Romania’s Most Epic Food Road Trip!! Bears & Mountain Eats!!

It's summer in Romania and we're here in the Transfagarasan, one of the most epic drives on the planet. It is an absolute madhouse here. Souvenir shops, street food non-stop and look it's summer we got snow. Incredible. Let's go check this out, let's eat some delicious street food. Follow me. We just saw a brown bear here in the mountains. Where is he? Go, go, go. We're driving this beautiful road right now up this mountain through this incredible forest. Signs everywhere saying don't feed those bears. It's really incredible and it's getting chilly. I didn't believe this is July. You don't see this view every day. We're here in the Transfagarasan Highway. What a beautiful spot. Look at this. Incredible trees everywhere. Super high peaks. Nice and chilly and over here we have a gondola. There's a lake over there. Lots of bears everywhere. You're gonna see bears the whole time and over here look at what we have here. Guys on motorcycles. I love it. Amazing. So you see people on motorcycles, cycling, you know big vans. So scary. This is the shot that I've been dreaming of my whole life. When I looked up Romania this is the first thing that popped up and it's this road. Look it's like a snake going all the way up. It reminds me of some of my experiences in the Faroe Islands, also in Norway. Incredible with the gondola. So that gondola you can get it from the bottom. There's a small like area there, souvenir shops. Get on the gondola and go straight up to the lake. But of course we're driving. That's the experience here. We have this beautiful stream. Just like fall of water. You can just hear it. Incredible. It is freezing by the way. It is summer. This place is open only like July 1st through October. So guys remember that. Only a few months that it's open. Still really cold. So bring a jacket. Bring a scarf. You might need gloves because it gets really really cold. It's like it's gonna snow and there's still snow here. That's insane. It's July. Oh wow look at this. Now people are parking up here just getting the view. So we're like literally one pass away from the lake and you can see a massive traffic jam. Easily a hundred cars. It's going slowly. I think the traffic jam is because of the parking. I think it's limited parking and they wait for people to leave and then you know the other people in. But yeah just expect that. I mean it is 12 30. So maybe try to get here earlier. Try to get here like at 11. We're still in line. Been in it for about 10 minutes. It's 12 30. Like I said you know you gotta be here early. Try to get here around 11 in the morning so you don't have this problem. A lot of people just parking their cars and just walking up because I think the parking lot is completely full. And this is it. Lake Balea. Man what a beautiful spot. Incredible. You have the lake. We have the snow. We have people hiking all around the lake. You can go all around. This is Forever Trails. There's more street food vendors over here. You can get all that alpine air. Wow these are the moments that I'm craving. You know these moments that you could just stay still. The sun. The air. Got sheep like crazy over there. Easily like 200 sheep. Romania is amazing man. Thank you. I love it here. All right so walking from the lake back through here. You got a bunch of vendors selling magnets, souvenirs. But we're here for the street food. And so many drones guys. So many drones. Keep hearing drones everywhere. Oh it smells good. How you doing? Oh it looks good. Pork rinds. Got cheese. Got corn over here. What's we got? Hello. So she has honey. Honey from here? Let's see. So she has honeycomb taste. Wow. Honeycombs. The strong honey in Romania. Pine. Many minerals. Taste. It's my pleasure. Christmas tree. The best in Romania. Look. It's nice and thick. It's real. It's mountain production. Mountain production. Try. I literally had a honeygasm again. It's so good. Tell me one thing special about this place where we are now. The nature. The nature? Yes. Okay. The road. What's your name again? Corina. Corina. Yes. Guys come visit Corina. Get some honey from her. Thank you. Have a nice day. Thank you. Thank you. All right over here of course we have bowls. This is the best thing ever. This is Mama Liga. Which is polenta stuffed with cheese. Sometimes they put sausage. So good. You got some Turkish coffee over here. Cafe Cupicino. Looks good. More souvenirs. So if you're cold you can buy something here. Oh and warm up. What else we got? Kurtus Kalak. Love this. So good. Chimney cake. Oh yeah. Let me see. Let me see it. Can you do it for us? Smells good. Wow with the amber right there. Oh and ice cream. Very good. So you put the ice cream inside the Kurtus Kalak. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh wow. That's good. Smells great man. Thank you. Feels good here. I'm gonna stay here. I need a warm up. One special thing about here. The mountains. The mountain. Yes. So and are you Hungarian? You said you're Hungarian. Are you Hungarian in Romania? Yes. Tell me what does family mean to you? Love. I love it. All right let's keep going. By the way that means I love you in Hungarian. So all right let's see. What else we got? We have more. You know it's so popular here in Romania. The Kurtus Kalaks and langos too. So popular. All right just forever souvenirs. And if you have to go to the bathroom it's five lei. And another thing I have to tell you about this place. No ATMs. And a lot of people don't take cards. So bring cash. I brought like two hundred dollars in lei. Must bring it. Look at this. I'm walking through a sea of people. It just gets crowded and crowded and more crowded. Oh wow those look good. The twister potatoes. Kurtus Pirala. All right so he's gonna do the spiral potatoes. Yeah they're very good around here. Can I have one of those? How much is it? 15. Okay look so he's separating it now. And then I think he's gonna fry it. Correct? All right so as you can see he separated them all. Then I think he's gonna put it right here into the fryer. Nice. It's gonna be nice and hot. It's a light fry huh? He fries it for about like two minutes. Makes it nice and crispy. And then I think he's gonna throw some of the toppings on top. I want paprika. I want it to be spicy. Chili. Chili? And this one? Garlic. Okay those two. Let's do it. Garlic and chili. All right here we go. Nice and hot. Thank you. Thank you. All right let's do it right here in this wild scene. So many people. Oh oh my god so crispy. I love the garlic. Goes with the spice. Spiral potato chips. Nice and crispy. Very good. Delicious. Good street food for three-year-olds. It's a great snack. And right here we have a massive line of shops. Souvenirs. Street food. Souvenirs. Street food. That's it. You have all local stuff. So a lot of farmers in the area they bring their produce here. There's cat. Goose. My kids would love this. They got t-shirts of of the road. I love it with the bears. And they have forever magnets. So if you're interested in getting a magnet these are pretty cool. They got the the bear claws. Keep going. Oh they got berries here now. So now this is a different shop. They got berries and they have all these honeys. Plus like look at this. Oh no it's like it's like nuts and seeds in honey. It's pretty good. Okay so the next shop. Look at this. Chocolate. Oh wow. Chocolate. That's something different. I haven't seen chocolate in Romania. Oh it's more like a fudge chocolate with walnuts. What else you got? Just a regular one. They have a vanilla cacao. Oh and this is like this is my favorite from the Netherlands. The big one though. This true waffle. So it's a super thin waffle. Usually you put like caramel or honey with this. Okay so what do you suggest? Because that looks interesting. Do you want to taste? Yeah I guess I'll try it. It's salty. And by the way is there bear sausage here? Do you have bears? You have bear sausage? Yes. You do? Yes this one. That's bear salami? No way. Oh my gosh. I'm trying bear meat. Hard to explain these textures but it's gamey. It's juicy and a little smoky. You don't like it? I love it. It's the best I've ever had. And over here the skin. This is the pork skin. It's gonna be good. This is actually enjoyable. It's chewy. A little rubbery but as you bite through the oils come out. It's good. Yes I know. I like it. You like it? Yeah. So Marian, what can you tell the world about this experience? This drive? Here is the highest road in Romania. So it's a nice country. You have a nice view here. Yeah and this is all your products locally? Almost everything is local here. And right here we have pork fat fried. Super salty. Wow. Gelatinous inside. Nice and crispy on the outside. Very salty. Very different from the pork rinds that I had in Miami and Latin America. Oh this with a beer. Yes I know. It's very good with beer because it's salty. All right I'm gonna try this. This one it's a traditional chocolate. Traditional chocolate? Yes. And it's with cocoa. Yes it almost feels like a fudge. Take a piece off. Look at that. With some walnuts. Oh man. Right away. It's dense although the walnut gives some nuttiness to it. Let me see. Cocoa. Yes. Where has this been my whole life? It's sweet. It's dense but it's more like a fudge. Like a chocolate fudge. Fantastic. So the roads only open three months of the year. July, August, September. And the best time to come is during the week. Don't come on weekends because look this is what you get. This is Sunday. It is jam-packed. He was telling me come tomorrow it's like a third of the people. And we keep going. More chocolate. Hello. Hello. How are you? Wow. Hi. Good cheese huh? Branza Burduf. It all looks delicious. And what are these? These are like uh these are pickles. Chili. Chili. Chili. Chili. Wow look at those chilies bro. And this is the best. The bulls? Yes. The best. Polenta with cheese. Polenta with cheese. It's very good. Yeah it's really good. So why is your bull so special? Because it's natural. Cheese is natural. It's Romanian cheese. Prepared meal for cow and sheep together and traditional homemade. It's not expensive. Miami $20. In Romania $20. Oh man you know the prices. So again guys come with cash. It's crazy. No you have to have cash. Oh you have card? I can pay with card? Okay that's good. That's good to know because we saw that it's really hard. But I'll pay. I'll pay cash. No worries. Thank you. Have a nice day. It's bulls not balls. Bulls. Different name in Romanian. Bulls. Oh look at the cheese though. Yes cheese. Oh my god it's like oozing out. Oh the amount of cheese on this one. Yes. Yes. Attention. I feel like every day every single day I eat are better bulls. Every day I buy bulls. The cheese. Yes very good. Oh it melts. Oh look it's like crumbly. Almost like feta. Not so salty. Oh I love it. So good. You look fantastic man. For 20 must try. 4 euros and you have this delicious bulls. I personally love the polenta like this. Polenta's soft. Nice and hot with the amount of cheese. You put a lot. You're generous with your cheese man. Because not have cheese is problem after. It's like a almost like fondue at the same time bro. I'm so ripped. One thing you notice about Romania is that you're gonna have some of the freshest cheese that you ever have in your life and that is a lot of power right there. Superbikes. That's Ducati. But yeah fresh cheese. Good polenta. These are bilberries. Also referred to as wild blueberries. They're the best. They're so juicy. They're a little sour but they're like yeah yeah super good. Super juicy. It's like a gusher just explodes in your mouth. What's that? 10? Pretty good deal. 2 euros. You get the whole thing. I'll go full up that. Put some yogurt. Some honey. Done. What's the mess? He also has raspberries, blueberries, honey, forever chocolate. So good. Meat. Whoa look at this. That's street food. You got the sausage. You got the pork. Looks like a chicken right there. You got the vegetables. What's your name? Christophe. Christophe. Yes. Are you Romanian? Yes I was born in Germany but I live in Romania. Amazing. Yeah for the Americans who have no idea where we are right now. Where are we in the world? Romania at Pula Lake. It's the famous road Transfagarasan. One of the famous roads in the world in the Europe. I could say maybe top five. Yeah. And it's a very special place for tourism and economy in Romania. It's something unique for everything around here. And I'm happy that you are here and I hope you enjoy everything. And we got also very good traditional food. These are the mici. Mici are beef with pork and they are made in Romania. And maybe let's give it a try. This guy's too much. This is my favorite dish in Romania. The mici. You know what mici right? I've tried a bit. Yeah. Try this one now. So this is better? Yes these are the best. Whoa whoa this is gonna be good. Okay this is made 60% beef and 40% pork. How is it? It's so good. Hot, juicy, a little oily but the mustard. Oh so man the difference is how much they put of pork and beef. That's a big difference. Yeah it is. But so question are we in the Balkans? What do you consider Balkans? You consider Romania Balkans? I can see that. Yeah. I asked you because some people tell me like once you go north of Danube it's not Balkan. But I can I think it's Balkan. But then here some people are like no we're Latin. You know because obviously they have a Latin language. So there's actually a percentage of Americans that think Dracula is real. Dracula is real yes or no? Yeah 100%. 100%. 100%. He's living also today. He's like a ghost. He never dies. He loves the taste of YouTubers as well I've heard. American YouTubers. Oh wow and look at the vegetables. It's like a stir fry in there. Nice with the oil. It's like super juicy vegetables huh? That's a lot dude. It's a lot. Maybe we sit here. All right that's great. That's perfect. Look at that nice juicy spicy sausage. It's almost like chorizo. Oh it's so good. It's nice and oily. The second you bite into it it bursts in your mouth. A little spicy. You know what the scene behind you. Look at all the sheep. Look at the sheep. Look at them. They're coming down. All right so I'm tasting the other sausage. This one is juicier. What meat is this? It tastes completely different It's a sheep sausage. This food is very hearty. The only problem eating here I'm gonna eat sausage all day. Lots of pork. Lots of sausage. Oh the legume. Oh my god. So you got a mix here. The red pepper. Eggplant in there. Oh it's so fantastic. I don't know what you put in the oil bro. It's so good. Nice spices. It's like the ultimate veg stir-fry. Wow the scene is amazing here. Oh my god it's nothing. It's nothing? There's some base around here. You can't even move. But it feels like I can't move today. Couldn't even park for about an hour. It was crazy. I parked in the parking right here. I paid. I mean we waited a little bit but yeah we got it. Thank god. Guys look and the big tour buses are passing through. That plant's so good. It's juicy. All right it's time for some bowls. One of my favorite things polenta. Usually filled with cheese but often sometimes some bacon. Oh wow look at that. Nice. The cheese ball. It's really good. Nice mild cheese. Delicious soft polenta. Steaming piping hot in this mountain cold air. This is life. It looks amazing this one. Yeah you know I noticed because I had one before. The amount of cheese. No no it was melty. Yeah but just the amount of cheese that's in it. Because the other ones we have in the cities. Not like this man. The cheese comes from around the area yeah. This guy's dancing. He's dancing. Look at the mountain guys. The mountain of me. This is what it's all about you know. Only three months a year. You guys good? Wow so beautiful. And they also have fish here. Smells good. Oh my gosh look at that. Look at that. That looks amazing. What is that pork ribs? YouTube. YouTube. YouTube. Oh wow he's gonna cut it right there. Yo it reminds me of picanha. It's amazing. What fish is this by the way? Pestram. Pestram. Is it like a lake fish? Yeah. It's already cooked? Okay so I think that's the last thing I need to try. This thing. You need to try this. Wow look at that mountain of meat. Wow look how he cuts it. Dude it looks like almost like a like picanha. That's the pork ribs? Yeah. Wow look at the juice coming out of those pork ribs. Look at this bro. I can't even believe that. Should we try a little piece of this? Small piece. Small piece. Yeah yeah. It looks good bro. Looks good. That's good. It's good. It's perfect. No I'm good. I'm good. Wow it's amazing. Oh look and they put some chicken now on the grill. Come come. We're to the back. My gosh look at that. Looks so juicy. It's good food here. He's so nice man. He's so nice. All right let's go sit down over here. Look at this pork guys. Oh the glisten. Look at that coating on the outside. I love it. Oh my gosh. It's gonna be so good. It's my Thanksgiving in a bite. Extremely meaty. Very hearty. A little sweet though. You guys have something to sweeten it up a little bit. Look at that. It's like a ham. Yeah it's like a maple ham almost. Okay. Enjoy. Thank you bro. So we also got some potatoes. Looks amazing. Nice on the grill. Almost like a stir-fried potato with some onions. This is the complete menu for you sir. Oh so this is this is this is a zero beer? No. No. I know it is. It is? Yeah yeah. It's a zero percent beer. Yo the crunch. The oil inside. So soft. Amazing potatoes bro. Why is the food so good? Why do you think it's so good? It's so good. Because we're having like a farm. We're growing the potatoes. You're growing the potatoes on the farm? Fresh potatoes every single day. So good. Every single day. New stock. New stock. I mean the pig was walking two days ago. The pig was walking two days ago? I mean that's why it's so good. You know it's all about the pork in this country. Of course for hundreds of years they were in the mountains working. They needed pork to survive. Yeah it's so good bro. We're never gonna eat something better than that. No no. During Thanksgiving in America we have this with our turkey. Some people you know. The taste. Very similar. But now we're trying to fish. Yeah so right here we have the first fish of the trip. Obviously I didn't go to Constanta on this trip. Let's open it up. Beautiful. Gotta be careful with the bones. It is trout. So the way they do it is like look at that. Take off that skin. Beautiful crispy. And I guess they put some bread crumbing on the top. Trout. Fresh water fish. It's like butter bro. Oh man. Why didn't I eat this earlier on the trip man? It's so good. I mean these fish are caught in the sea. In the sea. It's our sea. We are fishing them. The lake. Yeah so fresh trout. Yo it's a little buttery. You know it does remind me like maybe like flounder. I think that's the best comparison. A white fish. Especially the skin. The skin. Get rid of these bones. Here we go. Oh yeah. The skin's the best bro. Oh I was kidding. Crunchy and oily. Omega 3. And then for this he's got this. This is the way guys. Just like that. The whole head. Get some of that skin. Nice crunch. It's not what you're eating. It's where you're eating it. Look the mountains. Incredible people. My new Romanian brother. This fish is absolutely delicious bro. The skin. It's all about that skin. I'm so happy. And now we're trying a Transylvanian beer. Bergen beer. It's a premium pills. What is he doing to me bro? You're dead David. You're dead. No no no. I'm done with the food. Give me a second. You literally will die. No man. I'm really enjoying it here bro. This is this is a vibe guys. This is a present from my team brother. Take it away. Oh thanks bro. Thank you. They're giving us food to go. They're too kind. So this is a family business. They own a few different things here including the chalet. And I suggest this. I mean if you want to you can stay and sleep in the chalet right. That's possible. Yeah so anybody can come. I mean obviously book ahead. Yeah. During the winter they have the Ice Hotel. His dad started the Ice Hotel many years ago. 2006 you said. When I was born. When you were born. Yeah. Wow. I was the first child. I mean the project is very complex. We got the hotel part. And then we were building also some some church. A church. And then some very nice designs and decors inside and outside. And I was the first kid like putting in the water and in the world in the Ice Hotel church. And the priests were coming from the downtown. Coming up in the mountains to make me the one year celebration and stuff like that. Wow. Amazing. Yeah. And it was like a global hit. I mean national hit. I was on all televisions and everything. It was something. I was very I didn't realize that. But it was a very huge marketing strategy you know. Because this was the high point when the ice was booming in our country. And during that period. So if you come in winter. Come around January. Go to the Ice Hotel. I'll be here soon. Do you enjoy Romania? Loved it bro. Yeah I love Romania. First time? First time. We expect you here the next year. Oh I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm coming. It's so wild. Once you pass the street food area. The lake. You got this tunnel crossing the entire mountain. Damn it's long. Can you imagine being here 50 years ago building it. Drilling through here. We just saw a brown bear here in the mountains. Where is he? Oh my gosh. I can see him in the mirror. He's right here. Oh my gosh. I have a brown bear right here outside my window. Oh my god guys. Let's go. Let's go. Let's get out of here. It's actually a little scary. He's like waiting. I don't know. Let's go. Let's go. See the problem is that some tourists feed them. So they come literally to the road. And try to get food. Scary guys. Do not feed this animal. So if you don't know. There's many types of bears in the world. Brown bears. Black bears. White bears. And this is a brown bear. Up to 7,000. 8,000 in the area. Wow. That was amazing. This is the Vidaru Dam. Built in 1966 to create hydroelectricity. Think of the Hoover Dam. Very similar. When it was built. It was the ninth biggest in the world. Look at this incredible scenery. When you go through. You go into a tunnel through the mountains. So if you're coming from Bucharest. You're going to make your way all the way up to where we just came from. And this is incredible. Look at this. Wow. What a view. You can also go up to the top to get a view from there. But I think this is stunning. Look we just came from there. We just came from all that forest. And of course this is the Arges River. And look at this drop. Oh my gosh. That's so scary. Like I mentioned earlier. Please don't feed the bears. I mean it is a safety hazard for yourself. And whoever's in your car. But also you got a 6,000 euro fine if you do that. And from this angle you can see the sheer size of this thing. It is massive. Look at that. Huge. The bottom you have like forever logs. There's like a little platform over there. And by the way it took five years to create this dam.