Papanasi appears as a signature dish in 1 Romania cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Papanași · Bucharest
Papanași are Romanian cottage-cheese doughnuts: a fluffy fried dough ring topped with a smaller dough ball, served under a pool of smântână (sour cream) and a generous spoon of blueberry or rose-petal preserve.
Papanași are a Romanian rural dessert, the name likely deriving from the Latin papa ('food, mush'). The fried doughnut format appears in early 20th-century cookbooks, made with brânza de vaci (cottage cheese), eggs, flour and baking soda, served with sour cream and forest-fruit preserves. A boiled version (papanași fierți) exists in the mountain regions; the fried version became the restaurant standard. The dish is Romania's signature dessert export, found on every Bucharest restaurant menu.
Where to eat in Bucharest:
- Caru' cu bere
- Hanu' lui Manuc
- Lacrimi și Sfinți
- Crama Domnească
- Vatra