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Colac, a round bread, is a traditional Romanian staple, served at weddings, funerals, baptisms, harvest, and religious celebrations. Like much of Romanian food, it's full of symbolism: the giving of life, renewal, and the rhythm of the seasons. Jamie Orlando Smith Photography
When Irina Georgescu was young, her mother kept a secret stash of “black market” recipes in an old chocolate box.
Romanian-born Georgescu, a Wales-based food writer, grew up in Bucharest under communist rule. The regime set out to forcibly industrialize and homogenize the country, stamping out traditional artisanal skills and reducing a colorful swath of regional cookery to recipes contained in a single cookbook.
