Pasajul Englez

Oddly, a couple of hours after seeing this picture on the Bucharest Realist Facebook page and hearing of Pasajul Englez, I accidentally found and walked down Pasajul Englez  - for
the first time in my life despite it being opposite the Union Centre, where I worked when I first came to Bucharest. It is another Pasajul Victoriei but smaller. It is like one of the unrenovated parts of Havana, where I spent my time, fleeing the repainted bits like a vampire fleeing daylight.

What happened to that man in Pasajul Victoriei who sold such wonderful cheese and meat pies in Pasajul Victoriei in the 1990s? They reminded me that I was in the Ottoman Empire. I know Wallachia and Moldavia were not properly part of the Ottoman Empire but all I'm saying is those pies were just like the ones in Sarajevo.

My father delighted in collected books about odd corners of London. He would have made a wonderful guide and had an encyclopaedic knowledge when he took me round London as a child. There are fewer hidden marvels in Bucharest because it is newer and smaller than London but there might be enough. Can anyone suggest a reading-list please?