, Marca-Huta in Marca commune, Dealu Corbului, Sâg commune, there are also some hamlets, some with wonderful names, like would be Culcuș or Fufez), most of them being assimilated except for the one from [...]
About the grandmother's crock pot - by Mircea Groza
I was invited to the opening of the exhibition OALA DE SARMALE A BUNICII. A traveling exhibition, collaboration between the Satu Mare County Museum, the National Museum of the "Dimitrie Gusti" Village in Bucharest, the Astra Museum in Sibiu, the Bănățean Village Museum in Timișoara and the County Museum of History and Art in Zalău. As part of the exhibition, pottery pots of various [...]
Sarmale and cabbage a la Cluj, recipes from 1913 - article by Mircea Groza
I have an old book printed in Hungarian in Baia Mare in 1913. Searching through it, I found a recipe for sarmale and also one for "cabbage a la Cluj" (Kolozsvári káposzta). Since we've been talking about sarmales for a while, I thought I'd give you these two recipes, maybe you should try them. In the […]
November 30: National Day of traditional Swedish Sarmalas or how others can
While Swedish meatballs have long been famous (also) in our country thanks to a famous furniture manufacturing company, less well known is the fact that in Sweden sarmales (usually served with brown sauce, along with boiled potatoes and cranberry jam) are, and them, a traditional food that the Swedes are proud of and that [...]
Sarmal and stuffed pepper soups
Stuffed peppers and sarmals are consumed in all areas of the country. Both dishes have countless variations: we generically call stuffed peppers a lot of stuffed vegetables, just as sarmales have countless compositions and vegetable coverings. Both have fasting options, mostly based on rice and mushrooms, but the list of ingredients used continues with an inexhaustible […]
How others know how to celebrate their gastronomy: today the case of sarmals on stamps
As I have few but fixed ideas, today I submit to your attention another approach of some states through which they celebrate their national gastronomy (without worrying that the dishes are influenced by the international or regional recipe). Today - poor. There are, not very many, stamp series with a culinary theme. I don't mean the ones with [...]
America, the Irish, and St. Patrick's Day leftovers
I have often encountered, both in the historical and the present discourse, the valence of the capacitating sarmals of yesterday's remains. I do not believe in the theory that they arose from such a need, rather I follow an obvious route from the use of leaves as a support (to avoid direct contact with hot food), [...]
Why the Slavs call sarmals doves and many other false bird stories
Although, most of the time, etymology seems to irrefutably solve the dilemmas of the origin of a preparation, the science that studies the history and the phonetic and semantic evolution of the terms may not only prove nothing, but even confuse things even more. If in our country and not only (the Middle East and most of the Balkans) the wire [...]
The oldest sarmale recipe (year 782 idh)
I asked my friend Paul Agopian, an Armenian chef, to write some information about the story of Armenian sarmals, the country where, most likely, the oldest recipe of this dish comes from: "History Armenians call it Tolma. In the distant past it was a dish that was prepared for certain holidays, weddings, funerals and [...]
Iberian sarmale: a unique recipe from Asturias
One of the most interesting sarmale recipes can be found in the north-west of Spain (Asturia, Cantabria, Lugo), radically different from anything we have seen so far. Moreover, it also benefits from a fabulous, recent history. Passing through Pola de Allande in Asturias and not stopping at La Nueva Allandesa restaurant would be […]
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