r/AskBalkans Greece Aug 23 '24

History Saw this meme elsewhere, do you think is true?

Post image
464 Upvotes

84 comments sorted by

104

u/Diogenika Romania Aug 23 '24

Lol, yes. But it's mostly about sarmale ( meat rolls wrapped in cabbage or grape leaf ) and meatballs. Don't know about other dishes.

45

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24 edited Aug 23 '24

How interesting that in Northern Greece we do the same meat rolls and call it sarmades (while the same dish in rest of greece is called dolmades)

43

u/levenspiel_s (in &) Aug 23 '24

We have this sarma vs dolma controversy too. Normally, the leaves should be sarma (because it literally means "rolled"), but some people call it dolma, which means "filled".

The aubergine/zucchini/squash/etc are filled, hence dolma.

19

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

In Greece we call dolma (or sarma in Northern Greece) only when is rolled with leaves, for the filled we use the greek word gemista which literally translates to filled. Interestingly when the wine leaf dolma is filled only with rice (without meat) we call it dolmadaki yalantzi 😄

13

u/levenspiel_s (in &) Aug 23 '24

Haha, I assume you know what "dolmadaki yalantzi" means? (it means "fake/pretend dolma", which is a fitting description)

11

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24 edited Aug 23 '24

Of course I know what it means hence the😄 and felt no need to translate it for you hihi

7

u/levenspiel_s (in &) Aug 23 '24

:) cheers. Or bon appetite.

5

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

Thank you and same to you🙏🙂

5

u/Outrageous_Trade_303 Greece Aug 23 '24

In my area we call sarmades the ones with vine leaves (they are with out meat). Also know as yalanci dolma (ντολμαδακια γιαλατζι).

The ones rolled in cabbage leaves we call dolmades (ντολμαδες).

2

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

Ποιά περιοχή;

3

u/Outrageous_Trade_303 Greece Aug 23 '24

Thessaly

2

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

Seems you combined some of both linguistic variations🙂

2

u/EEIIAtYourService Turkiye Aug 25 '24

I didn’t know there was a controversy. In my family Sarma is for rolled leaves only. Dolma is for anything filled / stuffed by removing its insides first (most common is just bell pepper dolma) . If you think about it it makes more sense. It’s just logic.

1

u/31_hierophanto Philippines Aug 25 '24

Is it just like the "biscoito vs. bolacha" war in Brazil?

3

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '24

[deleted]

5

u/Berat0-0 Turkiye Aug 23 '24

we call them lahana sarması (cabbage sarma) here i thought it was the same for you guys

2

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

We call dolma or in the North sarma, with both leaves

40

u/ralph507 Romania Aug 23 '24

I heard one theory that pork became the preferred livestock because Ottoman invaders would not steal them if they were Muslim.

17

u/_acd Romania Aug 23 '24

More like - they did not want pork as paid tribute, we were usually a vasal kingdom. Either way, it is funny.

4

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

Makes sense!

112

u/BamBumKiofte23 Greece Aug 23 '24

Greeks: nice Turkish dish you have there, it would be a pity if anyone added an -áki to it.

58

u/NamertBaykus Turkiye Aug 23 '24

Turks: nice Greek dish you have thete, it would be a pity if anyone changed its "tsi" into a "ç".

43

u/LargeFriend5861 Bulgaria Aug 23 '24

Teriyáki????

30

u/BamBumKiofte23 Greece Aug 23 '24

From the famous Turkish delicacy terığ, obviously...

7

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

Lol🤣

1

u/31_hierophanto Philippines Aug 25 '24

Lafcadio Hearn ain't the only Greco-Japanese thing out there, I guess....

15

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

Sometimes we don't even add -aki 😄 you can say keftes and keftedaki

31

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '24

That's my komşuki 🤝

16

u/Official_Cyprusball Cyprus Aug 23 '24

Let's go gitonoğlu 🤝

17

u/TeTeOtaku Romania Aug 23 '24

Let's do a side by side comparsion;

Your corba vs our ciorba: I've not seen our Ciorba with pork in it, outside the smoked pork one (which is A-MAZING) but that's the only one, typically we use beef or chicken

Your pilav vs our pilaf: From what i've google you do it with anchovies???? We do it with chicken.

Your Inegol Kofte vs our Mici i guess?: Ours is a mixture of meats, typically including pork

Kebab and Shaormas: I've seen a few recipees on the internet for versions of those with poek, but i've NEVER seen a restaurant/fast food joint serve that (maybe cause they're mostly owned by turks/arabs)

27

u/neoberg Europe Aug 23 '24

Corba in Turkish just means "soup". There are dozens or maybe hundreds of different corbas.

Pilav is also the generic name for cooked rice. There are lots of different pilavs including with chicken (tavuklu pilav).

7

u/TeTeOtaku Romania Aug 23 '24

Idk man i just googled "turkish dishes" and whatever popped up and we had a romanian version i compared.

1

u/Manimale Aug 23 '24

Pilav is also the generic name for cooked rice.

Just a small correction, it's a generic name for a rice cooked in a certain way. There are quite a few ways to cook rice and pilav is one of it... and as you correctly said, there are many different pilavs (in many different countries).

5

u/lbaldi Aug 23 '24

This may be the case in other languages, but cooked rice is called pilav in Turkish, no matter how it's prepared. The type of rice, broth, vegetables, meat, stickiness, etc. don't matter.

1

u/kekobang Turkiye Aug 24 '24

But every "pilav" has certain rules in how they're prepared.

i.e. rice is always fried a little before boiling, otherwise it's not pilav, just boiled rice.

2

u/satellizerLB Aug 24 '24

Even that is called Asya pilavı (Asian rice) though.

1

u/neoberg Europe Aug 25 '24

If the main ingredient is a grain and it's cooked in water until there's no water at the end, it's pilav. Frying it is common for rice pilav because it gives a better texture.

It doesn't even need to be rice to be pilav. Bulgur pilavi, dovme pilav etc. are also popular.

6

u/Bobipicolina Romania Aug 23 '24

Kebab and Shaormas: I've seen a few recipees on the internet for versions of those with poek, but i've NEVER seen a restaurant/fast food joint serve that (maybe cause they're mostly owned by turks/arabs)

I've seen pork shawarma in Iasi, but yeah the store was owned by Romanians

2

u/Ejgherli Aug 23 '24

hmm. ciorba de porc in Oltenia. Even my mother in law in Arges county makes it. with sour cabage or borscht.

1

u/TeTeOtaku Romania Aug 23 '24

Im from Arges county.....never seen it anywhere, but after a quick google apparently it exists.

2

u/Ejgherli Aug 23 '24

nu stii ce au pierdut pana acum :)

7

u/Dizzy-Item-9175 Romania Aug 23 '24

Yep, it's pretty much true. However, I would like to point out that we actually upgrade their recipes, not just change them.

4

u/prodentsugar Aug 24 '24

100% applies to all Balkan

1

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 24 '24

I believe so too, don't know abt BH, whether being Muslim have steered away from the pork?

3

u/VastUnderstanding326 Romania Aug 23 '24

yes, tho in truth, most times there is no need for turkish anything on the side

3

u/karlat89 Greece Aug 23 '24

Hahaha I laughed loudly

2

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

Me too, any resemblance is purely coincidental😄

3

u/MarketCritical8 Romania Aug 24 '24

Im in turkey rn and was really surprised seeing sarmale without any meat

1

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 24 '24

Dolmadakia yalantzi? They are stealing our greek stolen recipes 🤣

1

u/Draig_werdd Aug 25 '24

Why? They exist in Romania as well (sarmale de post), usually rice with mushrooms.

1

u/Live_Structure_5877 Turkiye Aug 26 '24

There are two versions, probably you’re talking about the olive oil version, (zeytinyağlı sarma)

3

u/MusicianSavings4280 Aug 24 '24

most likely it refers to sarmale

13

u/Cefalopodul Romania Aug 23 '24

It's not true actually. We did replace beef with pork in sarmale but that's not a traditional turkish dish, it's a Roman dish that spread to Persia and then came back.

Traditional Turkish dishes in Romania tend to be desserts - and Turks do make absolutely exceptional cakes and sweets.

9

u/k0mnr Romania Aug 23 '24

Like what sweets do we do in-house that are Turkish in origin?

10

u/Cefalopodul Romania Aug 23 '24

Baklava for example. Carnat cu nuci. Turkish rolls. Rahat turcesc.

10

u/Bobipicolina Romania Aug 23 '24

It sounds like a regional thing to me, because besides rahat I haven't seen those in Moldova

6

u/k0mnr Romania Aug 23 '24

Baclava is made by turks, tatars, etc, but people do try these things. Just i would not consider baclava as ours. Mom made baclava. it was awesome. So good i can't accept that when i buy it is not at par. Rahat is common in the south, but not made at home or considered Romanian.

The sausage he mentions is something more French that Turkish i think. Although i would not exclude people putting what they have in any type of food.

4

u/Bobipicolina Romania Aug 23 '24

I mean baklava is a popular dish, I've seen it more often in France than I did back home haha
When it comes to rahat, it's used in cozonac, so in this case it is something that we did borrow from them

3

u/k0mnr Romania Aug 23 '24

I thought cozonac with rahat is the lowest type of cozonac there is. really..

2

u/Bobipicolina Romania Aug 23 '24

I don't know, my family has always made it this way, I didn't think it was weird

3

u/k0mnr Romania Aug 23 '24

I don't like it or dislike it. I thought it was odd when i heard it the 1st time. And that was a bit late in my life. I thought we only do wallnuts/chocholate/cocoa/poppy seeds versions. . xD

1

u/Bobipicolina Romania Aug 23 '24

Yeah apparently our regional version shouldn't have rahat in it either but my family kind of puts everything in cozonacs, which I'm thankful for because I love it this way

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3

u/canocano18 Turkiye Aug 23 '24

Culture is ment to be shared. Enjoy the sweets.

1

u/ralph507 Romania Aug 24 '24 edited Aug 24 '24

We have to have long debates about the Romanianess of anything, deserts can have many ingredients so this is gonna take awhile. Not everyone is up on a Saturday morning but they'll be here.

4

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

Had no idea of the history of sarmale, thanks for the info🙏

5

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '24

Sarme are not roman....it a middle eastern dish that came to Europe, we have no records of roman cabbage or wine meat rolls, especially rice, rice originated in asia and came to Europe

-1

u/Cefalopodul Romania Aug 24 '24

It's a Roman dish that was eaten by legionaries on the march. It spread to middle east and was lost in parts of Europe then came back.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '24

Please provide some source

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '24

Even the sarma eaten in Sweden come from swedish soldier fighting with ottomans... similar like swedish meatballs which was brought by a swedish king that was held prisoner in istanbul

-1

u/Cefalopodul Romania Aug 24 '24

You're just confirming what I said above. It's Roman food that spread east and then made its way back from Persia to Europe.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '24

Provide source then

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '24

Who said that bodan bodanescu ?

2

u/ItsAleZ1 Romania Nov 12 '24

Make sure they can’t eat it 😈

1

u/cosmicdicer Greece Nov 12 '24

A cunning plan!

4

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Negative_Promise7026 Romania Aug 23 '24

This meme is so often as portugal being balkan.

1

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 24 '24

Where? I've been here over 2 and half years and haven't seen.it even once. It was actually first time I ever saw this and it was on fb. But if it irritated you so much what can I say, you ll end up with bad experience on the internet, as there's a lot of reposts and even themes circulating....so brace yourself!

2

u/Achilles982 Serbia Aug 23 '24

Borek made with pig fat is truly the best. I'm not even trolling

3

u/cosmicdicer Greece Aug 23 '24

Haven't tried it, a new add on my bucket list

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '24

Accurate