Having no real prior knowledge of Slovenian food, we have both been impressed with the variety and flavors of many of the dishes, snacks, and beverages we've been trying while we've been here. Since most of these foods were new to us, I thought I would do a full post just describing some of the items we have tried so far.
Priorities! First up I should talk about the big beer (pivo) culture here in Slovenia. While grape cultivation began here in pre-Roman times, commercial beer brewing got its start much later in the mid-1800s. There are two brands that dominate the market here, Union and Laško. Laško seemed a little more omnipresent and has a nice pale lager that I liked. Kevin preferred the temno (dark) version. The icon on the bottles is the mythical zlatorog, a white-coated alpine ibex with golden horns.
Legend has it that a hunter shot the zlatorog in order to win the heart of a beautiful girl. The drops of blood from the beast blossomed into magical roses, which the zlatorog ate to instantly heal himself. The ibex then went on a rampage, killed the hunter, stomped on the rest of the roses so no one else could pick them, ran away and was never seen again. Except on the labels of the best beer in the country. Next up, we have something "sweet" -- gibanica!
Prekmurska gibanica is a layer pastry with poppy seed, walnut, apple, and raisin fillings. It also has a kind of soft cottage cheese layer that makes it more tangy than other desserts. I put "sweet" in quotes because after spending several weeks here and trying many desserts, we came to the consensus that there generally isn't a lot of sugar in the pastries. They are often more bready and savory than what we consider dessert here in the US. Most of the time we would order dessert and then be a bit disappointed. We kept trying, though! The bled cake was alright, actually.
I think I described it in a previous post as "a puff pastry base with a layer of vanilla cream custard, followed by a layer of whip cream, then it's topped by more pastry and powdered sugar." While it is rich and creamy, it isn't as sweet as it looks and definitely the egg flavors come through in the custard. It is very popular though, and we saw it everywhere even far away from Lake Bled. We got a little bit closer to sweetness with potica.
This is actually something we had tried in America - Kevin's mom is a fan and had us try some. The signature trick of potica is that it has to be rolled up in many layers -- they roll out a heavy yeast dough that is spread with a walnut and honey filling (or other nut-based filling). Then they roll it all up as tight as possible and bake it so that you get a beautiful swirly pattern in each slice. The Slovenian version that we tried was a lot less sweet than the American version, and honestly a little too much walnut flavor for me. We started to realize that Slovenian grandmas really liked the swirly trick, since we saw it repeated in other popular dishes, like štruklji.
Štruklji are a type of dumpling that are a bit more versatile and can be savory or sweet. The dumpling dough is rolled thin, filling is added, and everything is rolled up into a brick-like shape. Then it is steamed, boiled, or baked and served in slices, often with a sauce accompaniment. Probably the most common type is sirovi štruklji which just means "cheese dumpling" -- they use a type of mild cream cheese for the filling. In Ljubljana we found a restaurant that had dozens of types of štruklji on offer - both savory and sweet. Portions were generous, and it made for a heavy meal. We learned to order one portion and share it. Speaking of heavy versus light meals, I should mention the sausages.
Nearly every restaurant we went to had some form of sausage platter. We ordered Kranjska klobasa (Carnolian sausage) several times. It's so special here in Slovenia that it is considered almost a national symbol of the country. The sausages use simple seasonings and high-quality pork and bacon for the filling. It almost always was served as two sausages accompanied by sauerkraut or tasty potatoes and was an easy choice whenever we wanted something that was filling but not necessarily too heavy. I found that it paired well with a Radler Isotonic.
I've used that photo in a previous post describing the excellent charcuterie and žlikrofi dumplings we had in Matkov Kot. But I failed to describe the beverage I was drinking. It's a Union Radler Isotonic. I first saw it on the non-alcoholic section of the drinks menu and was intrigued because I saw so many other people drinking it. I'd never heard the term "radler" but it turns out its a type of shandy that mixes beer and citrus juice or soda to make a low-alcohol drink. Union makes a completely alcohol-free version that tastes like fizzy lemon soda with a fraction of the sugar. It was still sweeter than most of the desserts we tried, though. Sign me up!
I know I already mentioned how Slovenia is the beekeeping leading country in the world per capita. Maybe the reason so many of the desserts are slightly less sweet is because they use honey instead of cane sugar? I don't know for sure. I do know that the apiculture museum in Radovljica specifically had a display of the lectarski gingerbread cookies, which are more honey-flavored than ginger-flavored.
But on to more savory items. This is langoš a kind of fry bread that comes from the part of Slovenia that shares a border with Hungary. The flattened dough is fried in a vat of oil and topped with various toppings. This one had a ricotta-type soft cheese, basil, lots of garlic, and some confit tomatoes. It was the best thing we ate at the odprta kuhna open kitchen market in Ljubljana.
I know I mentioned the savory pork žlikrofi that we had at the odprta kuhna. Here's a close up. We saw this item on many menus - the dumplings are usually filled with something savory and sometimes topped with crunchy pork cracklins. Occasionally we saw a description with a sweeter filling, like pear. Both versions are heavy and filling.
Speaking of cracklins, at one of the huts Kevin ordered a dish called ajdovi žganci. This is a buckwheat porridge that is made very simply with just buckwheat, water, and salt (the plate on the lower right below). I know those look like walnuts on top, but it was actually pork cracklins. I'll be honest, it was worth ordering...once. The buckwheat is very bland but at least it is a heart-healthy whole grain, however any health benefit is completely canceled out by the fatty pork skin on top. It was worth a try, but we were pretty glad that we'd also ordered mushroom soup and some delicious wild blueberry pie.
Overall I discovered that mushroom soup was almost always a safe bet if I wanted something that was reasonably healthy and tasted good. Mushrooms are a huge part of Slovenian culture and mushroom foraging (gobarjenje) is a strong tradition. You are legally limited to forage no more than 2 kilograms of wild mushrooms per day. That's like 4.5 pounds of mushrooms per person per day, so no wonder we saw mushroom soup on so many menus!
Stews, soups, and goulashes (golaž in Slovenian) were a staple on restaurant menus. This venison goulash had a savory blueberry sauce. Sounds like a crazy combo, but somehow it worked!
To wash it all down, we tried various kinds of Slovenian wine. I mentioned above that Slovenians have been practicing viticulture since before Roman times. In fact, the world's oldest living productive grapevine is here in Slovenia (although we didn't see it because we didn't go to the town of Maribor). Our favorites were the reds from the Brda region on the western border with Italy, but we also enjoyed tasting the sparkling wines (called penine) from the eastern Posavje wine region.
Grape juice isn't the only thing that gets fermented here. We also saw kieslo mljeko (literally "sour milk") on the menu at many rustic huts. We hesitated but finally broke down and gave it a try once. I was expecting something like Greek yogurt or Icelandic skyr but no -- it really did just have a curdled milk flavor. Truth in advertising, I guess. I was glad we only ordered one bowl to share.
Now I come to a dish that merits an "honorable mention" -- čevapčiči. It's not technically Slovenian but really originally from Bosnia. These are grilled mincemeat sausages with no casing. The sausages are served alongside ajvar (a roasted red pepper relish), chopped onion, and warm flatbread called lepinja. In Bosnia čevapčiči are made with 100% beef, but in Slovenia and Serbia a mixture of beef and pork is used. They are really delicious and I liken the dish to a deconstructed hamburger. The dish to the left of the sausages is a burek - another Bosnian dish that is kind of a spiral bun stuffed with meat (or cheese, potatoes, or spinach). We ordered bureks and čevapčiči several times and were never disappointed.
And I can't end this post without mentioning an excellent lunch we had at the Rifugio Celso Gilberti in Sella Nevea, Italy (just over the border from Slovenia). Kevin ordered a blueberry tagliatelle and I had a savory pear ravioli dish. Both dishes were perfectly prepared - savory fresh pasta with a touch of sweetness from the fruit.
Those were our mains, not desserts. But the dessert list was just as inventive. I played it safe and ordered an apple strudel but Kevin went all-in and ordered the hay-flavored panna cotta. Yes, you read that right -- hay, as in "hay is for horses" not "hey -- are you sure you want to order that?". But honestly it was delicious and we would make a beeline for this rifugio if we're ever anywhere near here again. Nobody cooks like the Italians, that's for sure, and this was a very memorable meal!
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