Sarmale

Sarmale are leaves rolled around a filling of minced meat, rice or both, belonging to the broader dolma family of stuffed and wrapped dishes and typically wrapped in cabbage, grape or vine leaves, chard, collard greens or patience dock. The name comes from the Turkish word sarma, meaning wrap, and the dish took its most developed form within Ottoman cuisine before spreading through the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe after the empire's dissolution. It is regarded as a national dish of Romania, where it is typically made with pork and sauerkraut, and appears with local variations across Turkish, Serbian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek and Egyptian cuisine, the Egyptian version favoring herbs such as parsley and dill and the Serbian version offering a vegetarian form during Lent. Sarmale is generally served hot, sometimes at room temperature, and commonly accompanied by sour cream, yogurt, bread or polenta depending on the regional tradition.