Identify this seafood from the Black Sea known in Romanian as “rapane”?

Question

Here on the Black Sea in Romania people are eating a shellfish called in Romanian "rapane" which they translate as "oyster" when I ask.

But they are elongated spiral shells which to me look nothing like the chunky flattish oyster shells in Australia. Besides which there is another Romanian word "stridie" for oyster and I can't find "rapane" in my print dictionary or any online dictionary. One person told me these are "sea oysters" as opposed to "ocean oysters". I've also been told they're not a native local species.

Here are some photos of a dead rapane shell on the beach. I'll replace them with better photos when I can take some:

Answer

They look like a species of whelk, which is a catch-all term for sea-snails. See the Wikipedia article here.

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Does a Romanian omletă ţărănească (peasant omelette) have standard ingredients?

Question

I am currently travelling in Romania and have been enjoying a breakfast each morning of "omletă ţărănească", which can be translated to English as "peasant omelette".

What I'm wondering is whether it has a standard fixed list of ingredients or is it one of those dishes where you throw in "whatever is laying about" (or at least typical Romanian ingredients laying about).

The one I just ate seemed to contain at least tomato, mushroom, bits of bacon, and those pale green bell peppers common in the Balkans.

There doesn't seem to be an article on it in Wikipedia and I've seen it on the menu of two restaurants in the same small town which makes me think it should be a typical dish.

Answer

Judging from search results and the handy firefox babelfish addon, the peasant (or country-style) omelette seems to be, as you suspected, one of those dishes where anything handy is thrown in.

EDIT: the firefox addon is actually unnecessary as google provides an option on the search results page for translated versions of the search results.

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