Authenticity and naturalness, as well as homegrown agricultural products with negligible industrial input, are the features of Slovene cuisine.
Slovenia’s location at the crossroads of the Alpine, Mediterranean and Pannonian cultures is a perfect foundation for a rich and exceptional cuisine. The country borders with Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, and occupies an area of 20 273 km2. Almost half of the area is covered with forests. According to the 2006 census, Slovenia has a population of 2 010 347. A lot of diversity, reflected in the soil configuration, temperature, humidity, windiness and other natural resources, is found on this territory.
Authenticity and naturalness are the features of traditional Slovene cuisine: hard-boiled corn or buckwheat mush, polenta, potica (a type of pastry), Kranjska sausage, pogacha (round flat cakes), Kras prosciutto, zlikrofi (Slovene-style ravioli)...
Its geographical position as well as social and historical development have resulted in special cultural forms and lifestyles on the small territory that Slovenia occupies. And this is, of course, reflected in its cuisine as well – old recipes, new influences, home-grown agricultural products with negligible industrial input.
The ancestors of todays Slovenes inhabited the territory of Slovenia as early as in the 6th century. A series of turbulent historical events have occurred since that time. The Roman Empire, the Venetian Republic, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Former Yugoslavia had the most dominant influence on Slovenia. Slovenia won its independence in 1991.
The most significant event in the recent history of Slovenia is the country’s admission to the EU that has influenced its cuisine as well, which is now more open, subject to influences, as well as more and more popular in other EU member-states and wider, due to its preserved state and a high level of awareness.
Features of Slovene cuisine
It is difficult to speak about a unified Slovene cuisine, because, although it is simple, it is influenced by the geographical diversity, natural resources and Slovenia’s various neighbors (Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia). The cuisine of the Alpine area is not the same as the one of the coastal area. "The riches" of Slovene cuisine range from refined Mediterranean dishes, fish specialties, dried meat specialties from Kras area, very healthy buckwheat and corn hard-boiled mush, polenta, potica (a type of rich filled pastry), shtruklji (boiled cheese-filled dough) and the famous prekmurska gibanica (traditional layered cake). Kras prosciutto, one of the top items in the Slovene culinary offer, is widely known. The Slow Food movement penetrated Slovenia in 1995, finding excellent natural resources in the country.
Besides local "gostilne" (taverns) and restaurants, Slovenia offers an increasing selection of world’s national cuisines, and more and more Slovenes eat out because of the long hours spent at work, quick lifestyle and favorable restaurant-food prices. We are, however, interested in the typical Slovene cuisine, so we will try to find more information by reaching into the traditional cuisine of smaller, more rural environments, where one can still find a household that prepares food "as our ancestors used to do it".
Authenticity and naturalness are two attributes ascribed to traditional Slovene cuisine. Hard-boiled buckwheat corn mush, polenta, Kranjska sausage, pogacha (round flat cakes), Kras prosciutto, zlikrofi (Slovene-style ravioli), sauerkraut and turnip, dishes made from buckwheat and mushrooms do not need further explanation at all. Or do they?
- In Primorska and Kras regions polenta used to be a substitute for bread. During the 2nd World War people topped slices of polenta with jam in Ljubljana. Besides corn polenta, the buckwheat and white polenta are also quite known and liked. Polenta is most tasteful if we add some cottage cheese or fruit to it, or sprinkle it with cinnamon.
- Homemade hard-boiled corn mush is prepared by stirring flour in hot, salty water, and its recipe, no longer a secret, has remained unchanged throughout centuries.
- The famous zlikrofi from the Idrija region is a dish made from dough stuffed with potatoes, meat and eggs. In the Koroška region, the buckwheat zlikrofi are stuffed with fruit.
- The typical Slovene vegetables are sauerkraut and turnip (e.g. boiled turnip with millet mash).
- Meat products: black puddings, baking sausages, various sausages, bacon, greaves, ham and the top-quality Kras prosciutto.
- Poultry: geese, ducks, turkeys, roosters and chickens were the traditional "martinove jedi" (St. Martin’s dishes).
- Fish and seafood: cod, trout, eel, cuttle-fish, squids, scampi...
- Pulses: beans, peas, broad beans, lentils, chick-peas…
- Potato dishes such as potato halves with butter, sour cream or salad.
- Mashes: millet mash, barley mash (richet - barley mash boiled with beans and dried meat) and buckwheat mash.
- Jota (beans, sauerkraut, potatoes).
- In Slovene cuisine soups are very important meals. The mushroom soup served in bread crust instead on the plate is excellent. Some of the more classic soups are chicken, beef and potato soup.
- Traditional spices used in Slovene cuisine are marjoram, wild thyme, lemon balm, sage, thyme, and bay leaves, as well as cinnamon and pepper that have successfully integrated with the "local" ones.
- Sweet delicacies: honey cakes, very famous Bled kremshnita (cream cake), grmada, shtruklji (stuffed dough) and potica, a type of pastry filled with walnuts, hazelnuts, carob, poppy seeds, curd cheese, raisins and dried fruit. The most famous rolled dough cake is prekmurska gibanica (pastry with layers of cottage cheese, poppy seeds, walnuts, apples, raisins and other ingredients), which is pure sweet pleasure but also a calorie bomb.
- The most typical and famous wines are: Malvasia and Teran characteristic for coastal areas; Cvicek, Metliska Crnina (Bela Krajina), Renski Riesling and Traminec; Modra Frankinja, Sauvignon, Radgonska Penina...
Contemporary Slovene cuisine
Contemporary Slovene cuisine has preserved its identity despite of the influence of the numerous famous European cuisines. It has, however, widened its horizons as well.
Besides local "gostilne" (taverns) and restaurants, Slovenia now offers an increasing selection of national cuisines as well.
Numerous bread types (wholemeal, half-wholemeal, wholewheat flour, rye, corn, carob, potato, with seeds, no gluten, fruit...), Mediterranean dishes, fish, mushrooms, wood berries, shtruklji (stuffed dough), potica (a traditional type of pastry), gibanica (layered cake), gnocchi, pasta, steaks, goulash, as well as the carpaccio, escargots, horse meat specialties, frogs legs, game etc. have become integral parts of contemporary Slovene cuisine.
A distinct characteristic of Slovenia is the increasing number of ecological estates and products of "integrirane pridelave", i.e. products produced by using the agro-technical measures respecting the economic, toxicological and environment impact measures as well.
Ljubljana is a small culinary world. Choosing from a selection of renowned restaurants, local taverns to places offering cheese and meat pies, kebab, grilled minced-meat fingers, patties, pizzas, chompe potatoes, but also Turkish, Serbian, Bosnian, Dalmatian, Istrian, Spanish, French, Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Argentine, and African restaurants and well-known confectioneries (Kavarna, Zvezda, Rustika...), we can all find a dish to our taste in Ljubljana.
Travel tips (must do)
- Eat something warm, cooked and homemade in a typical Slovene "gostilna".
- Try something exotic in numerous international restaurants.
- Take an affordable-to-all taxi drive after a glass of two.
- Experience a "merry december" and pay attention to the romantic holiday visual identity of Ljubljana.
- Visit Ljubljana’s eco market and buy something, of course.
- Visit the Sunday flea market – antiques fair (Cankarjevo nabrezje), and Saturday morning children’s workshops in the center of the city.
- Climb to the Old City of Ljubljana (soon also by a funicular railway at a return ticket rate of EUR 2, 00).
- Visit the Ljubljana International Film Festival and other film, music and cultural events.
- Climb the Triglav Mountain.
- Eat a cream cake on the Bled Lake and take a walk along the even more beautiful Bohinj Lake
- Spend a night at Ljubljana’s Celica – an innovative hostel the Lonely planet proclaimed "the hippest" youth hostel in the world in 2006.
Author of the photograph: Mr Jez