After my Flower Porn post, here comes the food porn post. I don't do this often and initially my plan was to do a restaurant review, but things changed when we got to the venue.
Sunday we had a big family day as we had a lot to celebrate. Three birthdays, two name days (yes, we have name days in my country and not only in my country) but first of all, International Women's Day as it was the 8th of March. It's a nice way to celebrate everything together and we do this every year.
Being the 8th of March, which is quite a bit event in my country, meaning people don't go crazy on gifts and celebrations, but you can expect restaurants to be fully booked in advance, which is why we made our reservation on Monday I believe.
When we arrived, the place was already packed, the terrace too, although it wasn't summer weather at all yet, and quite a few were waiting for a table to free up. Upon arrival, we were escorted to our table and a big bucket of water was placed on the table right away. Why? Because they say we brought flowers and they were ready to assure every single table has a bucket (nice, stylish one of course) or a vase as everyone was gifting flowers on Sunday.
When I saw the whole place is packed, knew I'm not going to be able to do a proper photo shoot about the venue, without violating some (many) people's privacy and looking like a Fb or TikTok idiot (I'm neither by the way), so the decision was made, I take photos of the dishes and that's all and that's what I did. This is why this post is a food porn post and not a review of the venue. Maybe next time.
After sitting down, we were handed the menu and before we could even decide what to have, the waiter lady brought us a glass of Proseco each, along with an appetizer, consisting in a piece of bruschetta (Italian toast) with cheese cream and a small portion of caviar, along with a piece of grape flanked by two cheese pieces. All on the house, for the special occasion. Honestly, we were not expecting anything, but were grateful for this nice gesture on their behalf.
Now let's get to business and let's start with the beer. As you may know, I hate beer, so these two bottles were not for me, but as these were kind of in front of me, could not ignore the labels. So many times I admire the beer posts on Hive, not because of the beer, but because of those lovely beer cans and then I see these really disappointing labels. They say the beer was really good and I know these two brands are widely liked, so all I can think of is that these labels have a connection with history, maybe these are the old, traditional labels. Anyway, let's move on to the dishes.
This soup, at first glance seems to be a pumpkin soup, but in fact it was a creamy vegetable soup, with pumpkin seeds.
I'm still on diet, so I had to be smart in choosing my menu and maybe it's not visible on the photo, but this is from the kid's menu 😂 Yes, I knew I have to watch my calorie intake on one hand and that I can't eat as much as restaurants serve these days. We all know portions are oversized and a single soup can knock my calorie intake off the chart. So shamelessly (I don't care what anyone thinks) I ordered a kid's soup. It was really good though and enough for me.
This was a tripe soup, which is a famous one in Romania and I would have had it as well, if it wasn't for the diet. Now, I suppose I would have had my stomach full with the soup alone.
This was a beef and vegetable soup, also very good and one of my favorites when I'm not on diet.
Pork knuckle with sauteed cabbage, a very good dish, but this exceeds my calorie intake approximately two or three times, co maybe one day I'll have half and take home half for next day.
Slightly spicy mixed meat stripes. Another dish I would like to try out, but they only have the spicy version, which is a no for me. Otherwise it would be perfect.
Specialty of the house, grilled chicken breast, mushrooms, chicken ham, cheddar cheese, cooking cream. This would also be a good choice for me, but it was huuuuuge. Maybe (most likely, or definitely) my stomach got smaller from the diet, but I know these portions are huge.
Smoked pork neck slices, with some sauce. Looked really good, so it's on my list for next time.
Before I go on to the dessert, I have a confession to make. Choosing my menu was not easy, but not because I could not resist temptation. Today we have the luxury to check the menu in advance and make a decision and that's exactly what I did. I had the chicken soup, which was good and plenty, even though it was just half portion. After that, I decided to go with a simple Wiener schnitzel, which is deep fried, but I only have it when eating out, which doesn't happen often. When I got the Wiener schnitzel and saw there were two bit schnitzels, knew I'm not going to be able to eat both and leave room for the dessert. So I had one with only a fresh cabbage salad. It was really good.
Ice cream with chocolate dressing and a hive designed something that looked plastic 😂 Ok, joking, it was really tasty and not plastic at all.
... aaaand, drum roll, dish I was here's the waiting for. It is called papanași, it's one of my favorites, but I'm only having it when eating out.
Papanași is a Romanian and Moldovan traditional fried or boiled pastry made from fresh-cheese (brânza proaspătă or urdă) dough. It is usually served topped with cream (smântână) and fruit confit.
All in all, it was a very nice day and the dishes were great. For me, it was a bit too much though as I could not eat anything all day after lunch.
Now let's see, what would you like from here? 😜
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