EGastroArt and Cărturești.ro announce the start of the pre-order campaign for one of the most anticipated Romanian culinary books, the book ZĂMURI - soups, soups and năcreli (Transylvanian recipes from the elderly) signed by master Mircea Groza. It is the first volume in an author's series dedicated to the researcher from Saláje, the publishing house announcing that they are already working on the second anthology of recipes dedicated to topales and tocanelosr. The volume contains 182 richly illustrated soup/soup recipes, collected over 40 years by Mircea Groza from the elders in the villages of Salăje. The recipes are written in the regional language, a phonetic transliteration, through which the author tries to preserve both the culinary heritage and the specifics of the area. The volume also benefits from a glossary with hundreds of explained terms.
Mircea Groza is one of the most famous collectors of old recipes from us, a culinary archaeologist and a mentor for many chefs. His work has been noted by local and central authorities, national and international chef associations and NGOs and he has been awarded dozens of excellence awards for his work. Volume can be ordered here or click on the cover
I wrote the foreword to this volume as an editor, friend and enthusiast of traditional foods:
I have often been asked, in these almost three years since we have been working on the book, why I would edit such a volume, which, at first glance, is translatable. The overwhelming majority of those who questioned me are from Bucharest or settled here. I understand them perfectly. A book with recipes collected from the elders of the villages of Sălaj, in a language abounding in regionalisms, phonetically transcribed is intriguing and, above all, intimidating. While Jamie Oliver, for example, constantly beats his simplification record (with 7, with 5, with 3 ingredients, in 30, in 15 minutes, etc.), Mircea Groza complicates them. And we have neither time nor patience.
As a publisher I have never been skeptical about this book, and apart from enriching GastroArt's portfolio, I really believe in its success. It is true that I am trained for such readings with a glossary strung across many pages, but I have a better command of archaisms than regionalisms. Now, after reading the book a few times, I think I could write this fixed text like Mircea Groza. After just a few recipes you manage to master the language and you no longer need to consult the glossary so frequently. In the hundreds of conversations with Mircea Groza, I don't think I've ever asked him if he wouldn't want to give up this style or at least if he wouldn't want to eliminate, here and there, expressions that make reading difficult. I didn't want to make it more "commercial". I respected the author's desire to try to reproduce part of the atmosphere of the place, to "oralize" the recipes. It is a volume addressed to the reader willing to use several receivers: the reading is intended more for the hearing, the photographs are for the sight and the recipes for the papillae. It is different from a classic recipe book that has utility as its sole purpose. It is, in fact, about "Salt in a tin of clay" and less about a book dedicated to local soups and stews.
Exact quantities, cooking times and temperatures are completely lacking. Less exact science and more optimetry, though, for many of the informants in the book "as much flour as you need" or "to taste" are far more relevant than clear weights. Of course, tastes differ just as flours are not standard. It uses ingredients from the garden and meat from the farm animals, but it also works with those from the market. And the author recreated all these recipes, on the block, on the stove with tap water and greens bought in town.
Honestly, I'm still not clear why in this volume we have only 182 zamuri recipes from the approximately 400 collected by Mircea Groza in almost 50 years since he has been concerned with this work. I know, however, that all of them are only from Sălaj county. Local recipes. Now calculate the potential for the entire country. Mircea Groza probably should have been cloned in every county. There is an immeasurable richness of the national recipe that we can only intuit. I am extremely happy that in recent years more and more projects have appeared to capitalize on the local gastronomic heritage, that more and more people are concerned with researching the culinary treasure. With every old man who dies, a cookbook disappears, and it's a shame because these recipes don't just have museum value. Research as thorough as that of Mircea Groza does not really exist, and those that do exist are not well known. Volume III of the Romanian Ethnographic Atlas from the 70s, the one dedicated to gastronomy, was printed in such a small print run that it is the Holy Grail of researchers. I note, here, the recent studies done by the late professor Vintilă Mihăilescu together with Bogdan Iancu and Monica Stroe. I had to mention the collection of recipes by Radu Anton Roman, the one who managed to turn traditional cuisine into a popular TV show. Also remarkable are the efforts of Mihai Uică (temporarily missing from us) and Claudia Romana-Rista, both dealing in particular with Banat, but also of Simona Lazăr who, apart from the books written or edited, managed to maintain the public's interest through feature articles in newspapers with huge circulations. Răzvan Voiculescu's photos from the album series "Nomadic Kitchen" and "Rost - Essences, Tastes and Romanian States" are also remarkable, which perfectly reproduce the almost magical atmosphere of the one who cooks. Some of the photos of Mircea Groza in this volume are published by the courtesy of the artist. The list would go on with others whose names should be mentioned here, but I am simply afraid of offending someone by an unintentional omission.
You will probably notice that there are similar recipes. Well, here's the whole skepticism of the gastronomic story. The micro-local, local, regional or national specificity depends on the details. The smoked bean soup with a lot of thyme from my childhood in the south of Moldova is not the same as the smoked bean soup with dried dill that I ate in Timișoara, nor with the smoked bean soup with tarragon from Transylvania. And not the beans and mussels stuffed in Rome. The base is the same, the taste is different. And we are people, then Europeans, Romanians, Moldovans, Vrânceni, and some are from Lepșa, Gheorghe's from the hill and only one is Costel from Gheorghe from the hill from Lepșa.
This volume is the first in a long-thought-out series. Followed by those about stews/topals, sarmals/pirostes, desserts and we'll see more. There will probably be versions translated (sic!) into common language, and even an Encyclopedia of Sălăjene dishes. Health and labor force be. I started with the pictures in a natural chronological order of the dishes brought to the table. But that's not the only reason.
They are truly our identity. We ignore their importance being overwhelmed by their naturalness. We can't see the forest for the trees. They are a constant in everyday meals, whether we are talking about urban or rural. Moreover, as if always, they had a triple purpose: satisfying everyday hunger, and, for example, the clear chicken soup has a ritual role and was indispensable at the Sunday lunchtime meal, after the liturgy, the most important meal of the week. That was if the family could afford it, but anyway it remained aspirational even for the poor. Thirdly, warm poultices, whether of vegetables or meat, have a medicinal role and were/are still recommended to the bedridden for recovery. Well, this triple role turns this dish into the quintessence of traditional cuisine. And if these arguments are not enough, I will add: it is the food with the most different recipes, with the most variations on the theme, from Romania. There is no other dish that uses the entire arsenal of available resources: every vegetable, weed, meat and even fruit finds its place in a recipe. From wild herbs to sour cherries, from lamb shanks to agurida. The fact that in restaurants we only find a maximum of ten dishes is the direct consequence of communist standardization, the incompetence or ignorance of some chefs and patrons, but also the conservatism of the Romanian customer.
I can only hope that this book is to your liking and even useful, and finally to thank Mircea Groza - still officially declared Living Human Thesaurus - for his trust, friendship and above all for those incredible hugs he keeps sending me occasionally. At more! And books and sticks ????
photo credit: © Ozgur Coskun | Dreamstime.com
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