Moldova has come to have such a multi-faceted identity, it seems it hardly has one at all.
It would be a shame to pretend we haven\'t all been stewing in one and the same pot for centuries..
There will be humble as well as richly luxurious Moldovan dishes, including Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Jewish, Roma and Gagauzian cuisine.
Get ready for recipes to cook in spring, summer or winter, for fasting or feasting (in Orthodox Christianity, fasting involves a vegan diet rather than not eating at all), for remembrance, in memory of our grandparents, and for reveries.
Expect aromas, sweet scents, forgotten tastes gathered from the smoke furnaces of peasants and the scented notebooks of some gentlewoman, prudently seeking refuge abroad.
You will find cherdele, larzanci, pit-cooked mutton roast, alivenci, beetroot leaf pies, covrigei opariti, hams, scordole, iahnii, game, chisalite, cutcut, reduced borscht with hatmatuchi and drehlita, raw egg pies, gozleme, ghevreci, cnisuri, kiur, cozonac and other babe, all generously splashed with noble wines, bragi, cherry liqueurs, steaming tuica, as the case may be.
In it, you\'ll find places worth seeing, experiencing and discovering, uncomplicated and worthwhile people, as well as chefs respectful of all that is authentic.
It\'s a sentimental looking glass which we hope you\'ll enjoy.
That is the straightforward message of the book you\'re holding in your hands.
So, let\'s take the time to come to know ourselves, to understand our nature and just what "this" entails.
Ultimately, while we may not like ourselves, we can at least accept that this is who we are.
Moldovans celebrate Christmas twice, open the champagne bottle at different times on New Year\'s Eve, when "mom\'s" homemade traditionaldishes and sarmale share the podium with the Soviet Olivier salad.
A11 at once living in the 215t century and the Middle Ages, it\'s torn between East and West, without ever choosing a side.
Proud of its history, though often unacquainted with the names of its own ancestors.
Conservative, yet always willing to embrace anything coming from abroad and consider it superior.
Nostalgic, yet oblivious.
Constantly mislaid between the terms conquered and liberated.
Rich, yet not making the most of its bounty.
Warm, sentimental, despite being its own merciless critic.
Moldova has come to have such a multi-faceted identity, it seems it hardly has one at all
