Zacusca and Telemea

Today I rediscovered a few of my favorite Romanian specialties. For lunch today I had a telemea and zacusca sandwich on fresh, "peasant" bread. My friend Nicole (a fellow intern at the Embassy) introduced me to zacusca last summer. It is a roasted eggplant dip full of spices, roasted peppers, maybe some tomatoes, and who knows what else. It's delicious. According to Nicole, the homemade variety is even better, but I have not been so lucky as to try it. That said, store-bought zacusca is nothing to sneeze at. Last summer when I had to pack my lunch every day, I discovered that pairing zacusca with telemea de oaie or sheep's milk cheese (it tastes kind of like a mild feta) made for a delicious sandwich.

I have not mastered the art of food photography as my friends Martha and Tom have, but I thought I'd include some pictures anyway, just to make the blog a little more interesting.



Zacusca!


Zacusca and telemea sandwiches in progress

In my first few days back in Bucharest, I have been rediscovering simple pleasures like this one. Hopefully I'll have some new adventures to report soon, but for now, it's just eggplant dip and sheep cheese.