Today Romania celebrates the first day of the new school year. Slutty chic is de rigueur among the students. Some teachers' unions are on strike, which they are every year around this time. My parents tell me that my high school, the foremost in the school district, has been completely made over, outfitted with granite and marble and the like. The money came from, you've guessed it, the district administration, i.e. the taxpayers. And also, in case you were wondering, no addition has been made to the school library or labs. The money was used exclusively to purchase luxurious fixtures. Oh, dear God...
So let's talk about the food, which is ghastly. The paradoxical thing is that the raw materials available, though not numerous, are good quality. Pork, chicken and beef are plentiful, as are dairy products and mainly pork-based deli meats, vegetables are fairly seasonal and consist of potatoes, squash, eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, carrots, celery and lettuce and fruits range from the locally produced, such as apples, plums, apricots, peaches and pears to the imported, such as bananas and citrus fruit. Romanians, however, suffer from a chronic inability to cook. They resent to mix things. Their idea of a meal is a chunky piece of meat, boiled, broiled or fried with some onions, served with potatoes, or minced meat, gristle and fat grilled, served with potatoes, or bean or cabbage soup, adventurous additions to which are are paprika and black pepper. Pasta is not eaten very often and rice is mainly used in soups. Vegetables are used sparingly, usually one vegetable to complement a meat dish, such as stuffed peppers. Dishes are usually greasy -- the cooking oil of choice is sunflower oil.
Fundamentally, it is a matter of taste. They like things plain, very plain. Which is not so surprising, given the fact that they have had to deal with extreme scarcity over the past 50 years, when one had to manage food very carefully lest one should starve. But still, it is a damn shame.