· We cycled through Romania and found that it was very easy to get vegetarian food - fried cheese, chips and pizzas (often very good)! Not particularly healthy though, so get hold of fruit during the day - the watermelons are great and are produced locally - and get as much salad as you can. The tomatoes are fantastic. Also try the "langos" - deep fried doughy bread - with mayonnaise. They are great with beer after a long day's cycling. Sometimes we found pasta.
Matt Gardner

· Fish in Romania is generally fairly nasty, plus the large rivers and Black Sea are heavily polluted. However, the fresh fruit and vegetables are fantastic; large cities and towns have markets full of interesting produce, which is generally organic as the peasent farmers use old-fashioned agricultural methods and generally can't afford chemicals anyway. Vegetarian food is widely available, but the bread is very cake-like (the hot summers mean the wheat has very little gluten).

When eating out, don't expect charm from the staff; this is not personal, they're like that with everyone...
Colin Harrison.

· Go to the markets. They have the most fabulous fruit; melons, peaches and plums in abundance at this time of year. However, be careful where you wash them, the water is distinctly dodgy and combined with the over-ripe plums, it will have you on the run...

My favourite thing about the markets in Targu Mures, Cluj-Napoca, Sighisoara and Sibiu (fabulous ancient towns in Transylvania) were the gigantic piles of aubergines; gorgeous bulbous purple beauties reaching up to the corrugated iron roof. However, we could never find the divine aubergine cream dip that Hungarian friends from the region had prepared for us in Budapest.

The restaurants serve very little veg as it's considered poor peasant food. 'Mamaliga' is another delicious peasant dish - corn meal ('polenta' in trendy London Italian eateries) is served in a big bowl with layers of hard-boiled egg and salty cream cheese made from ewe's milk. It is sustaining and very good, but unless you can persuade a peasant to invite you into his ramshackle hut AND cook dinner for you, you're unlikely to taste it.

In Transylvanian restaurants they often serve 'ciorba', a good vegetable soup with a sour tang from added vinegar, however it's probably made from meat stock, so it depends how strict you are.

Two useful phrases:
Eu sunt vegetarian -I am a vegetarian
Eu am o durere de stomac - I have stomach ache

Good luck!
Lucy Mallows in Budapest

· A fish-eating vegetarian is more like a pescetarian. You can perhaps say you don't eat anything with legs - unless, of course, you eat crabs. I don't know what you can eat, but I do know how to say one phrase in Romanian: "skooza ma, barba mayah ardai". It means, "excuse me, my beard is in fire".
Hope that helps.
Carla Moore

· Simple; stop being a vegetarian, and don't go to Romania.
Geoffrey Lang

· Surely there is no such thing as a fish-eating vegetarian! What next? 'Beef-eating vegetarian'!
Thank you, Ian Wilkes