The "what does she want to eat today" question seems to be getting answered in a more sporadic fashion than was first suggested, and while on the one hand it may seem to be a subject that isn't terribly interesting to anyone who isn't me, it is also something of a window into what is and isn't available here, what's different, and what's better. (Dairy, as an example, is far and away better than anything I've ever gotten at home: as mentioned previously, the raw milk here blows away the milk in the States, and the egg I just ate had a yolk the color of the inside of a Butterfinger bar.)

Unfortunately, today's craving illustrates something that I find to be supremely lacking here, that being bread. At first it amazed me that this was the case; there is SO MUCH bread eaten here that I initially would have guessed that the bread quality would outstrip that which I found anywhere else. It's a common accessory to practically every meal, either as an actual part of the dish or just a basket of bread slices on the table to accompany the food. Mămăligă is the Romanian answer to polenta, which is already bursting with carbs, and I've watched people eat just mămăligă and bread for an entire meal.
I then came to realise that my reasoning was leading me to the polar opposite explanation from what actually seems to be the case (not unlike my initial assumptions regarding the widespread use of manual transmissions). The more accurate conclusion seeming to be that precisely because so much bread is eaten, that it's likely people just can't be bothered to put much effort into the making of it. When a family can go through a few loaves a day, it really cuts down on effort to bake the simplest bread possible, or just buy something basic from the magazin down the road that can be assured to go with everything.

Bread used to be one of my favourite foods--good bread, that is. I've always been something of a carb addict, and perhaps this is what's prompting this craving right now, the fact that I've been trying to pay more attention to what I'm eating and as such am making a conscious effort to eliminate any manner of starchy, carby material from my diet (carbs still seem to make up about half my caloric intake, though, through foods like yogurt and apples). But I've been missing bread ever since I got here. True, it can be found, but really just one kind of bread--pâine albă, or simple white bread, one step up from Wonder. No texture and less flavour, I can really only think of it as filler. Occasionally you can find pâine "neagră", or "black bread", which seems more akin to rye, or pâine "graham", which is ostensibly wheat bread, but again, more closely resembles the stuff you find languishing in the bread aisle at Safeway.

So what I'm missing is the good, bakery shop, dare I say "artisanal" type breads. Crusty, springy, toothsome loaves with multiple grains, added herbs or cheese or vegetables. I used to be able to go through a pound of rosemary olive oil sourdough bread in a day, either freshly sliced by itself, or lightly toasted with a bit of good-quality butter. True whole grain breads with sprouted wheat and sunflower seeds baked into the dough, asiago cheese or sundried tomato and basil loaves, seasonal vegetable breads like pumpkin or zucchini. Ciabatta, focaccia, challah ... dare I even think about it ... sourdough. Breads made from every imaginable grain. The kind of bread that can easily be a meal in itself. The closest I've managed to find to this kind of bread in Romania was in the hotel we stayed in for IST, in Miercurea Ciuc. It's no wonder I came back from that training five kilos heavier.