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In traveling, we encounter many enjoyable ethnic foods, but often they are hard to find in the US.
My top two would be:
1) Mittetei, also called Mici - a skinless sausage from Romania whose origin goes back centuries, but in recent times there have been some new varieties, They are prepared on the grill rather than fried. The traditional formula is a mixture of ground beef and ground lamb with spices. Modern varieties include beef and pork, beef and lamb and pork, beef and pork with Turkish chilli, pork and turkey, and pork and lamb. My favorite is the three meat beef, lamb, and pork version, with the traditional formula second. The only other place I have found Mittetei is in Moldova, which stands to reason because Moldova used to be part of Romania. I have never found it in the US. I did spend a couple of weeks in Bucharest recently and had mittetei at three of my favorite restaurants there - Care cu Bere, Hanul Manuc, and City Grill.
2) Beef Burek - a flaky, multi-layered pasty containing ground beef from Serbia. I have also eaten beef burek in Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Kosovo, all of which countries are ethnically close to Serbia. It is most often found at fast food outlets rather than restaurants. I had a quick one day trip to Belgrade last month and was looking forward to some beef burek, but the two places on the pedestrianized main street and one at the central railway station where I can purchased it on previous trips were all closed, and I did not have time to look around for another. I did find bef burek on the menu of a Serbian restaurant in Milwaukee once and they did a good job with it, but I have never seen it anywhere else in the US.
My top two would be:
1) Mittetei, also called Mici - a skinless sausage from Romania whose origin goes back centuries, but in recent times there have been some new varieties, They are prepared on the grill rather than fried. The traditional formula is a mixture of ground beef and ground lamb with spices. Modern varieties include beef and pork, beef and lamb and pork, beef and pork with Turkish chilli, pork and turkey, and pork and lamb. My favorite is the three meat beef, lamb, and pork version, with the traditional formula second. The only other place I have found Mittetei is in Moldova, which stands to reason because Moldova used to be part of Romania. I have never found it in the US. I did spend a couple of weeks in Bucharest recently and had mittetei at three of my favorite restaurants there - Care cu Bere, Hanul Manuc, and City Grill.
2) Beef Burek - a flaky, multi-layered pasty containing ground beef from Serbia. I have also eaten beef burek in Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Kosovo, all of which countries are ethnically close to Serbia. It is most often found at fast food outlets rather than restaurants. I had a quick one day trip to Belgrade last month and was looking forward to some beef burek, but the two places on the pedestrianized main street and one at the central railway station where I can purchased it on previous trips were all closed, and I did not have time to look around for another. I did find bef burek on the menu of a Serbian restaurant in Milwaukee once and they did a good job with it, but I have never seen it anywhere else in the US.
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