Romani cuisine is the cuisine of the ethnic Romani people. There is no specific "Roma cuisine"; it varies and is culinarily influenced by the respective countries where they have often lived for centuries. Hence, it is influenced by European cuisine even though the Romani people originated from the Indian subcontinent. Their cookery incorporates Indian and South Asian influences, but is also very similar to Hungarian cuisine. The many cultures that the Roma contacted are reflected in their cooking, resulting in many different cuisines. Some of these cultures are Middle European, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain. The cuisine of Muslim Romani people is also influenced by Balkan cuisine and Turkish cuisine. Many Roma do not eat food prepared by a non-Roma.[1]
Overview
Romani dishes are usually made hot and spicy with the use of spices, such as paprika, garlic and bell peppers. Stews are common.[2]Potatoes are also a staple in their diet. Another traditional dish cooked by Romani people is sarma, salmaia or sodmay, which is made from cabbage stuffed with meat and rice.[3] Romani people consume dishes consisting of stuffed peppers, especially on holidays and special occasions. Romani people also cook pufe (made from fried flour), xaritsa (fried cornbread), bogacha (baked bread) and xaimoko (a meal consisting of rabbit meat). They serve their meals with kafa (coffee) and chao (tea) with sugar and milk or fruits such as strawberries, peach slices, apple slices, or lemon.[4][5] There are several spicy Romani soups. Fusui eski zumi is a Romani butter bean soup often made with ham. Pertia is a soup made with jellied pig’s feet and pig’s ears. Romani stews are usually made with green and red peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, and some meat. There are a variety of paprikach stews in Romani cuisine that are not made with paprika. One Romani chicken paprikash is called puyo. Meat is often whole pig or lamb roasted on a spit for Romani rituals. Large hams and lamb steaks bought wholesale and barbequed with a Romani hot sauce called chile mole are also eaten at Romani feasts. The fat crust of ham is the Roma's favourite part of the meat. The Roma have their own method of making coffee and tea. Romani coffee is often boiled with the groats and often dipped off the top with a spoon. At Romani feasts, sarmi, meats, hot sauces, celery sticks (often eaten by the Roma for virility), salads, pirogo, saviako, and a stew or two are usually served and eatened. Only at a pomana feast Romani people serve fruit put on the table.[6]
Some itinerant European Romani people cook hedgehog stew.[7] Game animals and birds such as rabbits, hares, quails and partridge are consumed by the Roma. Snails are also consumed.[8] Snail soup and pig stomach are Romani delicacies. Bread form an essential part of any meal. Romani food is cooked outdoors in cauldrons atop a wooden flame.[9] Romani cuisine is also, often of necessity, inexpensive and cheap to prepare and uses portable ingredients. Thus, beef and pork are rare inclusions, while chicken and lamb and goat or wild birds and game are the preferred proteins by the Roma. Potato, peppers, cabbage and rice are often the building blocks in Romani cuisine. Rabbit stew is made with rabbit meat, innards, bacon and onions.[10] The Roma consume roasted apples, almond cakes, clay-baked hedgehog and trout, snails in broth, and fig cakes as a snack. Baked hedgehog is flavored with garlic.[11] The hedgehog dish is called hotchi-witchi or niglo, in Romani. The hedgehog is wrapped in clay and placed on white-hot stones. When the roasting is done, the prickles attached to the clay are pulled off and the hedgehog dish is served wrapped in leaves.[12] Other Romani dishes are nettle soup, sour cherry borsch and borsch.[13]
The use of red pepper in some traditional Romani dishes is influenced by the Rajputs.[14]
Due to the lack of Romanipen and assimilation to Turkish culture and Islam as religion, Turkish Roma eat chicken and eggs and have their own special recipe for it which is well-known in Turkey[15]
Nomadic Roma collect young nettles in the spring.[16]
Coffee is a prized drink among Romani people. Wild fruit, berries, leafy plants and small animals formed the bulk of Romani people's diet.[19]
Desserts
A traditional Romani dessert is pirogo, which is similar to Jewish kugel. The recipe consists of eggs, raisins, walnuts, pineapple, sugar, butter, egg noodles and cottage cheese.[20]
Szaloncukor is a Romani dessert that is fastidiously mixed flour and sugar and made the dough into shapes like sugar cookies, then they are baked, wrapped, and hunged on a tree by the Roma until January 6st for the feast of the Epiphany.
The Roma also have own version of wheat pudding for Christmas. After husking wheat, soaking the berries in water, warming them in an oven, and smashing the soft hulls with tools that were available, Romani cooks put the pudding through a sieve, then mixed the remaining gelatinous substance with milk, flour, and eggs, and then they sweetened it with honey, sugar, or molasses. The Roma also added dried fruits, cream, butter, and homemade rum or brandy to the pudding. Romani bakers place a token of good luck which is often a silver coin in a loaf of sweet Christmas bread or cake. Romani tradition has it that whoever gets the coin in their piece will have a good year. The dough for the cake is similar to the Balkan kozunak.
Romani people also have their own version of poppy seed moon cake.
Plum dumplings are sweet holiday fares that demonstrate the practicality of the Roma who were doing the cooking. Plum dumplings are made dough of mashed potatoes, eggs, butter, and salt, which are rolled out and cut into small circles. The Roma carefully place a plum, topped with cinnamon and sugar, on the dough just before they folded, sealed, and boiled the dumplings in salt water. When the plum dumplings were finished cooking, the Romani cooks rolled them in buttered breadcrumbs and sprinkled them with more cinnamon and sugar. The Roma also transformed potatoes, cherries, and dried bread into desserts and treats.[21]
Food beliefs
The Roma believe some foods are auspicious and give luck (baxt) like the Rajputs. American Roma believe red pepper, black pepper, salt, vinegar, garlic, onions and a sacrificed animal such a lamb to be lucky foods.[22]
Certain foods are traditionally considered marime (ritually unclean) and therefore are avoided. Horse, cat, and dog meat are forbidden. Frog meat and snake meat are considered unlucky by the Christian Roma and are associated with the Devil. Peacock meat is forbidden. The Christian Roma associate peacocks with the evil eye.[23] The Christian Roma tend to not eat at restaurants and avoid food prepared by non-Roma.[24] A Romani woman menstruating can’t cook or serve food to men.[25]
Restaurants
Although many Hungarian restaurants tend to feature Romani musicians, there is only one Romani restaurant in Hungary called Romani Platni (Roma Stove') which opened in Budapest in 2012.[26] In Maribor, Slovenia, there is a Romani restaurant called Romani Kafenava.[27]
Galuski - small dumplings made from flour and water, flavoured with almonds and boiled in milk
Guvara - strudel made of cooked fruit folded or layered in pastry[38]
Jaxnija - a thick minced meat and red bean soup[38]
Manrro la smetanasa - piece of bread spread with sour cream and stewed fruit[38]
Muterdo Sax - the dandelion plant, its leaves are used as a green vegetable and its root may be dried, scorched and ground up to make a coffee-like drink[38]
Peržala - eggs scrambled with bits of fried meat or with herbs[38]
Pirožna makoske semincjansa - a small cake filled with poppy-seed paste.[38]
Poovengur drey a koori- A Romanichals dish, is a potato, scrubbed and hollowed out, filled with jam and baked in a tin can with the lid tightly on, in the ashes.[38]
Rrunza - a dish made with a pig's stomach lining, cut into small pieces and stewed for several hours with peppers, tomatoes and onions, and flavored with salt, vinegar and lemon juice.[38]
Romano Cajo - Romani tea drunk in a glass with peaches or strawberries in it.[38]
Sonko fusujansa - a tomato-based casserole of ham chunks and butter beans.[38]
