They say there’s no food like home cooking.
For millions of Romanians who live abroad, the holidays are when they miss traditional dishes most.
Romanians are known for their ingenuity and love of tradition as demonstrated by a woman this week who was determined to celebrate Orthodox Easter on Sunday with roast lamb and ‘drob,’ a sort of haggis.
The woman, who was only identified by her first name Violeta, has lived Bergamo, northeast Italy with her family since 2000, Dejeanul.ro reported.
But she came back to Romania before Easter and took advantage of the trip to buy lamb.
The problem was that she didn’t just take a leg or shoulder, but a whopping 42 kilograms in her hand luggage, the Transylvanian publication said.
Officials at the Cluj airport stopped her as her bag was well over the maximum weight limit.
She opened her bag to reveal hunks of lamb, the Romanian haggis, bacon fat, pork, sausages and beans.
European law allows passengers to take animal products with them in their hand luggage “but not in reasonable quantities.” It has to be properly wrapped which it was in this case.
Forty-two kilograms was well over the limit. Authorities made her leave behind some of the meat.
Dejeanul.ro reported that other passengers also packed meat in their luggage for Easter but none of them exceeded the limits.
Last Christmas, a family from Cluj packed a whole pig in their luggage which they wanted to take to Spain where their children lived.
Airport officials made them undo their bags after two suitcases weighed about 70 kilograms They were carrying a pig, sausages and ham, Impact.ro reported.
„We’re taking it to the children,” they told surprised airport officials.
