As the territory where is now Romania has been inhabited for smaller or larger periods of time by many migrating peoples, the Romanians borrowed few food secrets from all traditions. If you add to these the unique character of the ancient Latin food culture, the ancestors of Romanians, you will obtain a full picture of the nowadays food that is served in Romanian restaurants.

Pork is the preferred type of meet in Romania, but you can request also beef, lamb or fish as they are also popular between people. Romanian tradition tells that each Christmas must be celebrated with pork dishes and each Easter with lamb dishes. Christmas pork foods includes "carnati" (home made spicy sausages), "caltabosi" (sausages made from heart, liver and lung), "jumari" (melted fat), "piftie" (pork feet and ears aspic), "toba" (mix of pork head meat, heart and kidneys wrapped in pork stomach), all kind of pork stakes and of course "sarmale" (cabbage rolls with pork meat) which are best served with "mamaliga" (polenta) and a hot pepper.

For the Easter, the most important celebration of the Orthodox Christians, Romanian tradition tells that a lamb should be slaughtered. Therefore most of the Easter dishes are based on lamb meat. Most known are the "drob" (a mix of lamb organs with eggs and some greens wrapped in a lamb peritoneum), "ciorba de miel" (salt lamb soup) and lamb steaks. Beside all of these there is no Easter meal without the dyed eggs. And for the desert "pasca" (a sort of cheese pie) and "cozonac" (sweet bread with nuts).

You can not visit Romania without trying the famous "mititiei". In free translation "the little ones", "mititei" are basically meatballs that are made from minced meat, mixed beef with pork and even lamb. The minced meat then gets mixed with herbs like garlic, black pepper, savory and paprika. It gets molded in the shape of a meatball and then it gets grilled. "Mititei" works very good garnished with chips and mustard and for drinking a cold beer.

The most well known drink in Romania is "tuica". It is a distilled drink made usually from plums, but is made also from pears, apples, apricots and even grapes. It has an alcohol level of between 35 and 40%, but has also a more stronger version, double distilled, which is called "palinca" with a level of alcohol around 60%. Both are home made, so the best is to buy "tuica" and "palinca" directly from the villagers, but you can find them also bottled in the stores.

Romania is well known also for its wines. There are several vineyards spread over the country territory. You can taste sweet, dry, semidry and even liqueurous wines. Most representative vineyards are Cotnari, Murfatlar, Dealul Mare and Tarnave.

In Romania you can find also a rich variation of sparkling waters. There are several resorts with springs of mineral carbonated and bicarbonated waters and in most of them the water is bottled and spread in all the stores from the country.