Another day, another celebration 🙂 This one is called Mucenicii in Romanian, which translates as the Martyrs of Sebaste. It’s a religious holiday, celebrating the martyrdom of 40 Roman soldiers who confessed their believe in the Christian faith and were condemned to be left naked into an ice covered pond near the city of Sebaste in Armenia, on a cold winter night, so they might freeze to death. The way we celebrate this in Romania is with a feast day, by preparing a special dish in the honor of the martyrs. It’s the only time of year I get to eat this dish and even if it’s not much, not a very sophisticated affair, I really like it. The dish bears the name of the celebration – “mucenici” – and can be prepared in two ways. The ones shown in the photograph above are the kind we prepare in the south of Romania. The dish consists of pieces of dough shaped as number 8 which we boil in water, adding sugar, cinnamon, ground walnuts and a bit of rum. In the northeast of Romania, in Moldova, they bake the dough and glaze it with honey and walnuts and you can see the result in the picture below. They’re quite yummy and I can’t wait to eat them today. I’ll have to excuse myself for the quality of the photos. They’re from my archives and back when I took them I thought I was taking them for myself so I didn’t pay too much attention to framing or setting up the scene.
Pozele sunt foarte frumoase ! Nu sunt necesare scuzele .. poate ca nu mergeau sticla pe care scrie ..” spiced rum” si cutia de “cinnamon”. Sau poate asta arata ca se mai gatesc mucenici si pe alte meridiane 🙂
Anca: Aici ai nimerit-o 🙂 pozele sunt făcute pe vremea când locuiam în California, deci aşa cum ai zis, se gătesc mucenici şi pe alte meridiane 🙂 Din cauza asta apare sticla de “spiced rum” şi cutia de “cinnamon” 🙂 Deşi rom din asta se găseşte şi în Romania, cred.
yummy! i’ve never tried it before but from the looks of it, it’s enticing. ^0^
can i request for less cinnamon pls. though. ^-^
Interesting! Might I suggest a rum and coke to wash it down.
Walnuts and rum, eh? Can’t you prolong the “season” a bit, one days seems a bit brief? 🙂
With this weather I am at risk of Sebasting myself if I go out on my terrace… I like both versions of these Mucenicii, March must be a very interesting month in your country. Any holiday on the 13th?
VP: That’s it for March 🙂 Well, there is the Sunday before Easter, which this years falls on March 27, but I don’t know if I’ll write about that.
hi andreea,
just thought i’d giive you an award,
drop by my blog if you have the time, i know you just had a new template and all,
feel free if you want to add it or not, no pressure. ^-^
Looks delicious!