Zeama appears as a signature dish in 1 Moldova cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Zeamă · Chișinău
Moldova's queen-of-the-kitchen chicken soup: a thin sour broth with homemade egg noodles, lovage and a finishing splash of fermented bran liquid or lemon juice.
Zeamă (also spelled zama) developed from Bessarabia's rural pantry of fermented grains and barnyard chickens. The sourness comes from fermented wheat-bran liquid called borș, sour grape juice or, in modern kitchens, lemon. The herb lovage gives zeamă its unmistakable celery-anise lift. Moldovan wedding custom names the day after the ceremony La Bors or La Zama, when a huge pot of zeamă is served before all other courses to revive the guests; the soup is reputed across Moldova to be the country's most reliable hangover cure.
Where to eat in Chișinău:
- La Taifas
- Sălcioara
- La Plăcinte (Hâncești 58)