Pleasure
One might think that all men desire pleasure because they all aim at life (…). Pleasure completes (…) life, which they desire (…). But whether we choose life for the sake of pleasure or pleasure for the sake of life is a question we may dismiss for the present. For
Everyone's Cuisine - The Watchdog Of Gastronomy
For well over one year, since I and the retiring actor Stelian Nistor marketed our tee-vees to see the magazine Everybody's Cuisine through the press, our peers, notably those at The Catzavencu Academy, never fail to cheek me: You meatball-journalist, recipe commentator,
Thoughts About A Possible History Of Gaster's Presence In Romanian Literature
In White Moor by Ion Creangă, the Rabelais-tinged philosophy of Gaster (the Belly), (Mikhail Bakhtin) represents one of the tests the main character has to pass in order to marry the daughter of the Red Emperor. As in any fairy-tale, be it in its cultivated variant, nothing
Lent
In General Ionescu's garden, the April dusk brought a harsh wind and sprayed dust in the horizon like a bluish mist, spreading heaps of apricot tree flowers over the fresh vegetable beds. Ion, the general's first orderly, in charge of sweeping the flowers laid
Mămăligă With Potatoes
*8-10 large potatoes, 1 bowl corn meal, salt. Peel and dice potatoes, then bring them to a boil in lightly salted water. When done, mash with a whisk and add the corn meal gradually, stirring continuously. Bring mixture to a boil and let simmer a bit, still stirring. When
The Story Of Romanian Gastronomy
excerpt With this, we can consider that the era of medieval, traditional cuisine was over and the modern Romanian cuisine begins. In the same year the young Miclescu couple went on their honeymoon – 1880, the first Romanian cookbook with Latin characters was printed.
Today's Menu
To readers of Rabelais' followers and lobster-thermidor buffs, la joie de vivre Romanian-style may contain a smack of garlic too much. Although, in all the historical provinces, each under a different rule and influence throughout the Middle Ages and even later, gastronomic
Editor's Note - Memento Vivere
It seems almost provocative to launch such an issue on the local pleasures, pastimes and delights, while nowadays a troublesome Romania appears as plunged into unending economic and social difficulties, striving to cope with various shortcomings and weaknesses. However,
Woolen Gardens
European travelers such as Antonio Maria del Chiaro were struck long time ago by the uncommon abundance of woolen carpets in each Romanian home, be it aristocratic, bourgeois or peasant. Carpets were laid mainly onto the walls of the rooms, but they also covered the beds,
The Legend Of Saint Friday
The legend is part of the martyr-cycle and it contains fairy tale elements (the dragons), which is not unusual in hagiography, as shown in the last chapter. It was copied by the parson Grigore from Mahaciu before 1600 after an original that has been lost. It is still preserved
A Last Judgment That Lacks Heaven
The relevance of iconography for the study of the history of mentalities has been uncontested in the Western cultural space for the last few decades. The seminars organized in Aix-en-Provence on the relationship between iconography and the history of mentalities as far back
The Funeral Maple
excerpts The cosmic tree, whose root, trunk and branches uphold – by dividing yet uniting – the three cosmic levels, is the same as the funeral tree, because, to the folk mentality, the cosmic tree is the only passageway to the other realm that the soul of the dead