Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Bucharest Day 3 - Black Tiger
Don't be fooled by the interesting menu item "Black Tiger Salad". It does not contain the meat of a black tiger. Or any recognised creature, in fact.
When we asked the Romanian staff about the ingredient, we were told "fish". When the meal arrived, it looked like a large prawn. According to the Internet, the name is taken from the Black Tiger Shrimp (or Giant Tiger Prawn) and, when cooked, tiger shrimp meat turns white and the black stripes on the shell turn bright red.
What I soon determined was that they had served up a prawn-shaped piece of "fish stick" painted with stripes of red food colouring. Bastards. And they had the audacity to charge 26 Lei too. That's the Cafe at the Casino Merkur off my list.
In contrast, the Unique Bistro on Str. Franceza was much more honest. The chicken schnitzel (or șniţel as I should write) did in fact contain chicken and only cost 25 Lei. According to Wikipedia:
"Romanian șnițel is very common in restaurants, fast food places, and homes across the country. Normally served simple and unadorned, ... The Romanian șnițel is made in the same manner as the Austrian one, but as a local characteristic is made of almost any type of meat (chicken, pork, veal or beef). A specialty from Western Romania is the mosaic șnițel made of two thin meat layers (usually each layer of different meat) and a vegetable (usually mushroom) filling."
The mosaic sounds nice - pity I'm in the south.
The Unique Bistro is also very educational - I learnt that Sambuca tastes like liquorice, which isn't surprising as it comes from the similarly-tasting anise plant. I had a "corrected" coffee, or Caffè corretto with some coffee beans on top (although there were more than three), but I'm not sure I'd go for it again.
Ever onward.
When we asked the Romanian staff about the ingredient, we were told "fish". When the meal arrived, it looked like a large prawn. According to the Internet, the name is taken from the Black Tiger Shrimp (or Giant Tiger Prawn) and, when cooked, tiger shrimp meat turns white and the black stripes on the shell turn bright red.
What I soon determined was that they had served up a prawn-shaped piece of "fish stick" painted with stripes of red food colouring. Bastards. And they had the audacity to charge 26 Lei too. That's the Cafe at the Casino Merkur off my list.
In contrast, the Unique Bistro on Str. Franceza was much more honest. The chicken schnitzel (or șniţel as I should write) did in fact contain chicken and only cost 25 Lei. According to Wikipedia:
"Romanian șnițel is very common in restaurants, fast food places, and homes across the country. Normally served simple and unadorned, ... The Romanian șnițel is made in the same manner as the Austrian one, but as a local characteristic is made of almost any type of meat (chicken, pork, veal or beef). A specialty from Western Romania is the mosaic șnițel made of two thin meat layers (usually each layer of different meat) and a vegetable (usually mushroom) filling."
The mosaic sounds nice - pity I'm in the south.
The Unique Bistro is also very educational - I learnt that Sambuca tastes like liquorice, which isn't surprising as it comes from the similarly-tasting anise plant. I had a "corrected" coffee, or Caffè corretto with some coffee beans on top (although there were more than three), but I'm not sure I'd go for it again.
Ever onward.
Labels: Bucharest
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