I’ve given you a restaurant guide to Sibiu with Food I Loved in Sibiu, but on this trip a realisation actually hit me – Sibiu´s brunch scene is blooming. And so, off I went to try them all (some again, some for the first time), and figure out which of these spots you should visit next time you’re in the city where houses have eyes. So without further ado, here’s where you should brunch in Sibiu next time you’re around.
In the heart of Transylvania lies the town of Sibiu – the place where I was born and spent the first 18 years of my life. It’s a fairly mid-sized town for Eastern European standards, but to me and everyone visiting it (especially for the Christmas market or its many festivals) it’s like a piece from a fairytale. Eventually I´ll do a guide to Sibiu, but for now I´ll leave you with a collection of my favourite restaurants and bars in this magical city where houses have eyes.
What do you do when you repeatedly find yourself in a city you hate? And moreover, when that city is the capital of the country you were born in? And your friends are divided about it as well – some love it and some hate it? I tried answering that question during my last two trips to Bucharest this summer. I met with people that see beauty in the city, I revisited the few places I loved and explored some new ones that took me by utter surprise. And I ended up fancying a city I had hated for over two decades. Here are the spots that made me change my mind.
It´s been six years since my family and I last hopped on our Tabbert trailer together for a roadtrip. In 2014 we ventured to Bulgaria and Greece, and had one of the best family vacations ever. So when the pandemic hit and travelling abroad was put on hold for a while, a trip to Romania already sounded like bliss. So when my mom suggested we take advantage of me being home and do another trip together with our 30 something year old trailer, I was totally in. Because my parents are awesome and super flexible, they let me draft the itinerary. And so I chose to head north, to the infamously beautiful Maramures area. On our way there, I pinned some objectives, let some room for improv and what came out was one week of reconnecting with nature, breathing fresh air, swimming in clean lakes and walking up and down green (and soon turning brown) mountains. Here´s where we went, what we loved most, what disappointed us, what we learned and how much it all cost.
Took me long enough, but this month´s #guestchefseries comes from my one and only mom. I´ve been waiting to post my mom´s magic polenta recipe for over a month now. During my trip to Romania last month I asked her to make it several times and thereby fell in love all over again with this dish that so thoroughly influenced my childhood. If you didn´t know that already, polenta is an instrumental part of our culture as Romanian. It´s a humble, yet versatile dish , that despite its simplicity not many youngsters dare to make. And so I thought I´d share my mom´s recipe of what we in my family call “gâscã” or “goose” – polenta with sour cream and cheese. Easy as a #homemadeMonday morning. Note: my mom likes to make it extra creamy so it looks almost like a soup. I personally think that´s one of her secrets. Bonus: pictures of Didi, our basset hound eyeing the deliciousness.
If you´re reading this, I bet your first question is: how did she come up with the young angst theme? Well, as always, it kind of came to me. I actually intended this month´s book club to be dedicated to Romanian authors. I started off with a classic – Romanul adolescentului miop and quickly finished it in the Frankfurt airport on my way to Romania. Once in Romania, I intended to read some more classics, but then life happened. I raided my best friend´s grandma´s library and took home no less than 29 novels that I cannot wait to read. And while there were plenty Romanian once, I actually decided to start reading Colette´s End of Chéri. Just when I thought I had broken the theme, I realised I had stumbled upon another. Both novels explored young angst – the first, of a teenager who won´t quite fit in at school, the second of a youngster that won´t find love and fit in with women his age. I loved both books and sped through them super fast, so I am a bit confused about how I didn´t get to read more books this month, but I am determined to catch up in the upcoming cold months. In the meantime, here´s what I thought about the two books I read in September.
I truly believe that no food, no matter how many Michelin stars on it, quite compares to our grandmas´ recipes. So when my best friend, Flavia, discovered her grandmother Nana´s plum dumpling recipe, written on a yellowing piece of paper in the back of her recipe book, we decided she just had to try it out and if we were going to be happy with the result, we´d share it with you. Flavia slightly tweaked the recipe and as such we can no longer call it Nana´s Plum Dumplings. It has become, even if she´s no longer here to taste it, Flavia and Nana´s Plum Dumplings recipe. And while we´re quite big in Romania on plum dumplings (my Instagram is full of them lately!) – these are no doubt, the best I have ever had. My friend Flavia is a master baker and runs a super colourful food account with her friend Sabina where she also posted the recipe in Romanian there, find them on Instagram at @povesti.aromate . So without further ado, this #homemadeMonday ´s #guestchefseries brings you the most phenomenal Romanian dessert of all.
This #homamadeMonday´s #guestchefseries brings you the most Romanian food ever – eggplant salad. The way my friend Adina learned it from her mom, who learned it from her own mom. And while usual eggplant salats are quite fatty due to the mayonnaise, this one is a healthier version with egg yolk instead. Essentially, the Romanian eggplant salad is a smokey spread that we love eating on bread all year long. It might not be the first thing you think of when picturing brunch, but I feel it´s a spread that is right up there with hummus, so I catalogued it as brunch food and made it part of my #brunchseries . It´s not my favourite dish, but its cultural value to Romania is so significant that I just had to share it with you. That, and it was tons of fun having Adina teach me and Sara how to make it.