Cluj Food Marathon!! Romania's Most Diverse Food City!!

I'm in Cluj traveling back in time in the Steampunk Museum. Welcome to Cluj, the second largest city in Romania and the biggest city in Transylvania. 300,000 people call this place home. This is a university city and this is where my grandfather Rudolf Hoffman was born in 1918. So I'm super pumped to be here and behind us we have Mateus Corvinus which is the greatest Hungarian king to ever live. Today we're here on the ultimate food tour of Cluj. We're gonna see the people, the food and the culture. Let's go! So you might be asking why is there a Hungarian king in the middle of a massive Romanian city? Well it's a bit of tension between Romanians and Hungarians but this was part of the Astro-Hungarian Empire and Transylvania is a land of many different cultures. We have Saxons, Romanians, Hungarians, it's a melting pot. When in Romania you have to eat chorba which is the Romanian soup. So many different variations and here in Cluj this place Fair Play is famous for their chorba. Taxi drivers, a lot of workers, people come here to fill up on soup. I love it especially the stomach one. All right here we go. My man, oh the pepper huh? So we have the terrace and then we have inside seating but obviously it's a beautiful day outside. It's like 75 degrees when I sit right here and this is it the tripe chorba. Oh my gosh this is gonna be amazing. Beautiful stomach. I love this dish. It is one of my favorite soups of all time. Oh yeah it's like a creamy broth and you go inside and you get some of that. Look I've eaten a lot of tripe in my life that has to be the softest of all time. So gelatinous but at the same time a little meaty. Oh yeah instead of grab some bread break off a piece right here and soak it in the broth. Look how it absorbs all that creamy broth. I understand why you would eat this especially in the winter months. Definitely gets you a little hot inside. Of course they always have this. Is this the spiciest eating country in Europe? It's not that bad. This is more like a flavorful chili. And over here we have the yogurt. Yeah this is real yogurt. There's like no sweetener in here. So I throw some on top in here. Wow. Yeah that with some of the tripe. Let me know in the comments. Do you like tripe? Are you a big Oregon person? It's like extra creamy now. The pepper really cuts through the fat. Like a lightsaber cutting through butter. Over here we have a family. Some assistance workers over here. There's a nice beautiful park in front of us. A little outside of town. It took us like five minutes in Uber. And they have five different chorbas. So if you don't want this one because it's a little too exotic for you. They also have beef, chicken, etc. My friend here is too modest. He's like you have to try the palenca. Okay this one looks like strong palenca. Which one is this one? They say this opens up your appetite. I know it's early but I have a long day of eating today. You have to drink all in the same time. The same time. It's a shot. Always pair it with water. They say it'll put hairs on your chest but I'm hoping it'll put hair on my head. I've been told that Varzai is one of the best classical traditional Romanian restaurants in all of Cluj. We're here for their cabbage lasagna and a Hungarian dessert. Come inside. As soon as you walk in this is like you know a huge doorway. And here we have it. Varna a la Cruz which is a cabbage. Think of a cabbage lasagna. Multiple different layers. On the top we have some yogurt, tomato and then some herbs. And on the side we have some pork. That almost reminds me of like a super thick ham from like Thanksgiving. Tastes similar. This one's definitely juicier. Almost has that maple sauce. Cut it through. It literally is a cabbage lasagna. You have the meat. You have some tomato sauce in there. Oh my gosh. Oh my god. It melts. It's all cabbage. It's very herbal. Some more herbs throughout. And super juicy meat and tomato. Almost like a bolognese and cabbage had a baby. It's fantastic. And then on the side of course we always have some of the sour cream. So on top. And by the way this is a cayenne pepper. All right so some mamaliga right here. I love the way they did this one. Oh yeah this is how I like it. Almost like a cake. Nice and thick. Mamaliga. It's all about the polenta here in Romania. This one's like so soft. It's not like a super bland polenta. Sometimes it's too bland. That's why they add some sour cream. This one you can definitely feel the corn throughout. But I think the best thing to do is just like start pairing things together you know. And I love the atmosphere here. Beautiful restaurant in this terrace. You can go inside but that's for the winter months. In the summer you're outside and you really feel that classic traditional vibe here. This restaurant dates back to 1968. I love it here. My name is Dorel. Oh Dorel. Dorel is the owner. Thank you. You look like my family. Yes? Yeah. My colleague. All good. All good. Thank you so much. Oh he's the owner. So nice. So nice. And we have to try their suica. Okay. It's another version of polenta. Damn. That's wild. You guys drink this all the time. Romanians. How do you do this? That's strong. So it was really interesting. We just met the owner right there. And as you mentioned he identified it as a communist. And one of the things about this country is that they do have a legacy of communism. They were part of the eastern bloc of course. And you know have the legacy of Chichescu and everything like that. But there is a bit of a mixed opinion. It's not all negative. Of course the older folks tend to identify more in that way. Obviously it's maybe like 10 to 15 percent of the population because now of course they're a democracy. But it's just something to consider when he said that. You know maybe that has a negative connotation to our American audience out there. So just something to consider. I'm so pumped to try this one. My grandpa's favorite dessert. Vargabeles. So what is this? Well I'd say it's a crossbreed of many different things. So you have noodles in here. You have eggs. You have like a custard. Some lemon. Some sugar. It's like almost like a cake. Let's say a custard cake. Faluda. Oh it's tough. Oh as soon as you crack through that little shield. What a beauty. So I do see some raisins in here as well. So we gotta cut this a little more. Like that. Rudolph Hoffman. This is for you. If you didn't tell me it was noodles I wouldn't know. Mmm I love the dough. So it's doughy. It's lemony. You got the sugar. I love the crust on top. It's a good cake. This with some ice cream? Vanilla? Why not? Eating dishes like this from the past is like shaking hands with the old times. You know things that we take for granted now. Thankfully it survived. Try it. You know compared to other cities in Romania this one is a more modern city. A lot of universities. And here is one of the main attractions. Saint Michael's Church. Let's go inside and check it out. Look at this incredible church. This is Saint Michael's Church. Dates back to the 14th century. It's the second largest church in Romania after the black church that we saw in Brasov. It is huge. It was a Lutheran church. Changed denominations multiple times. Now it's a Catholic church. When you walk through you can really understand the scale of it. Look at it. It's just massive. And over here we have some beautiful frescoes. Man this is easily 600 years old. Yeah one of the things I like to do whenever I go anywhere. Doesn't matter if it's a church, a temple, mosses. Go inside. Take a second to like thank the Lord. Thank God. Whoever you're talking to for today. You know I'm so fortunate to be here in this beautiful city. I have food on the table. I have a roof over my head. And just be grateful. You know it doesn't matter what religion you are. That's something I think we can all agree on. Is just you know be happy for the day we've been given. Because tomorrow is not promised and yesterday is the past. And it is very peaceful to be inside a place like this. You know you don't hear anybody talking. Just silence. Traveling is about connecting with your spirituality too. Not about running from A to B. Always on a run. Stuffing your face with food. Taking selfies to post on Instagram. That's not what it's about. It's about literally connecting within. And really understanding that you know we're here for a moment. A brief moment. Time is quick. Be grateful. I love staircases like this. So many when you're an American. This is like mind-blowing. Like going in here. Imagine this is 600 years old. And this is actually the royal staircase. Don't really know what that means. But I'll take this one. Rain. The bane of travel. You really have no idea when it's gonna hit. Bring an umbrella. A rain jacket. Throw it into your carry-on. Right now we have to literally find a little covering. Because we got soaked. We're about like five blocks from the restaurant. It's always good to have a plan B. Hit up some museums. Some churches. Anything undercover. Even a movie theater if you have to. This is what we're dealing with. And over here we have the Orthodox Church. I mean it's beautiful. But in the rain. Difficult. This is La Cina. They serve traditional Romanian food. And Transylvanian barbecue. If you're an American. I'm sure you're gonna love this. Marius. How you doing bro? Hello David. Nice to meet you. Nice to finally meet you. Welcome to La Cina. Thank you. So what do you guys do here at La Cina? This is a traditional restaurant in the center of Cluj. We have all kinds of traditional foods. And barbecues. Like Sarmale. Pork ribs. Mushroom stew. We have Tochitura deleneasca. Papanas. I hope you're gonna enjoy those. I'm sure I am. I'm sure you will. We have Romanian beer here. So for you. What does family mean? Family means everything to me. This is a family business. I work here with my mother. With my father. And my brother. And I think every day. Even if you are angry at them. When they piss you off. They're still your family. And you go through anything together. I love them so much. And I hope everybody does. This guy's making me cry man. So we're starting off with two different dishes here at La Cina. Marius what do we have here? So firstly here we have the Tochitura deleneasca. A traditional dish in Romania. You have pork sausage. Pork chop. With polenta and egg and goat cheese. Pickles. Here you have mushroom stew. Okay. It's mixed with vegetables. And with polenta of course. And pickles. All right so this one looks like a nice creamy mushroom stew. Oh my god I can't wait. So how should I try it? Like from here straight? This is all mushrooms. I love my mushroom stews. So good already. Creamy. So good mushrooms. What else is in here? You have onions. Peppers. You have cream. That makes it so creamy. So that's why it's so umami. So umami. I love that. So I think for this you have to get some of the mamaliga. Yeah. Cut a little bit of that. Put it with this. Wow this is good man. This is my type of dish. It almost reminds me like when I have like a mushroom soup. You know the creaminess. Umami mushrooms. Together amazing. And this one's like nice and fluffy. So good. All right now the star over here. Yeah. It's almost like pork belly. Almost like a... This is like Transylvanian barbecue. Definitely pork belly right here. So you have the gelatinous over here. A little bit of fat. The meat. A nice hearty gravy. Oh yeah. And the sausages inside. This with like a beer. Hot day. Perfect summer. This is mamaliga with the egg. Nice yolk. Get one of these sausages. You got perfect pairing right here. The yolk with the super dense sausage. It's like four different textures in one. That with this pepper. That's Transylvanian. Wow dude. I love love the pork. Yeah super tender. This incredible gravy. Just gotta grab some of this like this. Mix it with the polenta. And like really soak it up in there in the mamaliga. I love the name mamaliga. Man. And then the roasted red pepper. I'm sure it pairs well with this. But everything comes from the land here. We got the ribs right now with the hand-cut potatoes. And then over here we have the red garlic sauce. And then the barbecue sauce. I'm gonna go in here and grab the ribs. And ribs we always do with hands. By the way ribs is one of my favorite things on the planet. No no pressure bro. So good. It comes off the bone. Look look you just pull off the bone. It's literally finger licking good. Oh I love the barbecue sauce. Yeah look at that. So I'd say these are more like baby rack ribs. That's really nice. I'm all about those ribs. All right right here we have the red garlic sauce. This is like a pungent salsa. Exactly. Yeah it's almost like imagine a gazpacho with a lot of garlic. You're trying to fend off Dracula here. To my Americans out there. I think you'll love this place. It feels like home. And of course with barbecue you have to pair with some beer. And this is their beer from Bucuras. It's called Bucur. And it's beer de boulevard. So boulevard beer. Tasty. I'd say it's a light pilsner. Well especially on a hot day. Summer in Transylvania. Definitely come here September, October, April, May. That's probably why I think it's the best. Especially the city will be super lively. Because right now it's summer. So the four universities. Most of the people are on vacation. Some people are taking summer classes but most are gone right. They're on Constanta. I go to Constanta in the summer. And this is papanache. The most famous Romanian dessert. So what is it? It's basically a donut. Inside the donut is cheese. On top is a donut hole. And you have sour cream and blueberry compote. I love this. Literally every day I will eat this. They look so incredible. So right here. Cut this in half. As you can see it soaks up everything. Inside we got cheese. Oh I do see the cheese right there. I love this. And the sour cream is not your typical sour cream from America. This one's a little sweeter. It's an incredible donut. You taste a little cheese running through the inside. Nice and crumbly. Blueberry is phenomenal. The compote. Every day you eat this? Every day. Breakfast. Breakfast of champions. This is like the ultimate sweet. The ribs and the beer. Ribs and beer. And this every day. Right now we're inside Avran Iancu Square. One of the main squares in Cluj. And behind us we have one of the prettiest buildings in the city. The National Opera and the National Theater of Romania. It's an incredible building built at the turn of the century. And it was attended by King Carol II and King Michael. And inside it is absolutely amazing. Sadly we can't go into it but it's beautiful. And right up there we have the Prince of the Mountains. Avran Iancu. This guy fought for the peasants. He was the guy who resisted the annex of the Hungarians in the early 1800s. He is a national hero. The guy is amazing. He fought in the mountains. He made it impenetrable for the Hungarians to come in. And in his last years he lived as a peasant. Basically he said no to all the Austro-Hungarian kings. He didn't want any titles. He didn't want anything. And just lived out his life in peace. And he stood for the people. And behind him we have the Dormition of Theotokos Cathedral. Built in the 1930s. A massive Orthodox Church. Look at the beautiful domes. So it's open every single day. It's absolutely stunning inside. And on certain days there's a market that goes on right outside. With that said let's go inside the Orthodox Church and see what it looks like inside. All right so right now we're inside the Orthodox Church. And check out this little chamber. So the way it works here is that you pay for like you know probably for a candle. Come over here and light it. As you can see it's a beautiful church. Full of mosaics. Lined with silver. Very different from a cathedral like a Catholic one. Because here it's there's no statues. It's all like images of Christ. And you know all of the disciples. Mary. And right now actually Church of the Service. You can see the priest in the front. And it's completely different you know. Can you believe this? I found the Steampunk Transylvanian Museum. What is steampunk? Well it's futuristic steam power technology from the 1800s. If you've ever seen the movie Wawa West with Will Smith. Or you've ever read Jules Verne. That is basically it. Let's go inside. Let's see what it's all about. Follow me. It's all for sale? So I'm sorry what's your name? Accio. Nice to meet you. So nice to meet you too. Tell me about this place. Incredible. Well it's a lot of work that has been put here. It's a concept that the director wanted to put in practice steampunk. All right let me put this on. Cool. Pretty cool huh? I like it. Have you ever watched Miyazaki Howl's Moving Castle? It's another great example of steampunk. Actually scary. Can't even imagine wearing this. Now let's go inside. Oh my god. Look at how many things they got. They got bikes, paintings. Hey how you doing? I'm Arsenicus and I'll be presenting this part of the museum. And right here we have a steampunk bicycle. Now this is the best example of steampunk because it combines both what we have as a steam engine right here and things that you might need nowadays. For example meeting lights both here and here. If you go right here you're gonna see we have stop lights. And if you look carefully around this side you might see a little detail. A little detail? What is this little detail you're talking about? You need a bit of help. I need help. So if you look right here. Yeah. You're gonna see this is not a BMW. So it also has blinkers. Oh it's like roots on the ceiling. So this right here is an old Romanian movie. It's projected over there. It's called Hello Grand-Grandma is Landing. Hello Grand-Grandma is Landing. It's about Romeo and Juliet who want to get divorced. So Grand-Grandma comes from the other side of the country to convince them not to. Clearly not a propaganda movie. This is from 1981. A little older than me. So this one right here. It's the mutoscope. So basically you look at the movement and by looking through here and spinning this clockwise you're gonna see a short movie. Wow so cool. So basically on this one this will get rid of your phone addiction you know. You leave your phone right here and then all you do turn on the machine. And this does everything that you're doing when you're sitting on your phone. So basically like everybody's videos. We need that machine. I'm buying that machine. Yeah I'm buying that machine 100%. That's basically a bot farm. So they have their own beers here made for the museum. This is called Poison. It's an IPA. That's the best beer I've had in Romania. It's a super hoppy IPA. Let's hope there's no poison in it. It was used for cutting tobacco leaves and other dried plants of course. And it could also be used in potion making. So you know it fits really well into the vibe of this section of the museum. But I wouldn't recommend trying any of the potions. These might turn you into frogs or other nasty little critters. Vampires. Perhaps. We are in Transylvania after all. So you know if you see any little frogs hopping around just know that they are former customers. My great uncle was a Hungarian pianist. I didn't take after him so... You know what his name was? Puzzi. It sounds like... This room's pretty amazing man. It feels like I'm under the sea. Oh they got this on. Oh I'm gonna put this on. You can push it upwards. You can push it downwards. Subscribe. Now. What's in here? Oh my gosh. Whoa. This is my childhood dream. To be a pilot. Oh now I'm gonna be an astronaut. No I'm really not. Couldn't see anything. That was like... Oh. Oh I'm falling asleep here though. It's kind of amazing. Okay I know where I want to go. 774. Let's go. Next one? I'm ready. Oh man. You know this is so peaceful. Your journey has ended. That's it? Welcome back sir. Very good. Are you safe? I'm safe. You won the battle? I think I won. I got you some gifts here. You traveled very far. Unfortunately you're back in 2026 though. I'm so sad. I love your goggles. They're amazing. Thank you. In Romanian there's steam. So when you're hitting someone it's anti-steam. Anti-BS. Too much, too much, too much. Oh my gosh she's wild, she's wild. All right guys so this is upstairs. I'm not gonna show you everything but it is an amazing museum. Highly recommend coming to the Steampunk Museum. What a place. You know it's funny how this is a relaxing museum for me. Yeah yeah. Right down the street from Union Square we have some incredible pedestrian street. Lots of bars and restaurants. This place is a vibe. Everybody's drinking, eating some food. And right here we have an incredible building over 500 years old. And this is where Matthias Corvinus was born. That is the Hungarian king. The greatest of them all. Look it says right here the Romanian Matthias Corvinus is considered the greatest of all the Hungarian kings due to his achievements during his reign. 1458 to 1490. Look at the windows. Massive. The doorway still intact. Can you imagine when they put these in here 600 years ago? Matthias was actually here. He just walked through here. Breakfast in Cluj. And we found New York bagels. For all my New Yorkers I know you're gonna love this. Let's go inside and get one. All right so we have endless options here. Look at that. Hummus bagel. Bacon egg cheese. Mozzarella tuna. Avocado cream cheese. They all look super nice and yummy. Bagels. Who doesn't like bagels? All right so we're gonna get a bacon egg and cheese with jalapeno. She said it's the best one they got in her opinion. I love how they have the clock with the bagels on top. And yeah they also have coffee. All right so you might be wondering why I'm eating bagels here in Cluj Romania. Well think about it like this guys. When you're in a city or a multicultural city you're not going to be eating the local cuisine all day every day. It really depends where you are in the world. You know like sometimes I go to Italy and I want to get sushi. You know I want to try some burgers. It's not just Italian food all day. And here you know a lot of university students and they probably want to try some sushi. They probably want to eat burgers. And that's why we have some bagels today. And this one is the bacon egg cheese and jalapeno. Yeah one thing you'll notice about Romania is they do love their peppers. Cayenne pepper all day. This one's jalapeno. Let's try it. Look breakfast sandwich. For me it's all about the egg. This one's nice and spicy. The bacon nice and crispy. Oh I love how fluffy the bagel is. Plus all the sesame seeds on top. Oh it's cheesy as well. Spicy. I think it's all everything bagel here. But they have 20 different variations. They have a Nutella bagel if you want. So they have some sweet. A lot of savory. Definitely come here for breakfast. Don't forget what it's like eating a bagel. If I close my eyes I'm in New York City. Or a nice little deli in Miami. And if you didn't know Romania has a huge Jewish tradition as well. A lot of Jews from here migrated to New York City. And that's why we have so many different things like pastrami. The bagels obviously that's what's the Eastern European Jew thing. Very good. It's like home. One thing you notice throughout Cluj is that coffee culture here is king. Everywhere I look there's a coffee shop. And this one Olivo Coffee Culture. There's a few of them throughout the city. And they make some of the best coffees. But they also have brunch. So if you're looking to have some food. Some shashuka. They got some french toast. They have eggs. They have it all. Come inside. Let's get a coffee. This is actually really cool. Over here they have the roaster. You got the coffee beans. Got croissants. This place is very nice. Very enjoyable. You can sit here all day on my computer and just work. Some nice espresso. From El Salvador? Yes. Okay. It's a natural coffee. So it's a little bit sweeter. Okay perfect. You know what? I'll tell you one thing about Cluj. No matter where you go there's young people. And there's music pumping. It's like a huge vibe. University town. Sweet espresso. I need a triple. So I'm here with Duda. She's the coffee roasting champion you said? Hello. Yeah I am. I was in 2024. Wow. So tell me you're from Russia. But you've been in Cluj for a long time. Yes. I've moved here for college. I did physics. Wow. And in my second year they hired me. Teach me everything they knew. Then I became a roaster. So what can you tell the world about this city Cluj? If you want a good coffee I think Cluj or Bucharest may be the place. We developed a lot. And there are a lot of beautiful sights to see. There are a lot of beautiful people to see. To meet. To drink a good coffee. So come on. Come to Cluj. For you what does family mean? People that try to help you. Understand you. They are family. Those two guys you see there. That's your family. They are my second family here in Cluj. So as you guys know Romania has a history of communism. They were connected with the Soviets you know for a very long time. And right here we have the Soviet bar. Here in Cluj there's the Cheb bar. There's a museum for communism. And even yesterday we met a man who said he's a commie. So as an American to understand the perspective of what communism really is for these people. What it meant to them. Especially the older generation. But it's a bit of a mixed legacy here as we've learned. And it's way more complicated than that. And right here we have Marx, Lenin and Stalin. And again we're talking about the legacy of communism. And here we have Che Guevara social pub. Look at Che Guevara. They have a huge menu. Right here we have Romulus and Remus. The founders of Rome sucking the milk from a wolf. I don't know if that's really smart. But of course that is a myth. And if you don't know the history of Romania. There was Dacian people here. And during the Roman times the Roman came and conquered this area. They had many wars. And they made a settlement here called Napoca. And that's why the city is called Cluj-Napoca. Basically remembering that settlement. It's a long history. Complicated. But that's basically it. For my Americans Romania does not mean Rome. But because of the Roman conquest the language evolved. And it is one of the five Romance languages. And this is the Central Park of Cluj. Built in the 19th century. Literally right next to the center of the town. What a beautiful park. I know that I go to a lot of churches. And you know major monuments when I travel. But the best place to go to connect and be peace. At peace. Is in a park. You know the trees. Look you literally hear nothing. Maybe a kid over here. But it's all just like birds and the wind blowing. And what I do like about this park. Is that they have this incredible like sewer system. So when the water comes it goes in here. They have many bridges throughout. Everywhere you look there's a bench to sit down. It is a huge park. You see all the way at the end. And it is lined up with the canal on that side. And over here I do see some restaurants. And some beer garden on the right. Damn we got the Romanian Santa Claus over here. With the bed and everything. And right here next to the Central Park. We have Euphoria Beer Garden. They have burgers. They have pizza. And they have beer. A beer garden. It feels like I'm in Germany. Let's go inside and get a beer. Inside is epic. It's like a huge beer hall. You have beer mugs everywhere. Lots of beer. But of course it's summer. So we're going to be in the beer garden. Look at this garden. Incredible. Over here we have like a mini waterfall. Beautiful tables. You got umbrellas. Lots of incredible trees. And over here we got the bar. Look at this. And they got Kozel. Ursus. Peroni. And Pizzeria Raquel. That was one of my favorite beers. Not anymore. This is my favorite so far. And this is the Ursus IPA. Nice and hoppy huh? Yeah. So I decided to go with the Ursus IPA. Because I've already tried the premium. The rest of them are German. You got some Italian. And some Czech. That looks good. So this is George. George you're from Cluj? Or where are you from? Yeah. I'm from Cluj-Napoca. Yes. Okay. So for the people out there. What can you tell us about Romania? If an alien landed here right now. Says where am I? You say you're in Romania. What is Romania? Romania it's a big country. You have everything in Romania. You have fields. You have mountains. You have forests. You have lakes. You have everything in Romania. If you want to have a nice holiday. I guess you should try Romania. It's a lot of nice views. A lot of farmers. A lot of fields. It's a nice place to visit. And so Cluj. University city. I'm seeing some people graduating right now. Yeah. It's the graduation season. And it's not just Romanians. I'm hearing a lot of Italians too. Yeah. Here in Cluj-Napoca. We have a lot of strangers. Italian. French. Germans. Albanians. From all over Europe. They come here to study. Because we have top tier universities. It's one of the... I think top five European cities. University cities? Yeah. With universities. I didn't know that. Incredible. Yeah. You can check it. You can check also university. Babes Boyo University. It's I think top three. If I'm not wrong. And we hear so many good things about this place. The beer garden. I guess this is a thing here in Cluj. Yeah. It's like the house of beer. Here. Come and find the root. Where the beer grows. Here is the main spot. Where you can drink a lot of good beer. It's a hoppy place. Yeah. This place gives you a lot of happiness. Being here in this peaceful place. It almost feels like I'm not in a city. Just in the gardens. Having a drink. We're gonna try some Ursus beer. The beer. Oh that's nice. Nice crisp hoppy. Oh yeah. I like this way better than Pilsen. And yeah. Seeing all these kids graduating. It's so beautiful you know. Like they're about to start their new life. I remember in 2008 when I graduated from the University of Miami. I thought I had my whole life planned. I was gonna do a YouTube channel. Made things happen. And I went through a lot of turbulent times. But you know what? At the end of the day. I'm doing exactly what I want to do in my life. I'm so happy. I'm so grateful because of you guys. We're here because of you. So thank you. But remember. Like and subscribe. And leave us a comment because we truly appreciate it. We're self-funded. No one's paying my bills except the views. Okay guys. So I've been preparing for this for a long time. You know. We've been talking about this. And I'm gonna introduce you to somebody very very special. And this is Miss David's been here. Right over here. So I'm taking out vacations. And this is the reason why I drive myself to sleep in my own beers. Right here we got Rota. One of the most popular traditional Romanian restaurants in town. It's down this street. You don't even notice it. And this looks like it was like an old house. From the top look beautiful vines. You got the grapes. Inside it's like a garden. They also have a few different dishes. I haven't tried. A liver dish. And a schnitzel. Let's go inside. There's something very beautiful about being in a restaurant like this. Outside in the summer. You hear the birds chirping. Animals outside. You got the vines. And over here. We got some palenca. So Gala this is what everybody gets when they get here? Yes. So it's on the house? Yes it's on the house. Which one is this? It's schnapps from plants. This is what they do here in Romania. You have to have this. Which is super strong alcohol to open up your appetite. Enjoy guys. Is this real? Yes. I don't know how they do it. Kids cannot touch this. It literally raises the hairs. Makes you really hot. I mean it is enjoyable. But one is good. Two is beyond. Eggplant salad. Homemade bread. Here you have a sour cherry liquor. It's also homemade. Going well with the eggplant salad. So I'm guessing the owner likes his schnapps? Yes. I mean it's like it's coming with every dish something. Yes. You have polinka on the starter in between and as a dessert. Also one thing I want to mention is that they also have their own beer and their own wine. Yes. You should like some red wine. It's going well with the venison if you want later. And let me ask you. So goulash. It's obviously the Hungarians national dish. But here in Transylvania they've adopted it. Obviously over a hundred years of tradition. Yes. What do you guys do different? Different. It's venison. So it's deer with wild pig. Okay I like that. Yes I think the Hungarian one is with pork or beef. There's always beef with paprika. Yeah and the dumplings. Yes. Usually for potatoes. So this one is without. You'll see the difference. So this one's more Transylvanian. Yes exactly. So this is their eggplant salad. I'd say like an eggplant dip. So there's a lot of debate about this. Is it supposed to have garlic or is it onion? I'm gonna see what it has. Put it on the toast right there. Can't wait to try that. And if you see it's definitely thicker than baba ganoush. Mayo. No garlic. Onion. That's the right way. I'm all about eggplant. Eggplant all day. Look at that. Beautiful. Look at that is. Put it right there. Toast. This with some cherry snaps. That's actually amazing. It's sweet. Creamy mashed eggplant and mayo. This is diabolical. Okay so here we go guys. We have mamaliga. We have the pork schnitzel. And then we have their version of the goulash. Which has deer. So it's completely different. This is more Transylvanian goulash. Cheers. Oh it smells great. Tastes even better than it smells. My gosh that was good. Okay so how we do this? Well I think we should go in here first. Man look at this goulash. Gotta be careful. Nice and hot and it stays hot. It's thicker. It's like more of a gravy. This right next to the mamaliga. And you know what? I'm gonna get some of this gravy on top of the mamaliga like that. That's that's how you're supposed to do it. If you ever have polenta in Italy. This is what you want to do. You want to add some of the gravy always on top of the polenta. It's amazing. So we get some of the polenta. It's almost like a ragu. Almost like a chili sauce. American chili. Super soft but plus it melts with the chili sauce or the goulash sauce. So tender my friends. Slow cooked stew. Usually has paprika. Also dumplings. This one doesn't have that. Almost like a chili with deer. And also some carrots. I see some other vegetables in there. Okay goulash wins every day. If you don't know Transylvania has a Saxon influence. We've seen it throughout the entire trip. This is a pork schnitzel. But in their language it's schnitzel de pork roata. You can also say it's a milanesa. I love this. I mean this is something that you can find throughout every country. It's breaded meat. That's it. Oh my god. Crunchy. So super juicy inside. Imagine you're here. It's 1475. Vlad is over there impaling some people. Over here we have Mateus like learning books. Talking about the renaissance. You are in a super cold environment in the winter. Hot summers. You're eating this. Just juicy pork. Juicy meat. Polenta. The corn influence is huge here. Okay so these are the three essential questions I've learned coming to Romania. Okay so is it garlic or onion with the eggplant? That's number one. Is it Latin or is it Balkan? I don't know. You tell me. And then Romania versus Hungary. What fits in with Transylvania? You tell me. I mean it is a land of many people. So many dishes. So many different people. Saxons. Hungarians. Romanians. Roman people. And I heard there's many other people here now as well. So I don't know guys. I mean at the end of the day we're just all people. We shouldn't just enjoy our cultures. Right now it's globalization. We're in 2026. Everything's evolving. And as you guys know I love Jamaica. And that's where I always go to when I have problems in my life. I go, Bob what should I think about? And he goes, one love, one heart. So this is my favorite dish after a lot of experimenting here with in Romania. It's called mice. We've had it a lot. It is basically the Romanian hamburger cross with sausage sandwich thing. We're gonna go ahead and just give this a little cut here. Gently. Gently dip this in this mustard. And here we go. Nice, juicy, meaty. This is it. This is the best dish in Romania and I've found it. All right guys. We have two different desserts here. This is latte de pasere which is bird's milk or floating cloud. Which is a meringue cloud. It's a crema anglaise which is a vanilla custard. I'm excited for this one. It looks amazing. It almost looks like a freaking floating marshmallow. Look at that. I'm gonna give you all this. On top? Yeah. Look at that. Look at the custard. All right. Here we go. Look at that. What a beauty. It's a meringue cloud. Look at that. Incredible custard. Here we go. Meringue. My favorite. What is this? Great. Gives me marshmallow vibe. The custard. Wow. This is really enjoyable. It melts. I don't know what else to say about it but. So it reminds me of a peanut pie without the lime. I love it. I'm a big marshmallow guy. For my kids. We love marshmallows. S'mores. Big thing for us. Wow. Look at that custard. Take it away. It's too good. And right here we have Praditura Casecu Mar. This is basically their version of an apple pie. Thank god they put the vanilla ice cream in the middle. Love that. Got a little mint. Oh the little mint on the side. Look at this. What a beauty. What I do is I usually grab this and just dump it on top. Let it melt a little bit. Look at that. Look how it just drips. All right. So here we go. Apple pie. Have to get some more of this on top of this. Wow. Look at that. Incredible. It might be just an average apple pie. No way. This is. Yo. It's hot inside. You can feel the apple throughout. Crazy amount of vanilla on top. Sometimes I just want to sit here and drop myself in the sweets. They're so good. So when I travel in Romania. I rented with Car Rental Bucharest. It's the best car company to rent from because they provide great service. Good cars. Anytime I have a problem. I literally call them on WhatsApp. Super simple. Great car. Good service. What else do you need? Let's go. Very fortunate to be here during the Street Food Festival of Cluj. 10 years and running. This is incredible. There's three different sections. It is on this main street next to the stadium. You have easily I'd say 50 to 100 different trucks. Got Mexican. Got Indian. Got Italian. What else? You got Asian. Churros. Crispy. What is that? You got burgers. Non-stop burgers. You got wraps. Sponsored by Ursus. Best beer on the planet. But if they don't sponsor me. Maybe not so good. We're gonna go see what we try. Lots of different places. I'm pretty hungry. Let's see. So there's three sections. First one. Little Italy. So we're gonna go over here and get some arostini. Basically some skewers. So this is Andre. And so you won some awards. First places. Yeah. Two first places. Two years in a row. We are doing this for 10 years. So we are from Bucharest. And so what are we trying here? It's arostini. Arostini basically is Italian street food. But it's with Romanian sheep. It's skewers. Lamb skewers. Yes. And the quality of the meat we are serving here. Because it has nothing. Only salt. That's the best way. Yeah. So what region? I know that in Abruzzo they do it. Originally they are very local with their products in Italy. So every region has something. Oh man. It's gonna be so good. Look at that skewer. You know what I like about it? It's like it's thin. It's dense. It's gonna be smoky. Wow. He's dropping on the salt. Look at the salt. This is the Romanian salt bay. Yes. That's gonna be good. You consider Romania Balkan. Is it Balkan? Yeah. Basically yeah. We are in the Balkans. So yeah. We are a mix of Latins, Balkans. We have the Turks. So we are a mix of everything here. That's why it's so interesting when a foreigner is coming to Romania. Yeah. What I like about lamb is that it's meaty. But you still have a little bit of that fat or gelatinous. Here we go. The best. It's smoky. It's charred. The salt man. Yeah. The salt. Yeah. It makes all the difference. You have to have that salt right there. The best umami thing that you can use simple. Oh it's a cheating. Umami. Yeah. That's the best word for this. Yes. So juicy. It's amazing bro. Next up we got Little Asia. Let's go eat some Asian food. I love it. What are you guys doing here? Looks like some uh some wok. Oh my god the noodles. It's a fire. Nice stir-fry vegetables. What is that one? It's noodles with shrimp. This is with chicken. With chicken. And this is with vegetables. With vegetables. Wow and I love the pulpo right here. The octopus right there. That looks very Greek to me. Which are these? What's inside here? Noodles with chicken. With chicken? Yeah. I like the spice. All right so Bruto Estradale. They just wanted me to try their noodles with chicken. Look at this. Beautiful. So what do we have here? Some spring onion. You have some pepper in there. Oh my gosh it looks amazing. I'm gonna try a bite. This is what I love about street food festivals. You really get a mix of every culture. This is definitely gonna give me what? Maybe some Chinese vibes? Here we go. Oh my god I love it. It's a nice noodle. Super like uh almost like a glass noodle I'd say. Like super thin. The chicken and the bell pepper. Oh it gives it so much. You know for me Asian food is one of my tops in the world. I don't get enough of it. I live from Miami. Look at that. The mix here. It's almost like a stir-fry with noodles and chicken. The best comparison. The freshness of the spring onion. Oh man it's a pop. It really is a classic stir-fry. Nice soy throughout. The onions really cut through the fat like a lightsaber through butter. And uh yeah. Another thing I want to just say again is that this is a international city. It's Cluj. Four different universities here. All students from around Europe. One of the top university cities in Europe. So there's food everywhere and it's diverse and it's not just Romanian food. We have a big mix. You know what? Let me get some of this. Oh that's gonna be a good bite. For me there's nothing like fresh vegetables. You like how the noodles are a little al dente? It's all about that soy. Beautiful chicken. Hey it's delicious. Thank you so much. And where are you from by the way? Where are you from? From Cluj? Oh okay great great. So for the people out there who have never heard of Romania. What would you tell them about Romania? About Romania? Yeah the best food. Best food? Yeah. Best food? Best beer? Best? Best woman of course man. I didn't say it. For all my Indians. You guys know I love you. And I haven't tried Indian food in a very long time. I miss my curries. Over here we have Indy Van. And they got pakora, butter chicken, onion, bhaji, mango lassi, mango chai. How you guys doing? You good? David. Pleasure. Nice to meet you. Look so I'm going to try one thing. What do I try? What's your number one? Everything number one. And the onion bhaji is one of my top street foods in India. You can find it everywhere. Butter chicken is a classic obviously. Where are you guys from? Sri Lanka. From Sri Lanka? Oh looks good. And this is one chili pickle. Some chili pickles? Yeah. My favorite. Oh yes. All right here we go. Thank you so much. Look at that. It's going to be hot. It's a little more liquidy. Chutney and chili pickles. All right so I'm going to do my favorite thing of all time. The chili pickle first. Amazing. Chili pickle. It's a pickled chili. Wild. Onion bhaji. For anybody who's never been to India you're going to find this throughout every single state. It is onions and they mix it with some batter. They fry it. They obviously add some masala into it. Some coriander always. And then we have the chutney to dip. Still very hot. That's India right there man. Oh it's soft. Nice and hot. The onion throughout. I love the chutney. What chutney is this? Tomato chutney? Indian recipe. That's definitely a tomato chutney for me. It's amazing. Thank you. So I've never seen this before. This is a prosecco crock or you know sparkling wine. It's called my seco. He's gonna give me a little prosecco. So is this from Romania? This is from Italy. It's from Italy? Yes. Wow this is nice. So what is sparkling wine? Well if you go to France you go to Champagne region. That'll be Champagne. You go to Italy you have prosecco. And then if you go to Spain it's cava. Everywhere is different but those are like trademark to the area. It's basically sparkling wine. Prosecco. My mom loves it. Hey cheers cheers. Wow what's your name? I'm sorry. Costin. So are you from here? No I'm from Bucharest. You're from Bucharest. Okay. So I have a question for you. Do you consider Romania more Balkan? Latin and Balkan. It's a combination. I just say this because people don't understand what the Balkans is. It's a huge peninsula. But some people consider everything north of Danube to not be Balkan because of the Romans. But that's a lie. It's a peninsula. It's massive. So if you're Greek you are Balkan. Yeah. What's one special thing about Romania for you? We can drink more. More and more. Number one drinking country in Europe. Love it. It's good. Thank you so much. That's great man. That's you on Instagram? My mom loves prosecco. For mom I love you. What is this? It's a kimchi croissant dog. It's a kimchi croissant. Yes. I've never seen this in my life. It looks good. This looks like a mix between Italian and Romanian. It's like a German and a Korean maybe. You want to try? So kimchi and beef sausage with two different sauces and then crispy onions. Yes. And a Danish laminated dog. It's like a Danish croissant. Look at this. My god. I've never seen this. How do I even eat this? Your name? Peter. This is your place? Yes. Yes? Amazing. We heard so many good things about you guys. And we heard this is the dessert we have to try. But I guess I'll try this now. Peter is too kind. Look. We're going to try this right now. Oh my god. Look. So it's similar to like filo dough. But look at this. It's amazing. I can't wait for this bite. Here we go. Why? The filo dough. The kimchi. The beef sausage. All the sauces too. And it's amazing. Dense beef sausage. Oh the crispy onions on top. Oh my god. Imagine a hot dog in a bun. Next level. Real spicy. Creamy. This is what I need in my life every day. For real. Peter made me so happy right now, man. You made me so happy. It's the ultimate sausage. This guy's a famous pastry chef. Thank you. And I heard that this is the dish we have to try. This other one. Our signature dessert for Hikari. Okay. And this one is a special dessert for this street food festival. It's baba with sake. With sake? Sake syrup and cherry inside. The cherry jam. By the way, Hikari is a top sushi spot in Cluj. They love their sushi here. And this guy is the top pastry chef. Baba cherry sake. Look at this. This is made for the event. It is savarina dough soaking in sake. You have the incredible cream on top. That looks amazing with the cherry. And I think there might be something inside. Sides of sake. Oh, I think there's cherries inside as well. Oh my gosh. What are they doing to me? Why so good? It's too good. Soon as you pop in, look. You get inside there. It's full of cherries. Oh the whip. The sake. Bougie dessert. You know what? It matches this country. They love desserts. They love their booze. Perfect blend. Look at that right there. It really is delicious. You know what? It is soaking up that sake. Next up we have Placinta Stancy Brand. Placinta. Their traditional pie looks great. They have like 10 different ones on the menu. Hello. All right. Let's try one. Español, si? Español, hablamos de eso también. Ah, si? Hablan español? Okay, buenisimo. Okay, bueno. Mira, tú me dices cuál es el mejor de todos. Que si te gusta con queso. Okay. Esto y prosciutto. Prosciutto, apusto. Un poquitín de nata y ajo. Cheese with prosciutto and then some nata. So like some cream and then some garlic. Okay, perfect. Look at the dough right there. So she grabs a piece of dough and she stretches it out like a pie. It's like a bara. Yeah, it is like a bara. Bar with cheese. It's like tiropita. They don't put that much oil. But you can see it looked like a bara. Almost like a trini bara. They added the cheese on top. She folded it and then they put it on the flat top. Oh, look. It looks amazing. Cheese right there. Wow, wow. Oh my gosh. It's going to be so good, dude. Está riquísimo, eh? Está riquísimo. Guau. Si. La madre que la parió. Si no, te va a gustar. Buenisimo. Mira, aquí hacemos unas bolitas. Mira. Como cinco, veinte. Más o menos. Vale. Que se cinco, veinte masa. Okay. Que se pone un poquito a reposar. Pero muy poquito. Como quince, veinte minutos. Y después se pone para hacerse la plancha. Okay, so así es el proceso. Eso sí. Y ustedes son de acá, de Cluj? De acá. Sí? Y ustedes empiezan a planchetear? Eso sí. ¿Y qué significa Stan y Bran? ¿Qué significa eso? Stan es el nombre de nuestra familia. La mía y de la doña. Ah, okay, okay. ¿Tú sabes que se parece? Casi como pupusa. Right? All right, so she's going to put some ham on top. Looks like ham. Okay, so she's going to put more ham. All right, so look at this. It does remind me of pupusa from El Salvador. Just the outside. Just the way they put it on the flat top. If you look inside, it's the sour cream, the ham, the cheese, plancheta. So this is their pie. It could be a Romanian quesadilla, but to be honest, this is plancheta. This is different. Here we go. I love the dough. Outside gives me a little crispiness. Inside is so good. The sour cream with that garlic in there. The cheese is just melted throughout. Oh, and the ham. Look at that. That's big. Bigger than my head. But I love this. You can literally fold it. This is more, for me, not Mexican quesadilla. It is more like the pupusa style. I mean, it gives me, in terms of like the way they do the dough. Definitely different though. I love the garlic. Check out these people. If you were telling me that your family works with you. What family for you? What is family? This is the chimney cake. This is very Hungarian. Love my Hungarians, my Magyars. And we have so many different ones. Look, they got the nuka. So this is nuts. They got cocos and more nuts. Caramel. That's the more traditional one, right? Sugar? Okay, let's do classics. Yeah, one classic. It's the whole thing? Oh my God. It's a monster. Okay, I'm gonna have to share this with the town. If you've never seen this before, this is the best thing ever. Forget the cinnamon roll. This is the chimney cake. Oh my God, I can see through it. It's massive. It's gonna be so good, guys. Look. So what does it taste like? Imagine a cinnamon roll with none of that frosting. Inside, it's doughy. It's amazing, guys. This is definitely nuttier. First, I'm trying the nutty one. They have other sweet ones, but I think this is the one to try. Oh yeah. I feel like throwing a bunch of gelato on top. Wow, bro. It's good. Greek donuts. We're going sweet today. Okay, look at this. Look at those balls. Oh, they're becoming golden brown now. You just saw how he put them in. He has this amazing machine. The dough just cuts it down into a perfect ball. Then it drops into this super hot oil. Now he's moving it around. As you can see, it's becoming golden brown. And you can choose many different ones. Oh my gosh, which one are we going with? Look at that. Right there. Now he's gonna grab it, put it into a little paper plate. How many balls is that? I don't know. You just fill it up to the rim. Yes. Wow, look at the chocolate. Oh my gosh. That's good. All right, so now we have the pistachio, of course. So now some Oreos. And then we're ready. They're gonna be hot, huh? Yeah. Yeah, dude, this thing's hot. Look at that. What a beauty. I cannot wait for this. This is gonna be incredible. We have the chocolate, the pistachios, the Oreo, and the tiny donuts. Here we go. Oh, so the inside is like nice and airy. But then it's so covered in chocolate and pistachio cream. Plus the Oreo. Wow, what a beautiful dessert. So fluffy. The Oreo, nice and crunchy. What was I gonna say? Greek donuts. I said I was gonna eat one bar. I ate five. Just to respect the culture, just to let you know, this is called Lukumades in Greece. They're not usually like this. They're usually dipped in like honey. A little different from what we're getting here today. But obviously, we're talking about the fusion of cultures. We're in Romania having Greek donuts with Dubai chocolate. Delicious. Street food festival in Cluj, done. And I'm rolling out of here.