Mamaliga is boiled cornmeal, Romania’s national dish, which you can eat on its own or with soured cream, sheep’s cheese, bacon, squid or what you will. The most distinctive thing about it is its colour, which is bright yellow, not as rich as this text but not far off. According to my fellow mamaliga enthusiast, mamaliga.com, it’s not the same as polenta or American cornmeal hash, but I’m not going to cross spoons with a real Romanian and this site is meant to be a good old stirabout to let you get mixed up in Romanian rural affairs.
“What kind of affairs?”, you cry. Right now, the main one is shepherding. Looking after sheep, a thing that Romanians sometimes call oieritul, pastoritul or, with delightful quaintness, a urmari coada oilor (which means following the sheep’s tail), has a very long history in south-east Europe and especially in the Carpathian Mountains. The practice of transhumance, as any Romanian country person will tell you, is dying out. That’s a shame. Transhumance means moving flocks or herds – which can be of sheep, goats, cows, horses, capybaras, or even prides of grass-eating lions (go on you fell for it!) – long distances between summer and winter pastures. The shame being that grazing animals help keep biodiversity in trim. And without biodiversity WE ARE ALL DOOMED… Even the vegans. Help. So what are we going do about it? Well, mamaliga might have some answers (but not tonight because I’m bushed).
There’s lots of folklore connected with shepherding in Romania. My aim is to make mamaliga a resource for people who want to know more about that, too.
So WATCH THIS SPACE and we will try to satisfy your deepest longings to get boned up on the ancient history of shepherding in Romania.
There’s going to be other stuff, like book reviews, links to sites that are concerned with Romania’s rural heritage in general and environmental conservation, the odd recipe for mamaliga, photos, vids and noises. And some frightful puns. If only you could transmit smells, too… C’mon guys.