Slovak cuisine
If you ask someone who knows me very well, to tell you the 3 things that characterize me the most, I think the answer would be my smile, craziness and food fanaticism. I am the biggest lover of food 24/7. Eating is one of my pleasures of life.
I munch when I’m happy, when I’m depressed, when I’m bored, hungry and even not hungry at all. I can’t be on diet and I don’t really have a strong will to say NO to something I enjoy, including food. My favorite cuisine is Italian, Spanish, Chinese and of course Slovak as it’s the one I’ve eaten for most of my life so far.
I have to admit one thing about Slovak cuisine, it’s not very healthy, we use white flour a lot. But let’s be honest, usually all the forbidden things taste the best, right? Me personally, I can’t cook with the flour. I only used to use it for pancakes as I before I became vegetarian/vegan I could not live without them.
All the rest of the meals that require flour, I just can’t make them, don’t ask me why. It’s good in a way because otherwise I would sit here now with 90 kg covering the whole sofa and not just a half of it, and I could delete the word SEXY from my nickname :)
It means that when I go on holidays to Slovakia, my eating habits change and obviously I put on weight: first, because of all the flour and second, literally I cannot stop eating as I don’t enjoy Slovak cuisine very often, I can’t miss the chance to do so. The same happens with the Slovak Christmas meals.
There are at least three things I’ve never seen so great anywhere in Europe so far, not even in Czech republic where you can usually get similar ingredients and food to the ones in Slovakia, if not the same.
I’m talking about the cottage/curd cheese we call tvaroh, which is kind of drier and tougher than the normal cottage cheese. Slovak bread that is the tastiest I’ve ever eaten. It’s similar to Italian bread but we have it from brown flour, too.
And lastly, animal butter. You have to leave it out of the fridge for a bit to be able to put it on the bread as it’s so thick, but the taste is just amazing. It has more fat than a vegetable butter, though.
The traditional Slovak cuisine and meals I could recommend ( I use Slovak names as well so one day if you go to Slovakia, you will know exactly what to ask for):
- Halušky = there is no proper translation, maybe small potato dumplings are probably the best known Slovak meal. Make a dough from grated potatoes, add flour, an egg and then strain it through a sieve with bigger holes to a pot with water, boil for 8-10 min. Served mixed with bryndza (sheep milk cheese), tvaroh or cabbage, whatever you prefer.
- Fried cutlet with salad – pork, beef or chicken meat in flour, egg and crumbled bread (the same like fried cheese) is fried in oil and served with a potato salad (made of potatoes, mayonnaise, eggs, pickles, onion, carrots, peas, salt, black pepper).
- Placky = potato pancakes from grated potatoes.
- Pirohy = pasties – there are boiled ones or fried ones, the dough is different. For the fried pirohy you need flour, bicarbonate of soda, a bit of baking powder and sour milk. The dough for the other ones consists of flour, water and a grated potatoe, then make small circles or rectangles of it and fill with marmalade, tvaroh cheese, cabbage or potatoes and close them. Throw them into the hot water and boil until pirohy swim to the surface.
- Fried cheese with french fries or potatoes – you put a slice of eidam cheese into the flour, then beaten eggs and crumbled bread, then fry it and eat with tartar sauce. No doubt fried cheese can be found on menu of every restaurant in Slovakia.
- Holubky = cabbage rolls – rice and ground beef wrapped in cabbage leaves.
- Spaghetti – the most famous pasta in Slovakia. I’m sure that in Italy, for example, they would laugh if they saw how we eat spaghetti, e.i. with ketchup and grated eidam cheese. But to be honest, it’s the tastiest pasta I’ve ever eaten. Try them to believe it.
- Živánska – no idea how to translate this, it is usually chicken, potatoes, lečo (pronounced as lecho – stewed green peppers, tomatoes, onions) roasted together in the oven.
Jubee
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Nice post. I’m impressed with all the different meals you have!
Very helpful info if I ever visit your country.
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Thanks Jubee, hope you like our cuisine ;)
Hodi
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Thanks for finally writing about Slovak cuisine, I liked it!
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler via Facebook
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aj ja :)
Kuba Gorski via Facebook
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uwielbiam vyprazany syr :)
crazy sexy fun traveler
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Comment@ Noelfy:
Maybe, I never tried Turo so cannot tell :)
Noelfy
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I would say this tvaroh cheese you have in Slovakia, It must be similar to the Hungarian Túro, also kind of cottage cheese.
Now I am looking forward to try the Slovak cheese as well!