It is very possible that you have never heard of or tasted the two plants in the title before. We like them a lot and use them a lot.
Lovage (Levisticum officinale) is an aromatic plant with an intense taste, especially used fresh, sprinkled over soups. In case you don’t know its taste, celery leaves would be the closest example. In terms of usage, I’d say it’s like green coriander for ramen.
If you see that the soup you want to order contains lovage, you usually can’t order it without, because it’s added to the pot right after we’ve turned off the heat. But you shouldn’t, either, because otherwise you won’t really discover the local flavor; but you’ll have plenty of alternatives anyway if you turn it down.
Besides lovage, we often use green parsley and dill, dried thyme and pickled tarragon leaves.
The Romanian pepper gogoșar (Capsicum annuum, Gogoscharii Group). It is a seasonal vegetable that we eat raw, but we use it mostly in preserves for the winter. Many commercial types of zacuscă (Romanian vegetable spread) contain this kind of pepper, and if you ask for mixed pickles you will find it in the bowl. Some variants of preserves – frequent pickles are: cucumber-pepper mix, cabbage-stuffed Romanian peppers or Romanian peppers pickled in mustard and honey sauce. Peppers are pickled in vinegar, unlike cucumbers or cabbage, which can also be pickled in brine.
It is related to the bell pepper, being the sweetest of this species. It has a meaty and crunchy consistency (but it is full of aromatic substance).
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