Traditional Roma culinary art

“From the world gathered and back to the world data…” – from this principle came the idea of the culinary recipe book that brings together some of the traditional recipes specific to the Roma ethnic group.

Arta culinară romă a parcurs și ea, în ultimele câteva zeci de ani, drumul de la tradiție la modernitate, atât în ceea ce privește alimentele folosite, cât și modalitatea de preparare a acestora.

In the context of the nomadic life that the Roma led for several hundred years, the traditional gastronomy was by no means complex, being essentially based on meat cooked in various ways: “mas peko” (roast meat), “goia peke” (roast sausages ), “shah hai mas” (cabbage with meat), “shah hai goia” (cabbage with sausage), “bakrorro hăvitzasa” (mutton stew), most of them prepared in a cauldron, over a fire on pirostrii.

Along with the process of sedentarization of the Roma, the Roma gastronomy could not do anything but keep up with the modernization, assimilating elements from the kitchens with which the Roma came into contact, constantly adapting them according to the imagination of each housewife.

The culinary recipe we propose was born from field documentation (200 Roma people interviewed) of culinary practices in Roma families in the steppe area of Romania, with an emphasis on identifying traditional dishes, recipes inherited and used in present and wants to be an element that reflects the recent dynamics of Roma intangible heritage.

Te has ai te pias khetanes! („Let’s eat and drink together!”)

The culinary recipe can be consulted and downloaded by clicking on the following link click here