"Mujdei" It's garlic mousse. So you approach a vampire and all you do is, "What happened, dude?" And the guy says, "Wow, I'm gonna bite someone else." Thanks a lot, bro. Say hi to your boss for me. Goodbye, right?. [Music] - Hello, are you the one who eats a lot?
(Hei, salut. Ești tu cel care mănâncă mult?) No, I don't understand. Nu stiu sa vorbesc romaneste.
(I don't know how to speak Romanian) What's your name? What's your name?
Cum îl cheamă? Cum îl cheamă? - Luicillo El Gordillo?. Luicillo! Luicillo El Gordillo! That's me!. Yes, my friends! Once again. Your reliable, undeniable, irresponsible, unappealable source. Of soft food around the planet, Luicillo El Gordillo. Now in Romanian lands!. That's right, that's right! We are in Bucharest. In Bucharest, in the beautiful, beautiful country of Romania. To find out what these guys eat in their daily lives. How they discipline themselves, what their condition is, because it's a discipline. From being able to gain weight to being a real fatty for life. Will our Romanian friends impress us?. How unusual will the delicacies they eat in their daily lives be?. That's what we're about to find out. I'd say we're going to give it a try. But we're in Romania, so I'd say... Mergem! [Music] We begin this fattening gastronomic tour, trying out some pastries. In fact, this is one of the oldest, most authentic patisseries in this city. You see, the patisserie, the bakery, plays a very important role in Romanian society. Because it's what you eat when you really don't want to sit down for a proper meal. Let's say between breakfast and lunch, when your tummy is already growling. I need something, it's growling like a lion, I grab a pastry. Between lunch and dinner, when the hunger is inside me. it's shouting, it's begging to be fed, I have a pastry. Between dinner and going out to drink with friends. A pastry to cushion the poison I'm about to introduce into my existence. Pastries for all occasions of the day. And this one, in particular,
is very emblematic. As it has been operating for over
35 years in Bucharest. Run by a father and son.
It's always crowded, really. Right now, there's a little line of about,
what, 5 people or so. But there's always a line of this proportion, consistently. There are savory options, there are sweet ones. Each of these has a value of 3 leu. Which is the currency here.
The leu, the lions. Which is approximately 60 cents
in US dollars. Let's taste a pastry delicacy. [Music] We have our pastry now,
which is a cheese pastry. What's interesting is that the owners of this place make their own cheese. This one is made from cow and lamb,
a goat cheese. The proper way, they're telling me,
to eat it is, look. You fold it like this,
as if it were a little taco, right? A cone, a wrap, right?. You fold it and take a big bite. I must admit that when they told me we were going to drink with bread. I didn't think it would be so unique. But it's indeed a very special, lovely taste. And the fact that they're always fresh and warm gives them a nice touch. Now, listen, this is a very interesting fact. The owner of this place knew
that young people. Before going out to drink,
would stop by a pastry shop. So, the son proposed something like. "Why does our place only sell pastries?
Why don't we also sell alcohol ourselves?" In fact, our buddy here next to me
is enjoying his beer. It's around 11 in the morning right now, huh? But... to each their own, it's fine. So, nowadays, this place is sort of
like a bar too. The youngsters, before heading out to dance, you know. Twerk down to the floor
with their self-esteem soaring. And twerk all the way down to the floor. They come for their pastry, they have their beer, wine, whatever, right here. It's legal. I mean, you buy your drink and right here. I don't know about you, but I say that man has an entrepreneurial mind. Well, what can I say? An excellent snack. And for three lei, you can't expect much.
The "Comteia" pastry is really good. Let's see what other curiosities we find. [Music] The next Romanian delight we're
going to try is called "mici". Which are authentically Romanian sausages. In fact, this dish has quite
an interesting context overall. As the stalls where they're sold are those grills you see quite often on the streets Where they not only sell sausages but also steaks, fried fish, potatoes. Even dishes that resemble Romanian lasagnas, they sell a bit of everything. Really, very comprehensive,
very greasy, very fattening. And this dish itself, the "mici," has a cool and peculiar story. Back in the early 1900s, at a restaurant in Bucharest, unusual customers arrived. An unusual number of customers, a lot of them, all hungry for sausages. What's a sausage? It's meat encased in intestines, wrapped in animal skin. And that's what gives it its shape. Turns out the cooks didn't expect
so many people to show up. They ran out of intestines to wrap
and shape the sausages. Stressed out, they said,
"Oh my goodness, what do we do? These people are hungry, they're angry, we need to do something." You know what, bro? I propose something, we just take the meat, don't wrap it in skin. And as it is, we put it in the casing. Let's see if it works, let's see what happens. They cooked it, and this sausage emerged. Which has a kind of lumpy shape,
like it's not perfectly formed. They gave it to the customers and the customers said, "What are you giving me!". "What kind of dog crap is this!" And they said, "No, no, wait! It's our new recipe!" Crack! Cruk! Don't judge before trying it!". They tried it, liked it quite a bit,
and from there they said. "Ah! I think this is our own sausage recipe. The Romanian Mici recipe. In fact, the word 'Mici' means small. The little ones "mic" is small,
"mici" in plural, small ones. So, it's like sausage in diminutive. Funny that here people probably make reverse jokes, right? While in Latin America we say, 'Oh, you like the big one! You like the big one!' Here it's the opposite, here they say,
'Oh, he likes the small one!. The small one, the Mici!
You like it, you eat it whole!' And this is the result,
which actually smells quite good. The proper way to do it, look, they serve it on your plate with mustard and a bun. The proper way to do it is that all three have to be in your mouth at the same time. Then, you dip them well, really tasty. I understand why people like it so much. It's a sausage, let's not complicate things. Savory, very greasy, but with
a smooth texture. When you take a bite, you don't feel like your tooth is really breaking through a layer. As happens with all sausages, but here it goes smoothly, very naturally. Besides, it's juicy, the way they cook it... I've loved it. I understand why Romanians enjoy the small one, eating it whole, without hesitation. There you have it, this is the "mici", the Romanian sausage, par excellence. Let's see what other delicacies we find. [Music] We are about to try some junk food now. Quite ordinary, I know this won't impress you much, it's going to be like "Oh, Luisito!" They sell this in my country too,
they sell it everywhere. But, it's the story that's interesting. These are "Pufuleti," which is the typical cheesy, puffy snack made from corn. What's interesting is that this represents a bit of the remnants of communism
in a society like Romania. You see, during communist times, people were used to eating popcorn
or as you call it in your country. But it was an expensive food to produce in large quantities since everything was for everyone and everyone had the same. So, they came up with this variant, which is just this puffed fried snack. That gets stuck in your teeth, but people found it delicious. So, instead of popcorn, they gave you this in your communist combo. Like, you'd get this, a can of something, a roll of toilet paper, and some pufflets. The interesting thing is that after communism fell. People kept consuming it, they loved it, and to this day, it's quite normal to find it in stores. Nothing unusual the dish, I know, but I thought the story was worth sharing. And here's the crazy part, we're going to wash down our "pufuleti". With a beer, which is the cheapest beer around here. It's called "Ciucas". "Ciucas". Look, the bottle is plastic. A little plastic, the current poison of the planet in which some people
keep packaging beer. This one's a liter. A liter of plastic-wrapped beer that cost me a "ley." A "lion," which is like 25 or 30 cents in dollars, seriously. This is cheap,
this is what the street folks get. I want to point out that there's a really ripped eagle behind me. Grab your plastic-wrapped beer,
I'm really pumped. Cheers in Romanian, "Noroc!" Not bad, refreshing, for 30 cents a liter,
I think it's quite good. There you have it, a bit of communist context reflected in snacks in junk food. Which we've washed down with very, very cheap beer. [Music] A small but always useful interruption from our friend Drunk Luisillo. Let's try a typical Romanian drink called "Pálinka". I particularly like this bottle, it looks like a violin, like a cello, very elegant, very beautiful. What makes this pálinka drink special is that it's like a brandy made from plums. Everyone, from all walks of life, drinks it. From the lower class, so you have to grab something to drink. You obviously take a very low-quality pálinka. Even the high class, the ones who are like... "Oh! Oh! Did you see how much the stock market went up today? Oh! Oh!" A very high-quality palinka,
big and massive plums. It also represents the culture,
the Romanian society. Where it's normal for people to make their own palinka at home. Like "Ah Your dad? What's your dad's hobby?" Well, obviously, he makes palinka at home. It's very, very normal. So let's try it. Here we're going to pair it with chorich, which is pork skin. Look, they give it to you like this... Look at that! Yes! The little pork skin like this,
they give it to you. I don't know what I'm drinking. This doesn't have any seal indicating it was approved. By any health organization or anything. It's a mystery; they made it at home, and it's like. "Here, have a sip." Cheers in Romanian, "Noroc." Little cheers, my crooks. It has much more flavor than I expected. Yes, you could definitely set someone on fire with this, if you're wondering. I mean, yeah. It's quite strong; it might bring tears to your eyes. But it's good. Despite being alcohol, you can taste the plum it was made from. I can picture the Romanian farmer making it at home, his wife scolding him like, that's it. Go do something else, bro.
No, palinka is my passion. And the little pig's skin. I'm not tempted by this at all, but oh well. No, no. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Chewy, tasteless. Not my thing. I get why people like it, it's fine, but it's not my thing. Drunk Luisillo concludes the always useful, always necessary intervention of Drunk Luisillo. Noroc!, my dogs. [Music] We've had our pre-meal, our pre-gorging. Now comes the heavy meal. Check out this dish,
this assortment of delicacies. The yellow thing we're looking at is called "mamaliga." Mamaliga. Like someone who likes to
"suck rubber bands" right?
It's a mamaliga, that... that dude. The whole fish we're seeing is a catfish. Fairly average-sized. These little fish, these pieces of fish
are also catfish. How's that? How excellent?
It's tasted like this. First, the mamaliga. The mamaliga is kind of like corn mush, got it? We take a little bit.
We take a little bit of cheese. Enjoy. It's a bit tasteless.
Like it doesn't have much flavor, but... Suddenly, just when you're like, "What's this bland starch in my mouth?" Bam! The taste of the cheese kicks in and says, "Dude! Where was the flavor?" . And that magical mix you create in your mouth... Wow! Makes your tongue start to tingle a bit.
Very tasty, a great combination. Now let's try the catfish, which we're going to have with a sauce. Very typical sauce from here, called "Mujdei" Which, well, with a literal translation, is garlic mousse. So, quite garlicky. Let's see how it goes. It gives it a strong flavor.
It really kind of hits you a bit. But hey, this is how you scare away vampires, right? Here in Romania, they say there are lots of vampires. In fact, Dracula is from here. You'll be seeing him on the channel soon, wink, wink So, a vampire comes close and you just do this. "What's up, man?" And the dude says, "Wow, I'll go bite someone else." Thanks a lot, dude. Say hi to your mom for me. Goodbye, right? And on it goes. This is really tasty, just delicious.
Have some mints afterwards. After devouring this delicacy, be considerate, my champion. My crook! [Music] And every good day of indulgent, rich food culminates, of course, with a dessert. Everything has to end with a sweet note, a sweet finale. The most typical dessert in Romania, par excellence, is this delicacy called "papanași". Which is sort of like the Romanian equivalent of a donut. It can be prepared in various ways;
I ordered the most typical version. Which comes with sour cream and blackberry jam. Let's see, it's served warm, by the way,
it has to be nice and warm. "Papanași"
Exquisite, the paradise of diabetes. I feel like if you eat the whole thing by yourself. You might overload, you might have a little glucose coma. Very tasty, very flavorful, every indulgent adventure needs to have a happy ending. [Music] Well then, my friends, with this we conclude this gastronomic adventure. Sweet and devouring, through Romanian lands. How about that? How about that? What was your favorite part? What did you like the most?
What would you try? What would you like to see sold in your cities? Feel free to comment down below. I'd like to remind you that you can now be Palomo Premium subscribers. There's a little button down here next to the subscribe button. You just click on it, in case you really like the channel and would like to support it. You'll get some additional benefits in return. Thank you very much for joining me, for flying with me through this adventure like good "palomones" (big fans). As always, I'll see you in a few days with a new video. I'll say goodbye in Romanian. Pa-Pa!
Sweet dude Pimpollo.
