Parsnip: Bringing Romanian Food to Highland Park
When you think of Los Angeles cuisine, what kinds of food come to mind? Mexican? Korean? How about Romanian? While SoCal is undeniably a hotbed of ethnic dishes and surprising fusions, it is surprisingly lacking in Eastern European cuisine.
Anca Caliman saw a gap in the marketplace, but that wasn’t the real reason she opened Parsnip, a new cafe in Highland Park. “I think it’s part of me growing up and growing old and thinking more about personal identity and family.” For Caliman, cooking Romanian food is a kind of homecoming. The self-taught cook immigrated to the U.S. from Romania when she was 12, and while she considers herself to be very much American, she is proud of her roots. Caliman spent some time reflecting on her origins when forming Parsnip, “[This is] not stuff I’ve been cooking my whole life, it’s based on my childhood memories.” And with every handmade flatbread and bowl of warm paprikash, that’s what Caliman is serving you — a piece of her history.
If you aren’t fluent in Romanian cuisine, the names for dishes may sound unfamiliar, but the dishes themselves won’t seem so foreign. Almost every culture has a version of the dumpling, and Romania is no exception. Bulz can be made with a polenta or potato dough, and Parsnip serves both versions filled with potato and sauerkraut or cheese and green onion. The housemade flatbreads, known as plachintas, may remind you of naan or roti and are filled with potato or feta and dill. This is comfort food, the kind that you usually don’t get unless your loving grandmother spends all day in the kitchen. Caliman says that customers often tell her that the food reminds them of family meals and nostalgic dishes, even if they’re from different sides of the globe. She’s decided that “it’s not the actual food. It’s that homey feeling that comes through from these slow-cooked dishes."
Caliman’s first foray into food was making the aforementioned flatbreads called plachinta for farmers’ markets and events. She had spent years working on the business side, and after her mother passed away, she decided to make a change. “I started thinking about [Romanian food] again, and I started cooking it again,” she explained. “And seeing it with fresh eyes, there were so many great flavors and textures.” After a few years of making plachintas, Caliman and her partners stumbled upon the space for her first restaurant, Lemon Poppy Kitchen. The Glassell Park cafe filled a void in the neighborhood, providing breakfast, lunch and coffee to welcoming locals. Lemon Poppy just turned five, and with its success and Caliman’s co-owners playing an active part in the business, it freed her up to think about a new project.
In comes Parsnip. The small and bright cafe opened three months ago on York Boulevard after Caliman’s partner and longtime Lemon Poppy cook, Aracelly Flores, found the space. Inside the renovated cafe, a couple of tables are set up in front of the counter with the small kitchen in full view. More seating is available outside, lining the front and a covered area along the side. Everything on the current menu is under ten bucks, and ranges from sharable dips and dumplings to hearty plates of meaty mains. While those familiar with Eastern European food will recognize many dishes listed, Caliman puts her own spin on classic dishes. She explains that Romanian food can “get a bad rap — a lot of things get boiled and cooked for a long time.” But she’s determined not to make bland food. She adds pepper jack cheese and chipotle to her plachinta fillings, and her stuffed cabbage definitely has a kick. It’s a melding of Caliman’s past and present, Romanian and American. “It’s interesting thinking about it for an American audience. We really are exposed to so much flavor and so much food.” She adds that sometimes when Romanians come in, they are surprised by the strong flavors of her dishes. But she’s also quick to add that she doesn’t claim to represent all of Romanian cuisine.
Representing a whole country’s culinary landscape seems hard enough, but it’s extra tricky with a country of home cooks. Romania does not have a strong restaurant scene defining the techniques and flavors, and while there are definitive overarching themes, everyone puts their own spin on the classics. Parsnip’s menu offers a number of labor-intensive dishes that Caliman calls “special occasion” food. Items like plachinta and sarmale (stuffed cabbage) take time and work, and are only worth the effort if you’re making a big batch. “When my grandmother would be making plachinta growing up, literally the village would come over because they could smell it — it smells amazing. Crowds would gather. She had no choice, she just knew that she’d be on her griddle that day,” Caliman remembers. In Romania, just making and eating food like this was a special occasion.
In their little kitchen, the Parsnip staff churns out dish after dish for the lunch crowd. They often work shoulder to shoulder, stretching out flatbreads and stirring big pots of braised meat. Caliman jokes that they’re like the arms of one octopus, prepping and chopping and chatting in Spanish. And while they have made good use of the space, she laments that they had to set aside a long wish list for the sake of getting Parsnip open. “The difficulty here is the space. It’s a tiny, tiny kitchen. There are so many more things that we want to do and that we’re planning on doing.” She adds that it’s an exciting problem, and that the menu will be changing with the seasons and evolving as they bring in more help. First on the wish list? Mititei. It’s a caseless sausage with lots of garlic that is cooked over an open flame, giving it a nice crust. Almost every Romanian that visits Parsnip asks about mititei, but to make the sausage properly, you need a grill. Caliman and crew are working on clearing out the back patio of the restaurant and installing an outdoor grill for weekly sausage sessions.
The Parsnip crew also plans to add Romanian-style sandwiches to the wraps already on the menu, sour summer soups and sweet dumplings made with fresh plums and ricotta-like cheese. But for now, the menu is a nice mix of salads, dips, dumplings and mains, all distinctly Romanian but with SoCal freshness and punchy flavors. The food is a melding of cultures, just like Los Angeles, and just like Caliman.
Top image: Laurel Randolph