Grocery Shopping in Cluj & How to Make a Taco When Halfway Around the World

I have been corresponding with a woman whose fiancé has just arrived in Cluj-Napoca.  She will be following in a few months and asked the following questions:  Where can we get ground turkey for tacos? And where is the best place to go for groceries?  In short, there is no one best place to shop.  The tiny markets called magazines are not mentioned below, but offer convenience at a slightly higher price.  It’s isn’t always worth it to walk half an hour each way just to get a carton of milk for the morning’s coffee.  The large markets offer more variety at cheaper prices than their convenient counterparts but not all of them excel at every aspect of the shopping experience.  I thought I would include my response to these questions here to assist anyone new to Cluj.  A bit of guidance would have indeed been helpful my first few weeks here.   This list is not comprehensive but represents the merchants with which I am most familiar.

Ah, the taco.  You have mentioned one of my favorite words that the English language has appropriated.  I have several alternatives I can suggest for ground turkey/chicken tacos he is looking for.  I am afraid ground meat, other, than pork is not so easy to come by.  

Cora Shopping Center does in fact sell fresh turkey.  I have seen whole, drumsticks and just the breast.  But it is not already ground.  How comfortable is Mathew in the kitchen?  Every single hypermarket (think Wal-Mart or Target) sells meat grinders.  The people here love sausages the way dogs love a car ride.  So getting a grinder of any quality or price point is not difficult at all.  He could purchase the meat that he would like and then grind his own for meatballs and tacos.  Ground turkey will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months if it is properly wrapped. 

Option number two: For the taco, I have been making my own Rotel like tomatoes.  I use that with chicken breast and stock to make a Mexican style shredded chicken.  It makes excellent tacos.  Turkey could very easily be substituted.  It takes several hours to make from scratch; however, I make a huge amount and then portion it out and keep it in the freezer.  It reheats well on the stove top.  Michael insists that I must tell you how amazing your house will smell while making these. 

Recreating Mexican food here can be difficult.  For starters, Romanians do not eat spicy food.  We once bought a bag of chips that came with a health warning against the spice.  Our interest was piqued, so of course we bought it.  I am not exaggerating at all when I tell you these chips were about as spicy as a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos.  We have found a bottle of Sriracha at a spice store and a bottle of Tabasco.  The variety is terribly limited.  Finding chili peppers is an endeavor comparable to Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the mountain. There is one variety that is native to the region.  I would classify it in terms of spice somewhere between a banana pepper and a poblano.  I end up buying several of these and making my own concentrate for use in recipes.  Also, cilantro is impossible to find here.  I have been able to find coriander (cilantro once has flowered and seeded so the flavor is very differnt). It is my intent to include this into my herb garden now that the weather is warming up a bit. It's practically impossible to make an authentic taco without cilantro.  So check with me in about two months to see how the crop is coming along.  Same with chili peppers, assuming I can find the seeds at the gardening warehouse.  

Which leads me to the various markets:

The Farmer’s Market or Agroalimentară in Romanian; A taxi will get you there by saying Piața agroalimentară Grigorescu,  Here it is on Google earth.  https://www.google.com/maps/place/Piața+agroalimentară+Grigorescu,+Strada+Paul+Ioan/@46.7656929,23.549603,260m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x47490e5f43aa4aeb:0x7e9fc3945177f397

This place is staffed by people who sell the goods for local farmers.  They only accept cash.  I highly recommend buying your eggs here.  They are ENORMOUS.  You need to take an empty egg carton with you; otherwise they will place them loose in a plastic bag.   They cost 5 lei per 10.  Also sold here are homemade pickle cabbages (great for stuffed cabbage recipes) and horseradish.   The store-bought horsheradish is excessively sweet.    

Profi: This is a discount market and is located right next to the farmers market.  It is a great place for buying staples but like all of the chain grocers, most of the produce is imported.  The selection is also more limited than the larger markets.   There are several Profii and Profi City outlets throughout Cluj.  The “City” in the name of the market denotes it as being a smaller outlet  with a smaller selection of whatever chain it is associated with.  https://www.google.com/maps/place/PROFI/@46.7667047,23.5492086,1005m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m7!1m4!3m3!1s0x47490e5b3570070f:0x88922ae983e8d108!2sBulevardul+1+Decembrie+1918+142!3b1!3m1!1s0x0:0x62420171d519a664

Cora:  This one is actually my favorite (Do not confuse with Sora.)  It’s pretty easy to get in and out of.  They have a taxi stand where I have never had to wait once finished my shopping.  The bus also runs here.  Unlike the other hypermarkets the isles are actually wide enough to be comfortable.  I value my personal space and it seems that while shopping, the locals have very little spatial awareness.  Also, this one doesn’t leave pallets of stock lying in every isle.  It’s just cleaner.  Think Target vs Wal-Mart.  There is a drycleaner inside this shopping center along with several other shopping outlets.  The bakery is excellent; they have a wide variety of produce and a large selection of fresh fish.  This is also the place with the turkey.  This is the ONLY place that sells applicator tampons that I have found.  They also sell housewares and cleaners and pretty much everything a Wal-Mart would.

Edit:  I have been looking for brown sugar for baking for several weeks now.  I can confirm that Cora has it in both dark and light varieties.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bulevardul+1+Decembrie+1918+142/@46.7588802,23.5422758,522m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m7!1m4!3m3!1s0x47490e5d8ae0bc25:0xc5257d62611af103!2sCalea+Flore%C8%99ti+56A!3b1!3m1!1s0x47490e5b3570070f:0x88922ae983e8d108

Billa Penny Market:  This is more of a grocer than a hypermarket.  The produce is of good quality and the selection of groceries in general is large although not as large as some of the hypermarkets.  Billa is always less crowded than the others which makes for a more enjoyable shopping experience. 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Calea+Flore%C8%99ti+56A/@46.7601857,23.5504442,513m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x47490e5d8ae0bc25:0xc5257d62611af103

Auchan: Located in Iulius Mall.  It is a really large French owned hypermarket with a very large selection of wine and spirits.  The bakery is good.  I can confirm they have soft taco shells next to the soy sauce.  I generally only visit this one when I have business on that side of town.  It’s not bad; I just don’t like it as much of the others.  It is always overcrowded and has pallets on every single isle.  It makes navigation a pain in the backside.  https://www.google.com/maps/place/Auchan/@46.7732895,23.628378,513m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x47490c6b1048e2f3:0xdb88dc48781a0176

Carrefour : Another French owned hypermarket .  Again, the bakery is excellent; I bought a full sized baguette here last week that was out of the oven 10 minutes prior for about 25 cents.  It almost didn’t survive the Taxi ride home.  Easier to navigate than Auchan but it is still overcrowded after 5 pm and all day on weekends.  This is the only place I have found peanut butter to make granola bars.  The Carrefour brand of olive oil is the real deal.  I had to buy 3 bottles at various stores that said, “olive oil” but was actually blended oils. 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/INMEDIO+Carrefour+Cluj+-+Polus+2/@46.7513602,23.5310739,1027m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!1m3!3m2!1s0x47490e47689260ed:0x941b29241ee14710!2sPolus+Center!3m1!1s0x0:0x211cf24668dc7d1b

Kaufland:  This place has a little bit of everything and a few shops located inside its door.  It consistently has avocados.  I needed a tube of mascara but they only sell one brand (not a very good one) of cosmetics.  Checkout here feels like you are cattlek being driven through a stockade. 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kaufland/@46.759477,23.5616781,988m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!1m2!2m1!1skaufland!3m1!1s0x0:0x5c57fd5fe7750c78

Bottegga Italiana:  Italian Specialty store located near the hypermarkets in both Polus Center and Iulius Mall.  They have a driver that goes to Italy once a week and brings back stock for their store.  You will not find a better prosciutto or pancetta in this city.  I also recommend getting all of your pasta here.  The pasta they sell, although dried, is not the processed stuff you find everywhere else.  Furthermore, if you like olives, get them here.  You can buy olives from every deli in every market; however, they are but a pale comparison to what this place sells.    http://www.poluscentercluj.ro/en/store_detail.php?client_id=462