Thought it would be a good idea to start a thread on hard to find items in Bucharest.
What I struggle to find is porridge and cous cous. Can anyone help me out?
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Where can I find ..... in Bucharest?
(18 posts) (7 voices)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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Hi Dan, I use Mega Image (the Belgian Supermarket chain, there are loads here)for Cous Cous. I am yet to find Porridge Oats.
I am looking for Cumin, Carrefour and others stock 'Chiemin', which SHOULD be cumin, but it's just not anything like it.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hi thedrb,
I've looked in mega image for cous cous and found a similar thing but it's packaged with a jar of sauce that you mix in. Can you buy it on it's own?
As for porridge oats, the only thing i've found is marketed for babies in the organic food section of cora. It's a tiny pack and too expensive.
I too have found Chimen and agree its nothing like the cumin you would buy in England. I am also looking for curry spices in general - i've found an all in one curry powder but not separate ones.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I buy my cumin (chimen) from Mega Image Iancului. Admittedly it's the seeds rather than the ground cumin which I think is more common in the UK, but it's still the right stuff.
There is a type of cous cous in the section of Mega which carries all the foreigner foodstuffs (asian sauces, noodles, sushi bits and bobs). I bought it once and it was pretty crap. It was more like large-grain bulgar or something - certainly not the light fluffy cous cous I would imagine it should be.
I've never seen curry spices like fenugreek; just curry power as Daniel mentions.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hi Dan, Mike, thx for the porridge oats heads up..will take a look.
As for curry spices....Yes I was frustrated when I realised they just weren't for sale. I am a chef and took the UK shops for granted when I first came here. I had visitors from the UK and was able to give them a shopping list of Indian spices, but sadly left cumin off the list!!!
Chimen they sell here is odd, i've bought both the seeds and the pre-ground varieties, both do not resemble the cumin I'm used to.
Maybe I will try roasting and then grinding the seeds myself. i'll post back if its a success.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Dan, haven't seen cous cous on its own, sorry. I'm going to stroll through Obor market this week so will report back if I see any good stuff :)
Posted 2 years ago # -
While we are on the topic of food, there's a good Turkish butcher's not far from Obor on Str. Ritmului called 'Altin Bicak'. They have good cuts of lamb plus various other Turkish/Middle Eastern ingredients there, such as sumac.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Anyone know where I can could get hold of some sweet chestnuts?
Also, has anyone found any good sausages that are similar to good butchers sausages that you would get in England?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hey Daniel,
I haven't found any decent fresh sausages in Bucharest. Mega Image do some 'country sausages' which aren't too bad, but most of the sausages in Romania seem to be of the cured variety, or made of very cheap processed meat. You don't seem to be able to get the big chunky fresh ones.
As a result, I've taken to making my own! It's really pretty simple and you can play around with the ingredients and flavours to your heart's content.
You just need to buy a hand grinder (about 40 RON) of the clamp-to-the-table variety. Then you need to buy a metal tube attachment (about 6 RON), which I found easily in Obor market. Then get some skins (intestines) from the supermarket (I found some in Cora, Pantelimon, for about 6 RON for around 10 skins - enough for about 80 sausages!).
Once you've got the kit it's pretty quick and simple; grind up your meat, mix it with whatever flavours/spices you want, add the attachment to the grinder, slide the pre-soaked skin onto the attachment, and then start running the mix through the grinder into the skin, twisting off the sausages at the desired length (this part is easier if you have an extra set of hands). It's quite good fun really - I made some nice pork, apple, sage and stilton sausages to go with the Christmas turkey this year.
Best thing is to make a big batch of them and freeze them in portions of 2 (or more if you are a greedy bastard like me).
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hmmm apple, sage and stilton sounds really nice. I went with the traditional romanian christmas this year as it was my first christmas here but that sounds like a good idea for my planned consolation dinner sometime soon. Can't say i've ever noticed the skins in Cora - i'll have to look more closely.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I'm not sure where they usually keep them but they had a huge load of them close to the fresh meat section in the run up to Christmas. I assume they can be found all year round though. I need to get some more soon so we'll see.
A client of mine gave me a recipe for Hungarian sausages too; I think it was about 80% pork, 20% beef, crushed garlic (soaked in water overnight) and a shed load of paprika. I might give them a try soon.
I also experimented with some chicken sausages. They weren't bad, but were a little dry. Fine with some sauce or mustard though.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I found some cous cous as well as other hard to find items such as garam masala powder in a shop called 'bio good'. It's at the far end of baneasa mall, past carrefour near the smaller food court and all the baby shops.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Probably a rediculous question but has anyone seen Pimms in Bucharest?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Lol, I like your thinking :)
Sadly, haven't seen it anywhere. Drinkswise, I've found Port in Cora in Pantelimon, Ouzo and Raki are widely available in the Turkish shops, grappa in Nic supermarket, and Nic Classic near Piata Dorobanti has quite a good selection of spirits, although I don't recall seeing Pimm's.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi does anyone knows where I can find Senseo coffee pads or Lavazza coffee pads for my Senseo coffemachine?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hello All Where can I find Food and Indian Spices in Particular?
Well the answer to your question is sokoni.eu
We are based in Varna Bulgaria and your order shall be delivered to you if you are in Bucharest without a lot of postage and free of postage as and when our delivery is scheduled which is as often as 4 to 5 weeks for now Nov 2010
As we pick up more deliveries we might increase our deliveries to other cities of Romania.
If you run a restuarant and need spices or sauces in Bulk please free to drop us a line and if we can save you some money and make some ourselves we are in business.Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi all,
New to this community (just arrived in Bucharest on Monday). My fiance and I found cumin at Matache market. The vendor there informed us that there are two types of cumin the first called *Chimen is commonly used in Romania but is not the type of cumin we all know and love. *Chimen is actually a spice known as caraway in other countries. What we all know as the "actual" cumin spice is called *Chimion in Romanian. At Matache market this vendor had both spices, so I could compare and be sure I got the right one.Subtle difference in name but two different spices all together.
I hope that helps you!-VE
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi viv85e and welcome,
Interesting about the Chimen / Chimion, I did not know this.
It's also good to still see activity on this thread, even though I have barely had any time to update the site. At some point I want to refocus on it and make it more useful. Hopefully you will all have patience and keep it in your bookmarks :)
Daniel
Posted 1 year ago #
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