Burnt Oak, Colindale, Seeing Little Bucharest in London

ROMANIA

Problem
Where do you find Romanian food and language in London?

Answer
Go to Little Bucharest, the Burnt Oak and Colindale area. Where is Bucharest? It's the capital of Romania, in the south east, as you can see on the map below. You could go there for a short tip on Ryanair.

If you have already been and feel nostalgic, or have a trip planned, or considered, you might take a look at a Romanian restaurant or cafe or in London, England, at convenience store (often called a corner shop in London). I meet Romanians all over north west and central London, serving in restaurants and shops, in service industries such as building, plumbing, property maintenance, and at English language Toastmasters clubs which many foreigners in London attend to improve their English.

Harrow, on the way to Heathrow, attracts large numbers of foreigners and has the shops to cater to their needs. Only as recently as this week I discovered that the Burnt Oak and Colindale area of the Edgware Road is known as Little Bucharest.

Having been to Romania, discovered that the language is similar to Italian, but easier, more like Italian with phonetic simplified spelling, I was keen to peep into a Romanian cake shop.

Although the name of the business was Harrow Cakes, the words 

c o f e t a r i e  p a t i s e r i e  told me it was Romanian. I recognised the little boat shape sign above the a.

On the table was a Romanian language newspaper for people living in the UK. I could read most of it, certainly the advertisements and headlines straight away. 

The date was 15 J u l i e - July 15

24  p a g i n i - 24 pages

Before taking it I was able to see that it was

g r a t u i t - free 

In a nearby estate agent's business, (property agent) I was making conversation and mentioned the Romanian shops. The estate agent told me that in addition to Romanian cafes, Costa (which is Italian) does very well with the Romanians.  "They like to start their day with espresso."

I saw two Romanian businesses in the Colindale area, two more from the bus in Burnt Oak.

ROMANIAN WORDS

I looked at the pictures and the words underneath were obvious.

I am sure you will find it as easy as I do to understand:

casa in UK - home / house in UK  

r a p i d a t e - rapid / fast

C o n s u l t a n t a  a b s o l u t  g r a t u i t a - co n s u l t a t i o n completely free

i n s c r i e r e  l a  u n i v e r s i t a t e - inscribe in the university   

L o n d r a (Stonebridge Park) Manchester - London  Manchester 

I had to insert spaces because the automatic spell correction turned c o n s u l t a t i o n into 

c o n s o l a t i o n .

I could tell from the pictures combined with the caption

t o r t u r i  p e r s o n a l i z a t e  - personalised cakes (to order from the advertiser)

I was tempted to get out translate for the recipes:

b i s u i t i - biscuits

i n g r e d i e n t e   n e c e s a r e - necessary ingredients

m o d  de  p r e p a r e - method of preparation

I read the full page ad for a business offering Romanian food in Colindale or Kingsbury. 

I have not inserted the accents which you would need to say the words. 

Another business offered P a r c a r e  l i b e r a.

That sounds like free parking. But I had better check with google translate. 

To learn Romanian:

www.duolingo.com (Free lessons on the internet. Very easy. Pictures and multiple choice questions on which you click and click again to see if your answer is correct. (Also several other languages.)

I hope you have enjoyed this little look at Little Bucharest in London.

Harrow Cakes

7 Varley Parade, The Hyde, London NW9 6RR

Tel 02036 389 647

email Harowcakes@yahoo.co.uk

Harrow Cakes

276 Kingsbury Road, London NW9 OBY

Tel 02089 050 888

They offer free delivery 3 miles order min. £30.

An English person said to me, "We are sending a lot of money to Eastern European countries like Romania in the EU to help them rebuild. But we have no money left for ourselves to repair London and England. That's why we voted to get out of the EU - nothing to do with immigration." That's just one person's view. 

For more conversations, on this bus, read my later post.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on Bucharest and Brasov in Romania. Please follow, bookmark or share links to your favourite posts.