three days ago (magical moments)
Brasov, Romania
Some days you wake up and you have no idea that the day is going to be filled with surprises and magical moments. Saturday was one of them.
Because we were invited to a local church on Sunday, the little churchy group we’ve been meeting with, decided to meet on Saturday instead. The walk to our hosts’ home took us through the town square, where Christmas lights were being strung across the surrounding streets, and every other person was selling bunches of silver branches. We made a mental note to return to the square another night to see the lights – we’re still not used to the fact that a) lunch would not be served until 2pm and b) that by the time it was over two and half hours later, it would be dark. Surprises were to come.
After the singing, praying, discipleship-discussing meeting, out came the lunch.
Ooh-la-la
It’s Christmas-time, so special Christmas foods were on the menu. As if this was not enough, we will not be here at Easter, so Easter foods were thrown into the mix too!
The meal started with Ciorba – meatballs, barley, carrot, parsnip, celeriac and potato in a thin clear broth made sour with an unknown ingredient! Delish.
This was followed by sarmale, served now-predictably-to-us with mamaliga. It’s funny to think that three weeks ago we were reasonably unimpressed with mamaliga, and now we are eating it happily almost every day, and even have plans to grow extra corn to grind when we get home! Sarmale are a minced meat and rice mixture wrapped in brine-pickled cabbage leaves (that sounds so boring – click here to see how fantastic it really is), necessarily drowned in cream and paprika!
Ooh-la-la again. And what a gift – these delicacies are fiddly and time-consuming to make and Mary made enough for twenty-five people!
Some of us were restrained, not going back for seconds, some returned for seconds but denied themselves a third helping – not easy to do with something so full of flavour. But just as well.
Dessert was still to come. The pictures show not even half of what was on offer and we were pressed to try it all. The absolute best was our hostess’s “Bataone”, the little chocolate-y nut-n-sugar-covered batons, and we made sure we got the recipe.
Mary’s Bataone
The Cake
300g sugar
300g milk
70g butter
3T honey
Boil gently
1 egg
Break in and stir
400g white flour
1t baking powder
Mix in and stir well
Pour into a lamington tin about 3cm deep
Bake at 200*C for about 30-40 minutes (until done)
Cut into batons when cold
The Glaze
350g sugar
250g butter
75g cocoa
8T milk
Mix together well
Completely dunk each baton, one at a time into the glaze and then roll in chopped
nuts mixed with sugar (about 60:40) or coconut (personally, I don’t think you could
beat the sugary nuts!)
Refrigerate if you can stop yourself from eating them.
Children played an age-old game while adults chatted. Come to think of it, some of the adults played too.
With full tummies and warm hearts, we thanked our hosts and with the rest of the group headed out for a walk around town. It seemed the whole population of Brasov was there. The sound of Christmas music floated up the street from the square, where people bustled about listening, rejoicing, joining in, admiring the nativity scene and decorated Christmas trees – real ones! The lights were twinkling and it was all so *Christmassy*. Some of the children had felt a bit sad that we had missed the Christmas concert in our own town hall – again – but this made up for it!
On we went, detouring via Rope Street, one of the narrowest streets in Europe (the medieval town planners left room for a horse and no more!)
Up the hill. Not right up like we did a couple of weeks ago – only as far as the road high enough to get a good view of the town. Just this week a bear had ventured down to this road, and we had no intention of disturbing his peace! As we reached what must have been the best possible position, fireworks exploded over the town. Magical. This was a completely spontaneous spur-of-the-moment walk-off-our-lunch walk, and it was filled with blessing. Earlier we had been discussing heaven, and how great it will be. Now we were reminded, that even though this was spectacular, it is still nothing in comparison to what is to come.
On we walked again. The delights were not over. Our Romanian friends were not overawed, as the scene that unfolded before us is ordinary to them, but to a wee family from Down Under where Christmas is celebrated in sunshine, it was exotic!
There at the bottom of the hill was the open-air ice skating rink we had seen on our first walk round town. It was packed full of little black figures gliding clockwise around the bright white expanse. German Christmas songs were blaring out towards the Jewish cemetery, and the Germanesque tudor-style building was draped with twinkling lights. (Historically this town was divided into German and Romanian sectors, each with their own centre). As if this were not enough to make us feel like we were in a real Wonderland, the air was crisp, the aroma of grilled sausages and hot coffee wafted up to us and to top it all off, there were two reindeer. Real Live Reindeer. In the beam of light escaping from a tall lamppost, we could almost see snowflakes. OK, so they turned out to be raindrops, but it was so magical it *could* have been snow!!!!!
I couldn’t help wondering, “Why me? Why us?”
Why did God allow us to experience such overwhelming beauty and blessing?
Tags: 2008/09, food, God, history, postcard: Romania, recreation, tradition, weather
rayres
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