For almost every holiday, there is a special dish in our culture. And I’m not at all joking when I say that on 2, 3 and 4 August we have three specific dishes for three different holidays.

There’s a lot of craziness with these traditions, but they’ve been passed down from generation to generation, and I really recommend you to try these super easy dishes too.
Let me explain what each dish is and the holiday it represents:

• Saint Ilie – 2 August
  It’s a big feast in the Orthodox calendar, people believe that whoever will work on this day will be punished ( that’s where the second holiday comes from, PĂLIE – HURT)
  On Sf. Ilie, traditionally we eat cucumber with honey. One of the most beautiful summer traditions, a delicious treat as special as it is beneficial.
  Why now? because honey harvesting was just beginning and cucumbers are in every household’s garden.

• Ilie Pălie – 3 August (is a holiday outside the church calendar, more pagan, involving a continuation of the previous holiday and people’s fear that St. Ilie will take revenge if you worked on this day)
  The first corn harvest also arrives, so this is the day to eat the long-awaited grilled or boiled corn (according to preference)

• Foca – 4 August
  Although it has nothing to do with fire, the name is similar foc (fire) – Foca, our ancestors decided that on this day we will not touch the fire, neither can we cook food at the fire. But that doesn’t mean we don’t eat anything, instead, we have gardens and fields with everything to feast on as at a great celebration of the summer. So Moldovan housewives have created all sorts of dishes, salads… seasonal and that do not require fire for preparation.
  One such dish is watermelon with fresh sheep’s cheese. You can find out exactly how to prepare this favourite dish of many Moldovans in my book Be our guest and also here on the blog.

Which one would you try?