From the beginning of the 11th century the Romanians from Transylvania lived together with people of Hungarian origin, learning how to communicate with each other and how to create friendship with people of another nationality.
Nowadays, some regions of Transylvania are still populated by a smaller number of Hungarian people and our traditions have been influenced by the Hungarian ones.
This is how Romanians got even to cook specific Hungarian food. As a result of living together for so many centuries, the Transylvanian cuisine is different from that of the other regions of Romania and on, the other side, the Hungarian cuisine from Transylvania is different from that of Hungary.
Trying to find out as many secrets as we can about the Hungarian alimentary habits in Transylvania and to make children see how much we have influenced each other, School No. 7 organized an activity in which this purpose could be accomplished.
Hungarian pupils from Vistea, a village situated near Cluj, came into our school bringing traditional Hungarian dishes they eat in the area. Our pupils also brought a few of these dishes and they demonstrated the others that we are great cooks, too.
At the beginning the children sang a song about friendship named: "Give me your hand, my dear friend". Afterwards everyone presented his/her food explaining the way they made it. Most of the dishes were specific to the period between Christmas and the beginning of the Easter Fast, when the Hungarian usually have a time of celebrations, festivals, carnivals and parties.
While the kids were presenting the dishes, a local TV filmed the activity.
Then the contest began: the participants were tied up so that they couldn't see and they were given a small bite of one of the dishes; they had to guess the ingredients. Everyone knew what the food was made of.
It was quite funny. And the food was just delicious.
In the end the best cook got a special diploma and all the others were rewarded because they did a great job.
This event wasn't only a game, it was an opportunity for the pupils to understand how important it is for us to know a small part of the other cultures of the people living near us.