Kurtosh in Bran

In Romania, we stopped in Bran, the home of the "Dracula Castle" where Vlad the Impaler was at one time locked up. As our Romanian host said, "We think of Vlad as a good king--he was kind and compassionate, but he also impaled people who were his enemies." Alex seemed to feel Vlad has gotten an undeserved reputation.
      But the highlight of our visit in Bran was tasting Kurtosh, after watching the vendors make it before our eyes. They started with dough rolled out like pizza dough, and this was wrapped on what looked kind of like a baseball bat. (Like they were taping up the wrong end of the baseball bat, but with dough.) This dough-on-a-bat they painted with either oil, watery butter, or just water and then sprinkled generously with sugar.

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     They then put the bat over a charcoal fire (along with five other similiarly prepared bats) and the bat rolled in rotisserie fashion for just a few minutes, while the white dough turned golden brown before our eyes. After removal from the fire, the dough was sprinkled with nuts, cocoa, coconut flakes, or cinnamon and then removed from the bat and served, still piping warm and soft, in a long bag.  But it didn't stay in the bag very long because we ate it up quickly.
     I found pictures of Kurtosh called "Chimney Cakes" so perhaps you have heard of them before. But I had never heard of or seen them before. They were doughy like donuts, quick like funnel cakes,  but not fried in oil and had a very light sweet taste. Our friend Alex asked if we thought a business selling Kurtosh could work in the US. I assured him that there would be a ready market.

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