We live in paradise

Now that the gourmet year has begun, I feel the need to explain a few words from the terminology used more and more frequently in connection with food.

What does gastronomy mean? What does Slow Food mean? And why should we eat locally? Or what is the New Romanian Cuisine? Let's take them all in turn and see how we help ourselves, here in Sibiu in 2019, the year of the European gastronomic region.

I begin by revealing my belief about southern Transylvania: we live in paradise! Not politically, economically, or how we are managed. But if we think of biological diversity, the richness of natural and cultural resources, and the climate or geography we enjoy, here is paradise.

I move on to explaining the term “gastronomy”. It is related to the stomach (gaster) and the word (nomos), that is, the connection between food and culture, between nature and man. Exactly the study of this relationship is important to us or simply explained: what is the story of each dish?

That being said, I think the story of paradise dishes is best reflected through the #slowfood principles. Launched as a punctual action by some activists in Italy in the 1980s, against globalization and fast food, Slow Food is today the largest international movement in 160 countries that advocates people's access to good, clean and correct food.

Hello, that is, of good quality, tasteful and healthy, clean - not harming the environment, and correct having in mind an affordable price for the consumer, but especially for the producer.

So we are talking about the story of good, clean and fair food in our little paradise in southern Transylvania in 2019 and from now on.

To all this we add the fact that eating locally usually refers to a 50-70 km radius from the production site and we suddenly realize that we cover its well-defined county, the Sibiu region.

We’ll return in the following articles with the benefits of local food for our community, but also with the trends of the new Romanian cuisine.

All the best,
My Transylvania Association