It's All Pretty Nasty

Way too much fun at Balthazar

Well, I haven’t posted that much about the food in Romania (other than the sack of milk and gogoasa) and I asked Marya what I should write about it. I think her answer of “it’s all pretty nasty” sums it up. This week has been our worst as far as food “mishaps” go. On Monday, we decided to order pizza from a local delivery place. We asked for tomatoes, chicken, onions and peppers. When we opened the lid, the chicken wasn’t in chunks, but shredded. Ok, no big deal. Then we took a bite. It was TUNA. For all those who don’t know, I despise tuna. It’s totally gross. My roommates don’t like it either. According to Marya, it’s not meant for human consumption.

Then, there’s the shoarma. With Arabic influences, it’s like a wrap stuffed with meat (usually pork), potatoes, and pickles and then loaded with condiments (mayonnaise, ketchup, some cole-slawy type thing with cabbage). The first time I tried one at a street vendor near work, I wasn’t too impressed. I just kind of ate around the middle. Then one day we decided to get a burger from a street vendor and same deal, they put all that gunk on it. I ate it, but it still wasn’t very good. I think I’ll avoid the shoarma for the remainder of my stay.

Ketchup on pizza? Of course! Why would I want to eat a pizza that already has tomato sauce and tomatoes on it without ketchup? I mean, it just wouldn’t be complete. Yes, in Romania, you must specify that you would like your pizza WITHOUT ketchup or else it will be lathered or drizzled with good old Heinz. Yummy.

Friday night we decided to check out Balthazar, an Asian/French fusion restaurant. I wore sneakers because of the snow/ice, but upon arrival, I felt super underdressed. Oh well, nothing I could do about it. The décor was the nicest I’ve seen so far in Romania. I ordered a tasty (albeit strong) Pina Colada and some sort of Malaysian chicken dish. The chicken turned out to be kind of fatty, but still tasty. We decided to order desert, and out came…the spoons. With the longest handles I’ve ever seen, we had quite a bit of fun keeping ourselves amused during the 20 minutes it took to get our dessert. It was like Props in Who’s Line. We made antlers, swords, wands (think Harry Potter) and my personal favorite, bug eyes as seen above. We even tried to hang them from our nose.

While the food isn’t the best I’ve ever had and definitely not what I’m used to, it doesn’t matter because we’re having a blast.