Sarmale with Sibiu Saxons

...and other stories of Translyvania

Last week, on one-day stop-over in Sibiu on my way to join a group of botanical artists studying the wildflower meadows of the Saxon villages (of which more later) the cafes that surround the vast central square were preparing for the influx of summer tourists.

The Saxons of Sibiu, a vigorous community of middle-class urbanites in Transylvania whose ancestors settled in what was known as Hermannstadt in the twelfth century, did well for themselves after Romania's entry into the EU in 2007 and Sibiu, owing to its well-preserved and remarkable handsome architecture, was declared that year’s European Center for Culture.

As a result of its new world-famous status, the town scrubbed itself up, transformed itself and its churches (seven denominations clustered round the two central squares, if I remember rightly from my first visit in 1982) into paying propositions (kiosks, tickets, exhibitions), invited Romanian and European chefs and international journalists (including me) and turned itself into a major tourist destination.

Last week, however, inquiries as to the whereabouts of the Saturday market (I’d forgotten where it was, owing to the complete re-organisation of the upper town into what patrolling police-persons described as a non-residential area) delivered a choice of the local Carrefour Express or the possiblility of an out-of-town Lidl.

World importance does not include much of what matters to the inhabitants, such as vegetables. It being early in the growing season, produce featured spring onions, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cabbage, imported bananas and oranges; delicate bundles of elderflowers (for syrup); big bundles of camomile-daisies and bags of dried lime-blossom (for infusions). 

Small covered shops on the perimeter (Transylvania is more than capable of sudden fierce thunder-storms) offer fritters as market-snacks, fresh curd-cheese (sheep or cow’s, fresh or smoked, sold cut from the piece); fresh meat (lamb, young beef, pork, prosciutro, lardo, sausage) and large white loaves (round, uniform in size and shape, sold whole or quartered) with a surprisingly elastic crumb and a deep soft crust.

Wild-gatherings sold in the unofficial corner of the market: tiny wild strawberries (dry-fleshed, delicately sweet), wild bilberries (no bigger than a baby’s finger-nail), fairy-ring mushrooms (to be dried for soups), tarragon in vinegar (popular among the Saxons as a seasoning for stews), rose-petal jam, wild-flower honey, tomato and chilli relish, ready-grated horseradish, young fir-cones (for pickling), fir-tassels (for syrup - good for soothing a summer cold).

Notes from 1985: Food was strictly rationed by the Soviet authorities in the towns and cities of their dependent nations.  Collectivisation, however, did not apply to the shepherding communities of the Carpathians, Romania’s wild and beautiful mountain heartland - not least because the inhabitants had a reputation for vigorous resistance to the tax-man, whether Roman, Turk or Russian. In the mountains, the villagers lived much as they had for centuries, keeping pigs and chickens, stocking their own store-cupboards with preserved fruits and vegetables, cheese and maize to feed the barnyard animals through the winter. Home-distilled white brandy prepared with plums, suica - very potent - was stocked in the cellar along with the barrled up sauerkraut used in the making of the festive sarmale, cabbage rolls stuffed with rice - a luxury that couldn't be grown but was paid for with sheep’s cheese, brinza, a white-curd cheese matured in whole scraped out sheepskins. The preparation of sarmale takes skill and patience and much sharing of recipes, it being undeniable that everyone’s mother makes the best sarmale. Prepared in enormous quantities for a festival, sarmale are good on the first day, better still on the third. Everyone lends a hand, neat-fingered children particularly welcome, giving their mothers and grandmothers, aunts and cousins, a chance to discuss family events of the previous year.  On the Eve, the men of the household patrol the parameters with guns, firing random shots into the darkness to discourage evil spirits who roam the earth on the eve of important feast-days.

p.s. beloved paid-subscribers (you know who you are!) will shortly be in receipt of a couple of traditional Saxon recipes as served in the Lutheran canteen in Sibiu.

p.p.s. next time: into the wildflower meadows of Transylvania.