понеделник, 7 декември 2015 г.

Happy Saint Nicolas day! The food. Part 2

Hello, everybody! 

In the previous post I talked about the tradition behind the celebrations on 6th of December. In this post, which is going to be way shorter, I'll show you the recipe for this year. As you remember the fish is always a carp so only the other ingredients vary. In case you don't remember or you haven't read the previous post - here is some info:

So, the fish should be a whole one - not cut in pieces and when you buy it it should be with it's scales and all the organs inside it. The idea is that the scales bring in money and the whole fish symbolizes prosperity. Then, when you clean the scales, you bury them together with all the bones of the fish somewhere in the garden. Tradition says that you should fill the fish with rice - again the money connotation - and walnuts. Since you are supposed to be fasting before Christmas, St. Nicolas' day is one of the few occasions when you can eat fish - i.e. meat. Nowadays it is a wonderful time to get together with the family. 


Ok, you saw the idea from the previous year - radioactive St. Nicolas' day carp with rice and turmeric sauce - that recipe I'll give you another time. 
The recipe this year is a bit different - we again have rice and walnuts and a carp but it looks different:

It is a common carp stuffed with rice, walnuts, raisins and leek and puree of creme cheese, spinach and leek.




Here it is the recipe!

You'll need:

1 carp - around 2 kg.
3 pieces of leek
250 g. rice - white normal rice
100 g. raisins
100 g. walnuts
1 jar/packet/ whatever they sell them in your country/ of creme cheese or cheese and a lot of butter - around 250 g.
coriander - fresh - put as much as you like
black pepper
cinnamon
salt
water
cherry tomatoes - if you want to copy the flowers from the picture

How to do it?

1. OK, you'll need to cut the leek into rings and then fry it in some oil (choose the type - olive oil will be perfect but all other types will do). Then you add the raisins and the walnuts to the leek.


Somewhere around that point you add a bit of water.
You add the coriander and let the whole thing stew for a little - you'll need a deep pan or a casserole to get all ingredients in. 



2.Then you add the rice and the spices - the black pepper and the cinnamon - again - put as much as you like in there. 



By the time you've added all things to the mixture it should look like this:





3. So, now you have to leave it to get the rice boiled a little - not over boil it because when you stuff the carp with it and bake it it will look like a very unpleasant lump with no particular ingredients. So you boil it for, say, half an hour and you proceed to the stuffing procedure.

Stuffing of the carp

Here you'll probably need an assistant - to hold the fish steady while you stuff it with the mixture created during the previous steps. Let's however, go over some things you do BEFORE that:

1. Clean the carp - that means all scales and intestines (to do that cut the carp open and cut out the intestines you find in its belly). DO NOT throw away the scales - they have to be buried in the yard with the bones to bring good luck :)
2. Rinse the carp with cold water to get rid of the blood and clean the belly.  
3. Stuff the carp - have someone hold it open for you and you put the stuffing in. Don't worry if the stuffing is much more than the carp's belly can hold - you just put it around it in the pan/pot you'll be using to bake it in. So, after you stuff it you have to sew up the opening so that the stuffing doesn't get out during the baking process. You'll need a big needle and a strong thread to do that. 

I don't have pictures of that because I was the assistant - you see, you can't hold a camera if both your hands are around the belly of a fish.

Baking

1. After you stuff and sew up the carp you place it in whatever you'll use to bake it it - it should be big enough for the carp to lie on one side. 
2. You put all the remaining stuffing around the carp and add a bit of water - 1/2 liter or more - depends on how much stuffing you have left.
3. Put it in the oven for around 40 minutes - when it's ready it should look like this:

The spinach/leek/cheese puree

This one is the tricky part. 
So for that you'll need

1 piece of leek
500 g. of spinach
250 g. of creme cheese (in case this doesn't exist in your country - get the softest white cheese - Feta will do - and a lot of butter and put the two into a blender)

1. Clean the spinach and cut it as if for salad. Cut the leek into rings and fry them until they show some sign of getting cooked. 
2. Put the cheese and get the blender ready - it would take a lot of time to get the creamy texture you are looking for.

3. If you are fan of fancy-looking food in you dish try this;

Get some shapes you use for cutting cookies and fill them with the puree - don't forget to put some foil underneath so that nothing leaks out.

Put the forms into the freezer for half an hour - AT MOST - I left them there for a day and they froze. 

Use them as decoration.

Since I had mine frozen I used flowers made from cherry tomatoes to make up for that. They are easy to make - you just start cutting the petals from the top without cutting them out fully. When you're done with the whole tomato and spread the petals - you have a wonderful flower.

Enjoy! If you do the recipe, I'll be glad to see a picture and to read your comments on it :)

неделя, 6 декември 2015 г.

Happy Saint Nicolas day! About the day and the saint. Part 1

Hi everyone, I haven't written in while but it had been a busy time for me. 
Anyway, the topic of the following post will have to do with religion, customs and above all - FOOD!

So let's get to religion first. Who is St. Nicolas and why do we celebrate the 6th of December each year? To tell you that I'll have to tell you a kindergarten story:

St. Nicolas was born in a wealthy family. His parents loved him very much and took good care of him but they died when he was a young man. St. Nicolas had no idea what to do with all the wealth left by his parents so he left it aside for a while. He didn't spend it, but he didn't give it all away either. One day, he heard a poor man complain to a friend - he had three daughters but could not afford to pay the dowry of even the eldest so that she could marry the man she loved. The poor man was worried of what would happen to his children if they don't get married - they will be avoided by the other members of the small society, insulted as burden to them, even deemed prostitutes - for why else would three beautiful young girls stay unmarried? St. Nicolas said nothing to the man - decided that first should check the story and learn more about him. So he followed him to see where he lived. It was a poor cottage and the man indeed had three beautiful daughters. While the girls were working, they were talking about the same things - how they won't be able to marry because on no dowry. St. Nicolas decided that if he gave the money in public the man would not accept them because of pride. So he devised another plan. The following night he slipped into the poor man's house and left three purses filled with gold coins by the side of each daughter's bed. The three girls rejoiced when they found the money the next morning. They got married soon after and lived in peace and joy with their husbands. Saint Nicolas found a good way to use the fortune left by his parents - whenever he saw someone in need, he just gave the money the person needed and left it by the side of the bed of that person at night. 

So, to cut the long story short - Saint Nicolas was the prototype of Santa Claus - the two names even sound familiar. he had been a real historical figure: here is how the wikipedia article puts it: 

Saint Nicholas (Greek: Ἅγιος ΝικόλαοςHagios Nikólaos, Latin: Sanctus Nicolaus); (15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor (modern-day Demre, Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker (Νικόλαος ὁ ΘαυματουργόςNikolaos ho Thaumaturgos). He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, a practice celebrated on his feast day―St Nicholas Day (6 December, Gregorian calendar, in Western Christianity and 19 December, Julian calendar, in Eastern Christianity);and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of elisions and corruptions of the transliteration of "Saint Nikolaos". His reputation evolved among the faithful, as was common for early Christian saints. In 1087, part of the relics (about half of the bones) were furtively translated to Bari, in Apulia, Italy; for this reason, he is also known as Nikolaos of Bari. The remaining bones were taken to Venice in AD 1100.

The historical Saint Nicholas is commemorated and revered among Anglican,Catholic, Lutheran, and Orthodox Christians. In addition, some Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches have been named in honor of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers and students in various cities and countries around Europe.
Here is how St. Nicolas looked like - an icon - image taken from wikipedia.org
So, on the 6th of December we celebrate the day of St. Nicolas. Originally, it was the day on which children receive gifts. St. Nicolas was the original Father Christmas - before the 1920s and Coca Cola's marketing idea. 
In many countries children do receive gifts on that day, in Bulgaria there is a different tradition. Since he is the patron saint of sailors, on that day no one goes out at sea - it is said that from this day onwards - for a few weeks up to New Year's Eve - the sea is too dangerous to go into. The traditional dish is fish - nowadays of any kind but the traditional type is common carp - guess because the fish is very common in our region. Here is a picture of how it looks like - in case you don't know:
Image taken from: http://www.outdooralabama.com/common-carp 

So, the fish should be a whole one - not cut in pieces and when you buy it it should be with it's scales and all the organs inside it. The idea is that the scales bring in money and the whole fish symbolizes prosperity. Then, when you clean the scales, you bury them together with all the bones of the fish somewhere in the garden. Tradition says that you should fill the fish with rice - again the money connotation - and walnuts. Since you are supposed to be fasting before Christmas, St. Nicolas' day is one of the few occasions when you can eat fish - i.e. meat. Nowadays it is a wonderful time to get together with the family. 

I will post a picture of the carp we ate last year to get an impression of  what the whole thing looks like: 




As for this year's carp - I'll write again with the recipe and some pictures when it's ready. Wait for part two of the post :) 

неделя, 18 октомври 2015 г.

Transfagarasan when it rains??? Only if you are a fan of the hard driving routes! part 3


Welcome again!

Since the last post became rather longish I had to divide it into two parts. Here is the last bit from my journey into the Transgarasan highway. 
IN case you have missed the first two parts, here are they again:



I am posting the video as well, in case you missed it in the previous posts. It shows only part of the road, the full video is too long for even me to process. Besides, I have included only the most interesting parts of the road. Anyway, here it is:


Back to the story, then. So we got to the serpentine part. They start when the pine forest ends. It's an alpine landscape - you wait for the cow from the Milka commercial to appear with a bar of chocolate at each turn. It's really picturesque. Balea lake - some 34 kilometers away. 


One of the views when the landscape starts to change.


The Transfagarasan - around 1 pm. 


By the time the scenic curves start, it's raining cats and dogs. I start grumbling and the driver smirks - it's what he had been dreaming about. The last 30 km of the road to Balea lake - the part with the serpentines and the alpine landscapes is closed from November to May (see the Transfagarasan website for more info.) because of avalanche danger. 


The Transfagarasan in winter - image taken from www.gandul.info


If you want to visit Balea lake in winter, you still can - there is a cable line between the hotels and chalets at Balea lake and the ones at the Balea waterfalls 30 kilometers below.  The waterfalls are very beautiful, or so I've heard. As you may rightly guess, we didn't go there because of... TA DA-A-A - the rain. 



However, there is a little compensation - at this point of the journey you'll see some waterfalls by the very road - you'll see some on the video as well. Here is one of them - not the biggest but the one closest to the road I managed to take picture of:


One of the waterfalls


At almost each curve you'll feel the urge to take a picture. Even bad weather couldn't hide that. 

View from the second (or third) viewpoint

If you don't want to shoot while the car is moving, there are plenty of places where you can pull over and enjoy the scenery. The only problem is that they are (most of the time) 15 to 25 centimeters below the level of the road. This is done to keep the water/snow away from it - to help it get down the slope and not stay on the road. 

What I saw from the first viewpoint 
In this part of the road you'll rarely encounter a car with a foreign registration plate - Romanians do love that road but to foreigners it is either unknown, or they skip it because it takes a long time to go through all the curves. 

In 2009 when the Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May named it 'The best road for driving in the world' - I've posted the whole episode in the previous post about the Transfagarasan - see it here - it became more popular. Many people, like me, saw the beauty of the pass on screen and decided to see it live :)



If you have a free hand (I mean, nit occupied with a camera already) or just don't want to miss a second of the journey, do make a video clip. To me, the video is the best result from the journey. I posted it above, but here it is one more time, in case you didn't notice:




The Transfagarasan - around 2 pm. 

Next stop along the road is Balea lake. It is the highest point of the pass - a beautiful glacier lake with depth of only 11 meters. The landscape is amazing - as if you are transformed to the Alps. On the video or photos, however, you'll see little of that. I even joked that I have seen not Balea lake, but Magla (the Bulgarian word meaning 'fog') lake. You'll see for yourself why.

What I saw from Balea lake

What other people see from Balea lake -  image taken from sfatuitoarea.blogspot.com

There are a few chalets along it that (as far as I have heard) are open all year round. The Romanians have done a great job in organizing the area - there is a big parking (costs 5 lei for a day to stay there) and there is a person who watches over the cars while you enjoy yourself. From the parking (which is directly next to the lake itself) you can see the spendour of the place. There are even paths that allow you to go around it and have a closer look. If you have time and the weather is better than the one I was in - definitely go and take a look at the place. 

The chalet that was closest to the parking


On the opposite side of the road there are a lot of souvenir stalls - I really mean A LOT. They sell almost anything there - so take a look of what's on display. There is some space next to the stalls where you can take a look at the twisting curves of the road below. 

For a better experience you can sleep in one of the chalets at Balea lake and have the opportunity to see the sunset there. Speaking of sunsets - the road is closed from sunset to sunrise. 

Courtesy to Tony Goran - here is a link to the picture in 500px -
https://500px.com/photo/48078036/the-transfagarasan-by-tony-goran


Back to the story - after the lake there are a lot of viewpoints - I really mean A LOT of them. Do pull over there because at each curve the landscape changes. We had nothing to see there - you'll see why if you watch the video but from those viewpoints you'll see an amazing panorama of both the lake and the road. See the picture below (not mine, unfortunately)
Image taken from romaniadacia.wordpress.com

The next landmark on the milestones says Sibiu - the next big town down in the valley. At that point I got the impression that the more we get to the lake and then up towards Sibiu, the more the weather got worse. Somewhere at that point the focusing motor of the lens just gave up. I have no idea what happened but that is something I see for the first time in my life - and I have shot in blizzard and in torrential rain. It just gave up on the rain and the fog. So I just stopped taking pictures and - well, I haven't really stopped grumbling but resumed doing so with more commitment. 

After a few minutes - they don't seem that long because you know what to expect - you get back into the pine wood. In the video you'll notice that there are a few bikers - I don't know what kind of motivation you need to climb the Transfagarasan in this particular weather but they seemed to have it. Speaking of two-wheel vehicles I have heard that climbing the pass with a motorcycle is amazing. 

More information (and pictures) about Transylvania and the Transfagarasan you can find here:


As for driving a motorcycle there - check out this site:


Those who speak Bulgarian can  check out these websites:



As you get closer to Sibiu, you'll probably encounter more and more cars. After all, Sibiu is the biggest town in the area. The lower you descend the more the landscape ceases to be an alpine one. Back to the pines, then ordinary trees and then of, course - to the picture postcard villages. 

All in all, the whole journey took us 4 hours (would have been 5 if the weather allowed me to take pictures at every viewpoint.) So I'd advise you to head for it early in the morning in order to be able to enjoy the scenery. The best time to take picture with no shadows is midday (see, there are a lot of high mountains around). As I mentioned above - the pass is closed when it gets dark - because of the danger of falling 1 kilometer down - so you should plan your trip in such a way that you are either able to get to a hotel in the pass (mind you, Romanians have dinner quite early so if you go to eat at 9 the kitchen is very likely to be closed) or to get out of it before it is closed. The average recommended speed limit is 40 kilometers per hour so even if you want to drive very fast - you cannot. 

The road - especially the serpentine part (top 60 kilometers out of 152) is in perfect condition. It is wide with proper signs and markings but no safety fences at most places. If you drive carefully, you'll have no problems. 

If you get hungry or you are desperate to find a toilet (you should prepare for roughly 5 to 6 hours WITHOUT going to the toilet, just in case) there are plenty of places to eat in - big and small, for each taste and pocket. 

So we continued our journey to Hunedoara - what lies there you'll see in another post. 

понеделник, 12 октомври 2015 г.

Transfagarasan when it rains??? Only if you are a fan of the hard driving routes! part 2

Here we come to the real story of my journey through the Transfagarasan highway. As a true story I will start from the beginning...

If you have missed the first post on the matter - here it is: 
Transfagarasan when it rains??? Only if you are a fan of the hard driving routes! part 1


If you want to see the ending go there:

Part 3

Here is the video I promised:


Why the Transfagarasan? 

In 2009 Top Gear team were sent to Romania to drive along the Transfagarasan highway. It was named THE BEST ROAD FOR DRIVING IN EUROPE. The episode was aired in Bulgaria a few months ago and I got inspired to take some amazing pictures there. It is quite a hilarious episode. If you have watched it - you know what I mean. 
In case you haven't watched that episode - here it is: 
If you don't wanna watch the full episode - go to the last 15 minutes to see the splendor of the Transfagarasan.

 


Another motif was that Transfagarasan is considered one of the most difficult and dangerous routes in Europe and i happen to have a driver around who would give everything to test his skills. So off we went to explore the wonders of Romania...

The journey

Curtea de Arges 8.00 am


To my annoyance, it's raining cats and dogs outside. Screw you, weather forecast! We have slept in Curtea de Arges this time only to see the Transfagarasan and to do that we need (at least I do, the driver is delighted to drive in the rain) NO RAIN. So we wait with the hope that it would stop eventually...

Curtea de Arges around 11.00 am

It turns out that there is no point in waiting and since the Transfagarasan is the shortest route to our next destination - Hunedoara (which I'll describe in another post) off we go down the road and say Goodbye to Curtea de Arges. It is a nice tourist town at the foot of the Transfagarasan, full of tourists and places to eat and sleep. Also it is a few kilometers away from Poenary Castle (or Cetatea Poenary in Romanian) - the fortress of Vlad Tepes, commonly known as Vlad The Impaler (or Vlad Dracula if you have read Bram Stoker). 
Here is what I saw that day of Poenary Fortress - don't wonder if the image quality is poor - it was REALLY a very  rainy day!
It is a wonderful place to visit and even though you have to climb a lot of stairs, it's worth it. I will tell you all about the splendor of the place in another post, though. For warm-up here is a picture of how it looks like when you get up there:
So welcoming, don't you think? 

But we've seen that already. So we head for Sibiu and the moment we exit Curtea de Arges (Arges is the name of the river that flows through the town, by the way) we see a road sign:


In plain language that says that the length of the pass is 152 kilometers and it is open (no need to know Romanian to get it - the sign is green and not red and that is enough.)

The Transfagarasan highway  
around 12.00 am

The first 50 kilometers of the road are not very good -  there are no holes in the asphalt or something, by Bulgarian standards it is rather uneven. The driver already starts making remarks of how easy the drive has been so far. I try to take a few pictures of the surroundings because the rain has lessened. 
Here it almost doesn't rain. That is one of the villages you'll see along the road
There are a few really picturesque villages along the way from Curtea de Arges - you just expect to see Cinderella walking out of some of them. 


We have passed through several small villages and now head for the real mountain pass and the nice views. The road somewhat decreases in quality - gets more uneven but nothing difficult. The driver starts thinking of why on Earth Top Gear team said it was a difficult ride. I tell him to wait and see. After all, it is a mountain pass and one cannot expect perfect asphalt as on a motorway. As for the difficulty, we were about to see... 

By Bulgarian standards (no offence to the people in the ministry of transport but quality standards for a road in Bulgaria differ significantly - and better than in our neighbouring countries) the road is actually PERFECT -  wide lanes - I mean wide two buses can freely drive past each other - the road markings are good and new, there is even safety fencing here and there (as in the picture below - normally on each steep curve or viaduct). 

See the dots - you guessed right - that is rain! 

And, I almost forgot, a lot of milestones - due to the rain I couldn't take a picture of any of them but they are there and they are many. 

The s curves start getting tighter - here is one of the many viaducts. The spots you see on the picture are rain drops. By the time we got to that point - it started raining more. 

If you come from Curtea de Arges, as we did, the milestones will show you the distance to the nearest landmark which, paradoxically, is not a town but a lake - Balea lake ( Balea lac - read like 'latch' in Romanian). The lake marks the highest point (2,034 m of altitude) of the pass. Distance to it from Curtea de Arges is around 80 km but don't worry - the scenic curves start around 30 km before the lake itself. 

But before that is the pine wood. There are a lot of curves, of course but they are not as difficult ( or scenic, for that matter) as those up the pass. Speaking of the pine wood, there are a few very nice hotels along the way - I mean they really look nice from the outside and are in the woods - ideal place to relax. If you'd like that yourselves - book in advance (see why in the previous post


The Transfagarasan highway  around 12.30 am

When the milestones start telling you that Balea lake is some 50 kilometers away, you'll pass a few viaducts above the Arges river - like the ones on the pictures above - and a tunnel and then you'll see the road widen. many cars just pull over even before you can identify the reason why. Then you'll see the reason with capital R - you have reached one of the landmarks on the road and one of the most famous in Romania - Vidraru dam. 

Lake Vidraru from the parking

The lake it creates is (I think) the biggest dam in Romania and probably the most scenic one. The total surface of the lake is 3,930,000 sq m, 10.3 km in length, with a maximum width of 2.2 km. It was originally built as a hydroelectric power plant but in order to ensure that if the wall cracks for some reason it would not flood the cities downriver, dynamite was installed in the rocks around it so that if necessary it could be detonated and the natural lake would keep the water in. 
The wall of the dam

It is a beautiful place - especially when it is NOT raining - so I ask the driver to pull over. Even with the rain, I head out to take some pictures because the view is breathtaking. In fact some parts of one of the James Bond films was shot here.  
The parking space is very big - maybe because many buses get there - and it is FREE OF CHARGE. There are many souvenirs around  and I think there is a toilet somewhere but I am not sure...

Anyway, do take a souvenir or two and definitely take a picture of yourself standing on the 166 m high wall. It doesn't sound like a lot but I couldn't take a picture of the whole of it even with a wide angle lens. That leads me to another thing I wanted to tell you BEFORE  we continue...

Camera gear?

Since it is a photographic blog it is only right that I tell you what to bring, don't you think?OK, so...

- Whatever camera you are using - you'll need the wide angle part of the lens (that means the one you are using when you shoot landscapes - if it is a compact camera - set it to Landscape mode). 
I. as a highly motivated photographer, took a DSLR and a 10-18 mm wide angle lens. Trust me, 10 mm (the wides wide I had) was what I was using 99% of the time. The landscape is so breathtaking that you just want to capture as much of it as possible in one pic. 

- Clean the windscreen and all other car windows because you have a 99% chance of wanting to take a picture of something while in motion. I got away with that by simply opening the window but I had no other choice because of the rain - all windows were in water droplets. 

- If you want to - like me - take pictures despite the rain, definitely take some DRY paper wipes (NOT wet wipes or a cloth - they'll be unusable after several minutes) and a lens pen (you'll be using the brush part, not the smudge cleaner part - mainly to brush away the particles left by the paper cloth). 

- Warm clothes - no matter what the temperature outside the pass is, up in the Transfagarasan is always chilly if not cold. When we were at the dam the outside temperature was around 10 -12 degrees Celsius (in September). 

OK, back to the story then. 
The road passes on the wall of the dam itself but there are pavements for those who want to walk around it. It is a BUSY  road so look both ways BEFORE  you cross. 

If you have enough time I definitely recommend walking around. In my case,  even though I had an umbrella, it took 5 minutes to get the lens and myself soaking wet so we drove along.

After you cross the dam wall, you'll be able to pull over at several places - we didn't because we couldn't see anything anyway but if the weather is good (I'll keep repeating that) you'll be able to enjoy an amazing view of the dam so don't miss it. 
After the dam there is one more hotel with great view of the dam and the pine wood and then off we go to the real serpentines. 

Since the post is getting longish - I'll write about the real stuff in the next one.