Re: [Cz-L] Mamaliga

We should rename Andrew's letter "Ode to Mamaliga".
Can you get Brinza de Braila in Canada? Does anyone know of a source of it
in the US?
I never asked for mamaliga in my many visits to Romania, but I ate excellent
mamaliga, both with Shmetane and with mushrooms in Wiznitz. Not too far if
you visit Czernowitz.

Mimi

On 10/4/09 10:43 PM, "Andrew Halmay" <venivici_at_rogers.com> wrote:

> When you have mamaliga mit schmetten, don't forget the Brinza de Braila.  In
> North America they lump it with Greek Feta (same thing - ewe's milk cheese) 
> Occasionally you can switch to Kashkaval which is also from sheep's milk but
> has a different taste - not as easy to find. 
>
> In California I kept a large garden and was plagued by snails and slugs. 
> Someone told me to "harvest" them and put them in a box with corn meal. In a
> few days they were good to eat as Escargot. The snails ate the  cornmeal and
> it cleaned them out which then made them safe to eat. Not for me, though. 
> However, the idea of corn meal (Mamaliga) cleaning us out was an inspiring
> thought which prompted me to have mamaliga much more often.   
>
> I visited Romania in 1994 - the first visit since leaving in '39 - and stayed
> with a Romanian filmmaker in Bucuresti. "Now that I'm here," I said, "we have
> to have some Mamaliga!"  "Ah, Mamaliga," said he as if I had referred to a
> long forgotten, deceased relative. He hadn't had it in years. I tried half a
> dozen shops before I found one that actually had a little bit in a sack. And
> it was in very poor shape.  We had to sieve it over and over again to clean it
> out.  I suspect that in his effort to distance the country from its peasant
> image, Ceausescu discouraged peasant food which is what Mamaliga was.
>
> Italy's version, Polenta, is now available in a plastic casing in many food
> stores. It looks like a yellow sausage in that form.  It's ready to slice and
> heat up or fry.  But I still like to make it from scratch. It's more heymish
> that way.
>
> Before the war, little Romania grew more corn than all of Canada but I'm
> afraid that today a lot of Romanian youngsters never heard of the heavenly
> food called Mamaliga.
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Received on 2009-10-05 11:44:09