Moldova

Yelp reviewers, wishing and hoping for a Moldovan restaurant, have led me to three quite different restaurants in California, the first one Russian, the second Belarusian, and the third Romanian. At first I thought they were all wrong, but I learned Russia and Romania have each attracted Moldova since its independence in 1991. I also learned from the Belarusian chef that this region of Europe (which according to him is incorrectly called Eastern Europe, a map will show it as central) has similarities in food and culture and he would like to attract the entire community. So yes, I tried each restaurant and then I cooked. I’ll outline this culinary journey as well as recommending some good books and music. As an entirely new adventure for me, Moldova has been one of my favorites to travel while staying at home.

I started the great hunt for a Moldovan restaurant with Vonnett last October at Pushkin Russian Restaurant in San Diego. Not only had a Yelp reviewer said it was like Moldova, but also Alexander Pushkin was exiled to Moldova due to his poem “Ode to Liberty” and he reportedly started his novel in verse Eugene Onegin there (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23997). The server at the restaurant wasn’t aware of the Moldova connection. The closest item on the menu was Ukrainian salo (pork fat) with horseradish, mustard, onion, pickles and fried potatoes. I wasn’t quite up to that, so I ordered the Olivie with chicken (a Russian potato salad), and the Swan Lake (baked cod with mashed potatoes, carrots, lemon butter cream sauce and red caviar). Vonnett wanted the winter rabbit but they were out, so she settled for the Moscow duck with baby potatoes, asparagus, green pea purée and black currant sauce. The meal came with Armenian rye bread and whipped butter with dill. We finished with the delicious many layered honey cake that I had decided was too complicated to make while looking at Lithuanian recipes. As a tour through the former Soviet republics, I felt a faint association with Moldova.

I tried again for a Moldovan restaurant based on a Yelp review when my parents, siblings, and I celebrated Dad’s birthday in December at Café Europa in San Francisco. The Belarusian chef served us borsch, mizeria cucumber salad, beef stroganoff, pierogi with cabbage and mushrooms, Silesian potato dumplings in mushroom sauce, chicken schnitzel, German egg noodles, and spaetzle with eggs and onions. I’ve seen several of these items online in lists of Moldovan food, but when my mom said this is her favorite of all the international meals we’ve tried, I wasn’t surprised. Her German heritage was also well served here.

My third try for a Moldovan restaurant based on a Yelp review was the Dunarea restaurant in Anaheim. It is Romanian, a country right next door to Moldova with very similar food. I ate there with Gladys, Erika, Joanie, and Laurie two weeks ago. We started with the Dobos and Amadine desserts (Joanie loves to start with desserts before we are too full to enjoy them). Then we ordered five different appetizers that were brought out on a beautiful platter: the pickled salad, polenta with feta and sour cream, deep fried Kaskaval cheese, sautéed mushrooms, and eggplant salad. The next platter held the entrees: lamb pastrami, chicken schnitzel, and salmon, served with rice pilaf and mashed potatoes. Then we had another dessert, the Romanian fried cheese donut. We took two and a half hours to eat as we ordered each course after the previous one and everything seemed to be made fresh.

I felt like we were very close to Moldova with the Romanian meal, but not quite there, so I cooked for Andrea and Kaitlin on Thursday and was finally satisfied that we had arrived. We had:

· Mamaliga, polenta served with grated cheese and sour cream. Kaitlin and I are huge fans! https://nomadparadise.com/mamaliga-recipe/

· Herb, mushroom, and rice stuffed peppers, which took twice as long to make as the recipe said. We added some of the grated cheese and sour cream from the mamaliga and they were perfect. http://www.romanianfoodrecipes.com/recipe/herb-mushroom-rice-stuffed-peppers-ardei-umpluti-cu-orez-si-ciuperci

· Cuşma lui Guguţă, a dessert made with cherries in crepes smothered in cream and grated chocolate and then sliced through like a cake. It was beautiful and delicious! https://euneighbourseast.eu/young-european-ambassadors/blog/cusma-lui-guguta-or-gugutas-hat-moldovas-traditional-dessert/

The biggest argument I have ever seen in a book group started over a book set in Moldova. The Power by Naomi Alderman imagines a world where women develop the capacity to electrocute. As the balance of power in the world shifts, some women begin to do things that abusive men have done in the past. Half the women in my book group thought this was horrible – women would never abuse their power! The other half, including me, thought it was well developed social commentary and yes, we might have known some women who abused their power. I enjoyed the book, and I loved the discussion.

I also found a recently published non-fiction book, A Year In Moldova, A Year Of Discovery by Roberta Gubbins on Hoopla. This 65-year-old lawyer spent a year providing legal education such as advocacy skills in Moldova. I enjoyed reading about the things that caught her attention such as customs, business etiquette, art, and the legend of how Moldova was named after a beloved dog.

During the time of Stalin, Russian was the official language of Moldova. Alexei Mateevici’s poem Poetii Nostri (Our Language) became a lasting touchpoint for the promotion of Moldovan language and history: https://poetii-nostri.ro/alexei-mateevici-our-language---alexei-mateevici-translation-63/

One of the best things I watched on Moldova is Code Girl. It documents a competition in which high school girls have three months to design an app that solves a problem in their community. The team from Moldova is one of those highlighted. It can be found both on Kanopy and here: https://tubitv.com/movies/492114/codegirl

Picking up some videos with dance, music, circus skills, and architecture from Moldova was fun:

· Traditional Folk Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl4eIgSmEcI

· Moldova Mea with Amelia & Valentin Uzun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFziuk5UO6o

· A whole concert with Valentin Uzun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0JxLpD9BVI

· Aerial Silk at the famous circus in Chisinau: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sU2KExZQr4

· Chisinau architecture via drone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzPjHMBL9n8

The Crazy Tourist shows some great places to visit in Moldova: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-moldova/#more-7845

These are all new to me and would be such an adventure! I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Moldova and throughout the world.

Photo Credit: Maria Lupan https://unsplash.com/photos/4UrF0fxutJs