The Spicy Spatula

When you work at home like I do, sometimes it can feel as if you rarely venture into the outside world. I go shopping and run errands but if I’m not careful days upon days will pass where I haven’t left the house. I work out a home. Cook often and rarely eat out because vegan eats are hard to come by where I live so, home is where I am most of the time.

But once in a while my husband will put his foot down and insist we get out of the house and it usually means a pretty good day.

On this particular day it meant a trip to Castel Iulia Hasdeu, a cute little folly in Campina, Romania not far from where we’re staying.

Iulia Hasdeu was a poet and her father was a scientist, of sorts. This castle was built after her early death and her father claimed that the designs for it came to him from her after her death because it seems the entire family was very much into spiritism and ghosts and stuff like that.

One of the coolest parts of the museum was this old school camera and some photos he took of so-called apparitions. There are even paintings that depict him sitting and staring into sapce with ghosts/apparitions above that are purported to be Iulia. Her death really shook him and this castle was meant to keep her alive for him and his wife.

Her books and poems are all on display within along with items from their family home and papers and such. It was a short tour as the castle is quite small but it made for the perfect day trip.

And then came the vegan nibbles.

We found a spot, Bon Appetit that had a full page of vegan options and it was only a few kilometers from the museum so it was an ideal place.

The options were limited but 2 of the 3 dishes were ordered were pretty good.

We ordered a burger and fries plus an order of vegan garlic fries. There was a vegan taco that was as large as a burrito which was completely unexpected and vegan ratatouille with flatbread.

The food was…meh. The burger was good but the bun wasn’t warm so the warm buger turned it into something that was difficult to eat properly. But the flavors were nice and even the vegan mayo was good.

The taco/burrito was surprisingly well seasoned and bordered on salty. It was very tasty but could have benefitted from vegan sour cream or salsa.

The ratatouille? Gross. There was some type of Asian style sauce in it that was both sweet and vinegar-y which didn’t go at all with the vegetables. But the flatbread was tasty and I ate too much of it.

Overall the few hours we spent in Campina was interesting and a great way to get out of the house and learn something new.