We have decided to find out – once and for all – the answer to a question we are often asked, but rarely have the answer to: Where can I find Bucharest’s best mici?.
Mici? Yes, mici, you know: Romania’s culinary gift to the world, tasty-as-hell pork, beef and mutton meatballs usually presented in the shape of a short sausage.
Some mici, yesterday.
The early voting over at Facebook has La Cocosatul up in Baneasa as the clear leader. The last decent mici we had ourselves were at Caru’ cu Bere.
Feel free to add any other nominations below. It can be the man with a grill at the end of your road for all we care: it does not have top be a restaurant per se.
We will publish the definitive list of Bucharest’s best mici in the next issue of Bucharest In Your Pocket.
Oh, and if you are remotely interested, we have a whole feature on Romanian food over at Bucharest In Your Pocket.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Does anyone else get serious bloating if they eat a lot of mici? I have heard that they contain ammonia or something this is the reason for it.
I am Romanian, but, for my many sins, currently live in Bosnia. God help you if you say here that the mici/cevapi are not Bosnia’s culinary gift to the world!
)
(I myself find them revolting, but that’s another story
I really enjoy reading your blog, you’re doing a great job!
La Cocosatul is good, without doubt. To make it complete, the grilled mici should be served with bread, mustard and a nice cold beer.
There really is no point buying mici from the butchers or anywhere else. They should only ever be bought from a random bloke in a market or in a layby. And you need to be on the run, in a rush or generally a bit distracted. So you can never say where Bucharest’s best mici are. The question is flawed
was any people saying cocosatu actualy there in the last months? Parmalat is corect: the best mici sunt cei de cartier
While Valentin’s point of view is technically correct, the recepy for mici was altered enough that we can say that right now it’s a different thing. The best restaurant to get them is indeed Cocosatu. However, let’s not completely exclude another possibily: home-cooked mici!
The mix is pretty difficult to get right, the best I could find in Bucharest is the one from Metro. If you have the time to look around for a butcher’s shop that does mici mix, that would be my recommandation – they will likely taste better and definitely be fresh. Try more place, pick one that you like. I don’t have such a place to recommand in Bucharest, though…
The best way to cook them is on a grill (outside, since the fat will produce a lot of smoke). The fire should be wood, not coal. And if possible, ‘fag’ wood (no, it’s not an insult, I don’t know how to translate it). Place the mici on the grill immediatly after the flames are gone, but the heat is still strong – cooks them fast on the outside while leaving the middle soft and juicy.
I prefer mici served on cardboard with stale bread and that mustard that used to have a promotion to win 1 million lei if you found cremwurstila in the bottom of the tub. Obviously from a roadside in the open air. Ideally from a car market or similar.
Yeessss, exactly, that’s the spirit of mici
A very difficult choice!
?
Yes, Caru cu Bere’s mici are great. But I’ve had just as great mici here in Berceni at Nasu&Finu … and City Grill’s mici are very good too.
But have you noticed something? Caru cu Bere and City Grill are part of the same chain of restaurants. However, when you order sarmalute at Caru cu Bere you get 4 sarmalute, while across the street at City Grill you get 5 sarmalute… and they taste the same.
Nasu & Finu is 2 minutes by foot from my parents in law. I’ll check the mici out next time i’ll be there!
In August I’ll be there, how do we get in touch?
St patrick does good mici. Its the irish pub in Lipscanii
Nice history lesson! OK, while I do – I guess – agree with you to a point, the terrific mici love today are by and large a Romanian thing. They do exist in Sebria and Bulgaria but never taste the same (Indeed they do not taste the same in Transylvania or Moldavia. They are a Wallachian thing, and what we want to know is where the best ones all.
Right now, all roads lead to Cocosatul!
I have to disappoint many, but the ‘mici’ are not Romania’s culinary gift to the world. It is just another nationalist humbug claim that goes back to the before the communist era, when Romanians invented things by the car load from fountain pen to rocket propulsion, first air plane and of course the bloody ‘mici’.
These minced meat bars have been around the Balkan region and the Ottoman Empire since 15th century probably. The pork meat content is just an addition to cater for the local non-Muslim taste, which does not go at all with the original beef and mutton recipe.
Also, the ‘mici’ are not even Ottoman, but came there from Persia, which in their turn imported it from the Indians. The Brits are well aware of the exquisite taste of the sheek or kubideh minced meat kebab prepared on a skewer. That is ‘mici’ at its origins.
As for the claim itself- it has been propagated by the Romanian press in late 19th century, when the ‘mici’ were served at the Paris Expo Universelle by the celebrity chef Capsa and presented as a pure Romanian creation, which is obviously just another far local fetched claim.
Spare us the history lesson Valentin, mici like other foods evolves from various sources. It is here in Romania where the current mici taste described above has originated and this is what is discussed here, not who invented minced skewered meat dishes. It is the unique flavour, taste and smell which makes the mici Romanian. I recomend you place one or two on your plate with mustard, get a beer and relax.
{ 4 trackbacks }