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3. Food and the table

What you ask for, and what you say before you eat.

Pâine is bread, the ordinary food of the table. In Moldavian and much Transylvanian speech you will hear pâne, without the i. The spelling stays pâine. Apă is water. Still water in a shop is apă plată; sparkling is apă minerală. Brânză is cheese in general; telemea is the salty white kind.

At the table: poftă bună before a meal, said to the people eating, including yourself. The reply is often the same, or mulțumesc. Noroc when glasses meet. O cafea, vă rog is a coffee, please. When you want the bill, nota, vă rog.

A few kitchen words travel: sare salt — the cloth and the cellar, on salt — lapte milk, carne meat, pește fish, ou egg, ouă eggs. Corn on a Moldavian table is often păpușoi; the standard word is porumb. That is a real regional split, listed also in the translator.

• pâine Bread. Heard as pâne in Moldavia and Transylvania.
• apă plată Still water.
• apă minerală Sparkling water.
• brânză Cheese.
• poftă bună Said before a meal.
• o cafea, vă rog A coffee, please.
• nota, vă rog The bill, please.
• mănânc I eat. From a mânca.
• mi-e foame I am hungry. Literally hunger is to me.
• mi-e sete I am thirsty.

Next: house and directions. More bread on bread.