Expat In Romania

The guy on TV is saying, " you're doing something that nobody else is doing, and that's special! " I'm watching Guy Fieri take another trip to flavour town with his iconic food porn series, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives ('Triple D'). A guest on the show, speaking to the head chef as Fieri looms, is raving about the chef's creativity. He is telling the chef how important it is for customers to get something different while Guy, smiling benignly like a peroxide headed Buddha, is no doubt thinking about what a great job he's got, or maybe about how this show will be the death of him. "Looks like nobody in this country got the memo." I tell my wife. 'Different', as a concept, is rarely revered in Romania. More often than not, it is vilified. On the other hand the 'me-too' culture is just out of this world. When I first moved here, every restaurant served pizza. If there had been a burger joint around at the time, it too ...

This is a topic I've discussed enthusiastically in my social life but I've yet to write about it. Most likely because it sits deceptively under that part of life we classify as "mundane". For hundreds of years farmers have brought in their fresh produce to various markets in nearby cities and towns. Most cities in Romania have one, or more, Piata agro-alimentare . They were there before supermarkets ever existed. Years ago, they were out in the open, but nowadays they are mostly found in large warehouse-type buildings with zero amenities other than the stalls on which the produce is displayed. Four things you will notice at the Piata : 1. The produce is not usually shiny, but that's because it's not been waxed. 2. It's not picture-perfect, but that's because mother-nature isn't a photographer. 3. Prices are low because you're not paying any third parties for shipping. 4. The seasons are relevant (ie. no cherries in Fall/Winter/Spring). It...

We left Cluj on a very damp Friday evening. The bus was supposed to leave at 8pm but it didn't arrive at the station until 8:15pm. Fashionably late, aka: Romanian Time. Roxana and I were lucky to get the two seats across the aisle from each other, it was a full-house otherwise. It wasn't a bad trip, but what sucked big-time was that the bus smelled as thought it was made out of a giant air freshener, the kind you hang up on the car's rear-view mirror. My brain was nauseated but otherwise we made it out fine after three hours of driving up and down serpentine roads in the fog. Ionuţ and his dad picked us up from the bus station in Baia Mare and took us home. It's worthy of note that up until a week before I'd never spoken to Ionuţ. Life has a funny way of bringing people together. A friend from Toronto put us in touch to discuss an initiative being carried out by a Romanian students association -of which Ionuţ is vice-president of development. We met to talk about ...

Note: This is a 2016 update to the post originally written in 2012.  Back in 2012, Toulouse was the only place in town to serve a halfway decent hamburger. How things have changed. There's been a veritable burger revolution and you'll be hard pressed to find bistro-style restaurants that don't offer the king of sandwiches. There are also several new, and very good, additions to the city's fine dining roster. But maybe the most positive change is in the market itself. Patrons have become more discerning about their options, there is a deeper appreciation for consistency, and, as a result, restaurants have responded with an elevated level of service and quality overall. But there's still no authentic Mexican... So, with no particular order in mind, let's get into it, shall we? Via - The simple name denotes understated excellence. At least that's how I look at it now. Over the past couple of years, Via has cemented itself as one of my favour...

This weekend I found out I'm bipolar. I don't know if it's the kind of thing people generally self-diagnose, but it is what it is. All of Saturday I ate American. I was excited about it. The local grocery store promotes a different world cuisine each week and last week was American Week. I bought beef burgers, burger buns, pancake mix, Caesar dressing, and some sort of wing sauce. These are all things I haven't eaten in a while -either because they don't really exist here or when they do, it's some sort of a bootleg version of the dish. I'm in the nightmare situation where 'a good burger' in this city is found at McDonald's. Anyway, I made the pancakes for breakfast and we ate them with butter and maple syrup (an earlier souvenir from Canada), and then at night it was burger time. Yum!  I guess the eating is one thing, but there was also something akin to the pleasure one gets from visiting an old friend. In fact, I was excited to be able to ...