I like to think of myself as a bit of a foodie, but after this first week in Romania, I know that I have a lot to learn about appreciating food. At home we don’t really eat our meals in courses, except on very special occasions. We just eat to eat. Of course we like our food to taste good, but we don’t really take time to enjoy the individual flavors and how they come together. Here in Romania, you start with a soup. That’s something I had to learn, though. At one lunch we were presented with several soups to sample, so we filled up on the soups. And then they brought out salads and we started eating those, but were quickly stopped by our Romanian friends who, after laughing, told us that the salad was meant to be eaten with the main course. This presented another problem: the soup wasn’t the main course?!?!
I then learned a useful trick: check your silverware. If there is just a spoon, then soup is your main course. Just a fork? No soup. Fork and spoon? Prepare yourself because there will be soup and potentially salad, a main course, and dessert.
Also, bread is supposed to be eaten with soup. Or at least with the main course, not as an appetizer. Who knew?!
Oh and back to salad being eaten with the main course: you should sort of alternate eating salad and main course, because it helps with digestion, and just makes everything better.
These are just a few of the things I’ve learned about food, or rather the art of eating food, and I’ve also learned so much about agriculture and life in general, but that’s a story for another time.
