Jewish Romanian Food

Minna Barrett, psychology professor and granddaughter of Yiddish actor David Baratz, talks about traveling to Hungary and Romania and realizing the similarities to the food her grandmother cooked.
To learn more about the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project, visit: www.yiddishbookcenter.org/tell-your-story

[@MichaelButchin]

LOL! My father had a similar experience with gulyas: Our family of course makes gulyas, but more or less kosher. My father had a friend at work, whom it turned out, was also Hungarian, and it wasn't long before he was invited to his house for dinner. Attila's mother had asked my father what his favourite Hungarian food was, and so of course he told her gulyas. But when it was finally served, he didn't recognize it because it was made with so much cream! Of course, we always kept milcha separate from fleischig. (Our gulyas made its gravy from a reduction of potato and onion, rather than using sour cream. Also, no noodles; we used cabbage leaves.)

[@stanciuflorin5328]

Love from România!

[@gretchengoldstein6118]

Dear Romania Pitoreasca (Sorry, however, my US type does not have the Romanian accent marks). It is about pork in the East for Christians. But, for Muslims (I assume only, not being of that food culture) and Jews who lived in the East in Europe prior to being annihilated by Nazi's and their sympathizers, for Jews it was about food that did not include pork. There are many subcultures in countries in Europe and Eastern Europe as these were and continue to be, crossroads nations. Recognizing the habits and needs of minorities in majority countries is always a struggle. Notice that the label on the TH-cam clip states that the clip is about Jewish Romanian Foods not about Romanian dominant culture foods. Even though the food is made without pork, much of the style and taste of the foods I ate were "Romanian" in approach if the parent or grandparent was raised there. Pickles, sour milk or cream, head cheese, chicken stewed, dumplings, and so forth, and my personal favorite, Romanian Tenderloin, served all over New York City, and for Jewish Romanians and Hungarians, this would have very little if anything to do with pork in the 1890's. It is not an attempt to bury your dominant or majority Romanian culture, but to highlight the realities of the Jewish heritage in Eastern Europe and might I state, particularly Jewish Romanian culture that my grandparents brought with them to the US and to express my personal experience with the culture passed down to me as a descendant of Easter European Jewish folk, who often were required to hide their practices and needs in those lands. I can not speak to the particulars of Muslim food habits in Eastern Europe, merely to the Jewish experiences of Eastern European culture that all four of my grandparents brought with them to the US. And I do it with great joy and with the sense of love that my grandmother had for me as she made sure to let us experience the food of her childhood, which she cooked with such care and such enthusiasm. All minority people's tend to keep parts of their heritage and religious customs with them as they move or are forced to immigrate to other places, but, they typically also integrate the cultural aspects of and they come to "inherit" in the new lands because those qualities are important for survival and because they are part of the culture that the immigrant is required (and in the case of my grandparents, was easily learned) to learn. In addition, I was explaining how exciting it was to be in Romania and to see how the Romanian food resembled much of what my grandmother cooked to pease her husband. I was in Romania in 1973, a long time ago,. I saw the police on every corner and the difficulties of poverty and Cucesceau (Not sure of the spelling?). Nonetheless, I feel in love with the cities and countryside and was able to get some feeling for the hardships and experiences of my grandfather, the actor and the working men and women of the 70's in Romanian. I came back with a deeper love for the cultural elements my grandmother tried to provide to her qute Americanized second generation grandchildren.

[@likex8898]

Beautiful România

[@robertocatalan3229]

Ro is part Jewish and the Jewish people's and culture are part of România 🇷🇴 .