Dining in Iasi.

Don't do it. No...really. Just give it up. The problem with eating out in Iasi consists of two problems. The first one is the food that is available, the second is the people who are cooking it.


First I should give you a brief rundown on traditional Romanian dishes. The list consists of the following:


1. That cheese that made me puked.
2. Ummm..and..ummm...


Okay, here's the problem, there are no Romanian traditional foods. They have dishes that they consider to be Romanian such as mamaliga (polenta, native american in origin, eaten by most of the world), sarmale (Turkish in origin, eaten in the most of the Mid-East, Turkey, Greece, Poland, Russia, etc,) Ciorba de Burta (the Turkish "İşkembe çorbası", known as tripe soup to the rest of the world.) I could go on and on, but when it comes to Romanian cuisine, most people just throw some shit in a pot and boil it... Here's the twist though, in the Romanian tradition of kissing the ass of the invaders, they leave out spices. Why? Because what happens if you throw some garlic and onions into your polenta and the Ottoman who is working up a hunger while raping your wife and daughter doesn't like garlic and onions? Aha! Clever Romanians decided to leave out spices so as not to offend their guests. Very clever.


So what the folks here have done is taken traditional foods found throughout most of the world and left out the spices. So if you see a plate of Sarmale and recognize it as your Polish grandmother's "Golabki ", don't be fooled, this is some bland imitation meant to lull your tastebuds into a coma. Due mostly to this tradition of just saying "Fuck the spices", most Romanians have never learned the proper usage of spices. So what do they do?

Open a restaurant. 

A perfect example is the pizza restaurant. Romanians are crazy about pizza, there must be a hundred places in Iasi alone. Order a pizza but don't be surprised when it arrives without sauce. Why? Because what if you don't like the sauce or maybe it's too sweet? Too spicy? So they give you the option of ordering a cup of sauce on the side. It's ketchup. No, really. They also offer the "spicy" variety that is just spicy ketchup. The shit is horrible. Eat the pizza without the sauce.

Never, NEVER, eat in a restaurant that serves "foreign" food (Mexican, Indian, Chinese, etc.) A restaurant owner will decide to open, say, a Chinese restaurant. Is he a Chinese chef? Has he ever eaten Chinese food? Can he find the ingredients? The spices? No, but that won't stop him from opening a Chinese restaurant. Btw, that's not a water chestnut in your stirfry, it's a potato. The owner didn't know what a water chestnut was, but saw a photo and thought since it looked like a potato, it must be a potato. I'm not joking.

There are a couple of decent places to eat in Iasi. All foreign-owned. Don't ever let anyone trick you into eating at a place that serves "Romanian" food. Never eat at a "foreign" restaurant owned by Romanians. 

Btw, Yes, that is coleslaw on your hamburger.