I am not a great cook and during my time in Romania the most food preparation I have done is buying a bag of cereal to eat in the morning. Instead of making my own food I have explored almost all the restaurants around the dorm and quite a few others in different parts of Bucharest. It took only a few trips to various restaurants for the Romanian food mici (also called mititei) to catch my attention. The meal is on every single menu that has a Romanian food section and is consistently the first item on the list of available Romanian food. Most importantly for me, mici is almost always the cheapest meal on a menu. I have eaten mici many times over the course of my time in Bucharest. Mici is cheap, everywhere, and tasty!
The meal itself is quite simple and consists of the same things at every restaurant. The mici itself takes up the largest section of the plate. Mici is a grilled ground meat roll that can be made up of a mixture of different meats with spices. Beef is usually the main meat used in mici, but lamb and pork can also be present. A typical plate of mici comes with four pieces of mici. Alongside the mici will be a healthy portion of either potato wedges or French fries. A small bowl of mustard, that can be used as a dip for the food, accompanies the mici and potatoes/fries.
I have had mici at many different restaurants around Bucharest and it is usually quite good. The meat rolls are juicy and flavorful. Dipping them in mustard is not necessary but when done adds extra excitement to the taste. I usually dip about half of my portion of mici in the mustard and most of my potatoes/fries over the course of a meal. The bad mici I have had has been too dry and tough. I have only really experienced bad mici as part of a larger plate of different meats and sausages. I guess that the mici grills faster than the other meats or isn’t given much priority while cooking those larger plates. I am not a big eater so when I am hungry a plate of mici is just enough to get me full. During times I have had mici while not that hungry I usually can only finish three of the four pieces of mici. For a frugal meat lover like me, mici is an amazing meal.
After devouring many plates of mici from a wide range of restaurants I knew that I wanted to write a blog post on this great Romanian meal. I had one major problem. I did not have a clue as to why mici was a Romanian meal. Its constant presence at the top of any restaurant’s Romanian food selection clearly showed that the meal was culturally Romanian, but none of these menus provided an explanation for mici’s history and why it is considered Romanian. Before I took to the internet to find answers our Romanian tour guide told the story of mici to the group during our long bus ride to Serbia. A subsequent internet search confirmed that he told the official story. This story starts at a restaurant in Bucharest around the year 1900. During a busy day with many hungry customers the chef ran out of sausage casings. Instead of disappointing the people waiting for their sausages the chef decided to take a chance and rolled the minced meat into logs and grilled them skinless. The new dish was well received and has become a mainstay of Romanian cuisine. However, this is not the only explanation for mici. Many people will notice the resemblance between mici and kofta. It is believed that mici may have entered Romania through the Ottoman Empire in the past. It was then adopted into Romanian cuisine. This is perhaps the most likely story, but whatever the way Mici started to be cooked in Romania, it is now a traditional Romanian dish.
I initially ate mici out of curiosity and then continued to eat it because of its price and my enjoyment of the meal. What was at first a strange Romanian cultural dish for me has now become a familiar and comforting meal. I have not limited myself to just Mici during my time in Romania, but I enjoyed having a widely available go-to meal that rarely disappointed. If anyone travels to Romania, they must try some good Mici!
I'll have the Mici!
