Grabbing a Bite
When you don't have time to cook, you might decide to grab a quick meal. In Romanian, the borrowed term fast-food is often used as a noun to refer to the fast-food restaurant itself.
| We will eat at the fast-food place in the city center. | O să mâncăm la fast-foodul din centrul orașului. |
You can also use the phrase are de gând să to express that someone "intends to" or "plans to" do something, like ordering takeaway.
| The woman intends to order from the new fast-food place. | Femeia are de gând să comande de la fast-foodul nou. |
The Main Course
Two very popular street food options in Romania are the hamburger (hamburgerul) and the shawarma (șaorma).
| This hamburger is more expensive than the shawarma. | Acest hamburger este mai scump decât șaorma. |
If you are craving a great texture, look for the adjective crocant (crispy).
| The chicken is very crispy and tasty. | Puiul este foarte crocant și gustos. |
You will frequently see this paired with a sandwich (sandvișul).
| I want to eat a crispy chicken sandwich. | Vreau să mănânc un sandviș cu pui crocant. |
Sauces and Condiments
No fast-food meal is complete without a generous amount of sauce. The big three are mayonnaise (maioneza), mustard (muștarul), and ketchup (ketchupul). Notice that "ketchup" and "hamburger" are neuter or masculine borrowings, so they take the definite article suffix -ul.
| I put too much mayonnaise on the French fries. | Am pus prea multă maioneză pe cartofii prăjiți. |
| I would like a shawarma with spicy mustard. | Aș vrea o șaormă cu muștar picant. |
| The boy likes sweet ketchup. | Băiatului îi place ketchupul dulce. |
Finally, if you ever find yourself with a portion that is simply too large, you can use the structure atât de... încât (so... that) to describe the situation.
| This sandwich is so big that I can't finish it. | Sandvișul acesta este atât de mare, încât nu pot să-l termin. |
