Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine March 2014 | Page 153

Travel | Bucharest, Mexico City, Atlanta

151

© Radu Bercan; Stefan Ataman / Shutterstock & © Marcus Koppen/Getty images

5 Senses – Taste
CAFÉ CULTURE

This is a great time to visit the city, to
witness it engaging with its recent past
in a viscerally appealing way.

The statue of King Carol
can be found on Revolution
Square, just a stone’s throw
from the Memorial of
Rebirth.
Overview of Bucharest
with Piata Universitatii in
the foreground.

Organic values dominate,
with the restaurant’s beef and
pork coming exclusively from
small-scale producers. The menu is
hearty and passionate, with homey
items including onion and lardfried duck and goose for a main and
sweet cheese pie with raisins boiled
in milk for dessert. Whatever you
choose from the menu, the result is
the same: a delicious reclamation
of Romania’s culinary heritage.
This value is mirrored in the
restaurant’s interior design, too.
Furniture at Lacrimi si Sfinti was
reclaimed from houses and barns
across the Romanian countryside.
This impulse to invest in and
reclaim the recent past is also on
display at the absolutely lovely
Atelier Mecanic (Strada Covaci 12),
a bar just round the corner from
Lacrimi si Sfinti. Here, the aesthetic

driver is more industrial than
farmhouse, and it’s meant to be
ironic and humorous. Guests
enjoy great cocktails under
vintage Romanian factory
signage. If you sense common
aesthetic ground among these
venues, well spotted! Bucharest
architect and designer Cristian
Corvin is behind both Lacrimi
si Sfinti and Atelier Mecanic.
Bucharest today is a city coming
to terms with its past in myriad
ways. While it’s hard to know
how the city’s creative energies will
affect development down the road,
what is clear is that this is a great
time to visit the city, to witness it
engaging with its recent past in
a viscerally appealing way.

A food stand in Lipscani,
Bucharest’s Old Town, an
exciting neighbourhood that
has benefited from a major
scrub-up.

There’s no shortage of nice
places to sit down for coffee and
cake in Bucharest, but coffee
aficionados craving a proper cup
should make a beeline for the
fabulous Origo (Strada Lipscani 9),
where World Barista Championship
contestant Mihai Panfil calls
upon his deep coffee expertise
in a beautifully original space.
Romanian architecture firm
Lama Architectura is responsible
for the design, including the
hundreds of coffee cups suspended
over a steel-wrapped oak bar.
There’s no better place to drink
coffee in Bucharest.
Bukares tak pernah kehabisan
tempat untuk menikmati kopi dan
kue, tetapi pecinta kopi biasanya
akan rela mengantre untuk secangkir
Origo (Strada Lipscani 9), di mana
kontenstan Lomba Barista Dunia
Mihai Panfil menunjukan
keahliannya meramu kopi di tempat
yang indah ini. Biro arsitek Rumania,
Lama Architectura, mendesain
tempat ini, termasuk ratusan cangkir
kopi yang tergantung di rak besi
di atas bar dari jati. Tak ada tempat
lain untuk menikmati kopi selain
di Bukares.