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 […]
To the sarmale before, to the war before (a Polish story to lull the Teutons to sleep)
A Polish myth claims that the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Casimir IV, fed his army with gołąbki (sarmles) before a key battle of the Thirteen Years' War outside Malbork Castle against the Teutonic Order in the second half of the 15th century. The victory is attributed to the properties that give strength to this table [...]
Some Germanic charms
Some German sarmals In most of the countries sarmals are a kind of stand-alone, even if in the East they are often served as mezze. The combination of meat, rice, leaf, sauce plus bread or polenta is enough for them to be a complete dish. The Nordics, both the Germans and [...]
Eminescu and the Baron of Trei Sarmale
Between Mihai Eminescu and Dimitrie Petrino there was an open enmity, quite well known at the time. Eminescu criticized one of Petrino's books, in an article in Albina, and later Petrino replaced the poet as director of the central library. Eminescu invented a nickname for his rival: Baron de trois sarmaux because he [...]
Sarmale with rapane from May 2
Some of you may know that I have been collecting information for a universal encyclopedia of sarmals for several years now. They're also made in China, they're also made in Argentina, and November 30th is National Sarmala Day in Sweden. I read several thousand recipes, identified dozens of different leaves, hundreds of combinations of fillings, […]
Sarmale with mushrooms and baked peppers from Lucian Dragomir
Lucian Dragomir is probably the most famous vegetable grower around Brașov, the founder of "La Borcan" and the one who calls himself: responsible farmer. Together with him we also made the pickled sarmales (a wonder) which we will show you soon. In the meantime, we present you another recipe for sarmales, for fasting (vegetarian, vegan): Filling […]
English 
Romanian 