Oltenia is a region in the south – western part of Romania. It is bordered by the Banat region to the north – west, by Transylvania to the north and by Muntenia to the east.

Common history and geographical proximity made Oltenia and Muntenia part of the same kingdom of Wallachia (known as Tara Romanesca in Romanian) – foreigners called the inhabitants of these two regions “vlahi” (Romanian word) or “Wallachians” and the truth is those people had and still have many common features. From a gastronomical point of view they both suffered some Turkish, French and Italian influences which have been more and more adapted to local taste and customs in time.

People eat many more soups in Oltenia than in any other part of the country. They enjoy their soups sour and generally speaking food is lighter than in regions like Transylvania, Banat or Moldavia and it preserves a bit of Mediterranean touch. Black pepper and salt are most commonly used to spice the meat. If you go today in some Oltenian villages (especially in the southern ones) you are amazed to see that farmers still cook their food in crockery and use a sort of ancient oven made of clay which they call “?est”. This procedure gives a particular enjoyable taste to their food.

Oltenians use a lot of fresh vegetables, chicken, beef and pork meat and of course they eat a lot of dairy products as all Romanians are great producers of milk, cheese and other dairy by – products. No wonder that Romanian cheese is renowned in the Balkans and central Europe. Romanian cheese, especially a salty type which is called “telemea” in our language, has reached Hungarian, Slovakian and Slovenian borders centuries ago – for example Slovakian people called it “brinza” (from the Romanian general word for cheese – “brânz?”) and they know it was brought to their country by Wallachian merchants.

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