RO- food and coffee culture

Ah, I somehow really didn't get to taste many Romanian dishes. The only time I went to a traditional restaurant with some other AIESEC trainees I tried Samale, which is a traditional Christmas dish, I was told. Basically it's cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and meat, served with polenta. I'm no huge fan of it, but I liked it and I'm a very picky eater, so probably not the best person to write about foreign food.
But another thing I got to try was homemade cheese from goat milk I believe, which was similar to greece feta, but much more salty, because the salt is used to preserve the cheese while it is stored which is about some month if I recall correctly. It was very good and I got a great piece from Christina, who was my AIESEC buddy (thanks for everything again, lovely!!) but I never managed to eat it up before I went back.
Other things I tasted were syrup made of berries (homemade again by Maura's grandmother) and some juice made of sea buckthorn, presumably, at least it reminded me of its taste and it was orange, so I guess it must have been it. These were all incredibly tasty.
I guess Romanians eat a lot of meat, but what I know for sure, they love pastries, in any imagineable form. Supermarkets tend to have an amazing variety of chocolate or marmelade croissants, slices with poppy seeds, balaclava, lokum (both Turkish sweets) and last but lot least cakes!!
Then you find small cake shops everywhere, well at least in Cluj, with windows displaying a variety of cakes, cupcakes and pralines in the brightest colors which invite you to come in and eat as much as you can (remember the small prices!)!! Oh, it was so tempting, but I managed to resist for 6 six weeks, but then, during my vacation time in Romania, I finally ended up there (twice in one week*sigh* ;-) )!!