Another Update to Q9: Fish, Seven Ways

Here's another update to Dan's question about food in Romania:

Last Sunday, we stayed the evening at a friend's home in Braila, near the Danube Delta in eastern Romania. Our friend's father is a priest of the Eastern Orthodox persuasion -- Romania's dominant religion/worldview -- so his family was rigorously observing "Post," the month before Christmas during which you eat no meat but have tons of fish on Sundays. There are other Post rules, such as no marriages, but the dietary restrictions seem to be the most prominent.

Anyhow, the point of this Post blog-post is just to list the seven preparations of fish on the table that night:

- Grilled "Danube" fish (species unclear, but trout-like)

- Fried fish cutlets (species unclear, but it had a very dry, meaty texture)

- Smoked salmon fillet

- Smoked herring fillet

- Salt-cured fish fillet (species unclear, but salmon-like)

- Salmon paste

- Fish roe paste (species unclear, but likely carp roe)

Partly out of curiosity and partly out of courtesy, I tried a little of each. The pastes were surprisingly tasty (kind of like a salty-vinegary whipped butter). The smoked fillets were also good, though chewier and saltier than smoked salmon from a States-side deli. Nothing out of the ordinary about the grilled or fried fish.