Local historical dishes by Park Škocjanske jame

Local historical dishes

Karst and Reka River Basin Biosphere Reserve Menu

Where and what will we eat today? Karst and Reka River Basin Biosphere Reserve as UNESCO Location of Programme Man and Biosphere (MAB) The Karst and Reka River Basin Biosphere Reserve, which became a member of the world network of biosphere reserves in 2004, includes the areas of Divaški prag, Vremščica, Brkini, Prestranek-Slavina Plains, Sajevče Field, Košana Valley and the Snežnik Plateau with the remaining area of Ilirska Bistrica and Kočanija, surrounding and creating a route to the river Reka, which forms a magnificent underground world in the Škocjan Caves. Biosphere reserves are locations which were recognized by the UNESCO MAB programme – Man and Biosphere – as places with an extreme biological diversity, a rich cultural heritage and creative people who aim at sustainable development with their work, and together recognize this specific heritage as a value by implementing scientific knowledge and preserving natural and cultural sights. Škocjan by Divača Photo: Antonio Naglos

Karst and Reka River Basin Biosphere Reserve Menu With the desire to present the diversity of the culinary heritage of our region, promote local dishes, sustainable development and networking by the providers of catering services in this area, and also (as far as possible) contribute to the conservation of agriculture and the landscape, we set ourselves a goal in 2015 to start a campaign »Noble tastes of old Slovenian local dishes« within the Committee for sustainable tourism of this biosphere reserve, including hospitality providers. Our tradition is our identity, comparative advantage and recognizability, whereas integration is our material, spiritual and social power. We invited all hospitality providers from Divača to Mt. Snežnik to the campaign. We received a response from Rihard Baša from Jasen, Vrbin Homestead from Pared and the Restaurant Mahnič in Škocjan Caves Park. They selected as many as thirty distinctive dishes and drinks for you to try from the list of distinctive dishes of the Karst and Reka River Basin Biosphere Reserve, which was prepared on the basis of a workshop Brce by Ilirska Bistrica Photo: Emil Maraž, Fotoatelje Maraž Ilirska Bistrica

by Janez Bogataj, PhD., and with the professional assistance of Katja Hrobat Virloget, PhD., Darja Kranjc and Irena Iskra Miklavčič. It exclusively includes dishes which were eaten in the area every day or on annual holidays up to the second half of the 20th century. Some are still eaten, while others are slowly disappearing from everyday menus. As the most recognizable, dishes are set out which are included in two out of twenty-four gastronomic regions of Slovenia within the context of the Gastronomy Development Strategy of Slovenia. These are: Karst, and Brkini and Karst Edge. Each dish on the menu is carefully described and positioned in space and time. We wish you a lot of pleasure reading and tasting. Welcome in our distinctive time and space.

Aggregated list of offered dishes, desserts and drinks on the menu Spring dishes, desserts and drinks: barley, cooked shoulder, aspic, cod with tomato and polenta, chicory with vinegar, pancetta, beans and hot potatoes, fried elderberry flowers Summer dishes, desserts and drinks: bean minestrone, bean soup with green beans, sour beans with egg Autumn dishes, desserts and drinks: potatoes mashed with kale and/or fresh cabbage (ždroc), kožarica sausage with ždroc and sauerkraut, mushroom goulash with potatoes or polenta, mushrooms with egg, baked potatoes with pancetta, rabbit goulash with polenta, baked apples, plum gnocchi Winter dishes, desserts and drinks: jota hot pot, cooked potatoes and sauerkraut (krompir v zevnici) with pancetta, pork with krompir v zevnici, black pudding with sauerkraut or turnip, liver sausage ( jtrnca)

Dishes, desserts and drinks consumed throughout the year: pancetta, dried sausage, home-made prosciutto, Karst sheep and Brkini cheese, barley with dried meat*, apple juice, fruit spirit (sadjevec), plum spirit (brkinski slivovec), Karst gin (kraški brinjevec), Brkini dumplings (brkinski štruklji), plum gnocchi*

Where can we find these dishes? Rihard Baša s. p., Jasen

Offer of historical dishes throughout the year • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Spring: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• Aspic – home-made Easter gelatinous dish from pig legs and cow bones • Cod with tomato and polenta – air-dried unsalted Norwegian cod with tomato sauce and locally harvested polenta made from the old variety of corn (trdinka) • Fried elderberry flowers – elderberry flowers picked on a sunny day at 12pm, placed in mixture of home-made flour, eggs and milk and fried in oil • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Summer: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• S our beans with egg – home-produced cooked beans, egg and onion, topped with lard and apple or wine vinegar 8

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Autumn: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• R abbit goulash with polenta – stew made from domestic rabbit with locally produced polenta from an old corn variety (trdinka) • Baked apples – peeled and cored home-grown apples stuffed with walnuts and honey and baked in the oven with butter • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Winter: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• L iver sausage (jtrnca) – welldried liver sausage with intestine as a topping with lard • Cooked potatoes and sauerkraut (krompir v zevnici) – indigenous potatoes cooked together with home-made sauerkraut from cabbage of a later variety • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Throughout the year: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• B arley with dried meat – homemade soup with barley, beans, potatoes, parsley, porcine dry meat, tomato sauce and lard 10

• P lum gnocchi – home-made potato gnocchi stuffed with sweetened stoned Brkini plums or plum jam, topped with butter and bread crumbs

Stories about offered dishes • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Spring: Easter menu • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Aspic is a traditional dish for Easter also in Jasen. Housewives used to prepare cod with tomato on Easter Friday, whereas on Christmas Eve they usually prepared a cod spread. Cod was the cheapest fish that could be purchased by the people of Ilirska Bistrica and surroundings in the local shops before the Second World War. Due to excessive fishing, today the price of this fish is at least ten times higher than it used to be. Fried elderberry flowers were usually served as dessert after a meal. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Summer: Worker’s snack • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Sour beans with egg were a frequent nutritious and – due to vinegar – consistent 11

worker’s meal (marenda), which used to be carried by the people of Ilirska Bistrica and surroundings, who mostly lived on agriculture, with them to a field or a remote forest where they worked. It is interesting that wine vinegar in addition to apple vinegar was also common here. It was sold in surrounding villages and also in Jasen at the time of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy by the residents from a nearby Istrian village of Mune, who are said to be descendants of Balkan aborigines who came to this area 400–500 years ago. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Autumn: Better autumn lunch • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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Winter: Everyday winter dish • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

It is a tradition in Jasen to smoke a liver sausage slightly, but only for the aroma. The local way of drying meat products has always been something between that of the Karst and Notranjska regions. The meat was dried in drying rooms, which were located in every indigenous residence, for not more than twenty minutes with juniper branches being put on the fire. Sausages were then kept in a pantry (cellar) in a stone filled with lard, as the stone maintained appropriate temperature.

Deliciously baked apples were usually prepared in this time of year in Jasen for an afternoon snack (mala južna). This was a highly calorific dish, which was eaten for strength.

Cooked potatoes and sauerkraut (krompir v zevnici) is considered to be a distinct Slovenian dish of the Brkini gastronomic region. Housewives like to prepare it even today, since due to the acid in the cabbage the surface of the potato hardens and thus does not tend to overcook, not requiring a lot of attention and work from the cook. Krompir v zevnici has been a frequent dish for lunch or an afternoon snack in the Ilirska Bistrica region from time immemorial. With a spoon of lard or morka (cracklings fried in melted butter)

The biggest storage of food was available in autumn, therefore there were also a lot of rabbits in the barn. For a better Sunday lunch ( južna) or at the end of mostly important farm chores (likof ), the locals treated themselves with rabbit with potato polenta (white).

instead of sausage, krompir v zevnici was often prepared even in the summer. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Throughout the year: A light everyday dish and popular dessert • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Although barley minestrone has been entered as a well-known Slovenian dish of the Karst gastronomic region, housewives in the Ilirska Bistrica region also prepared it for an everyday lunch. It was eaten throughout the year, however, additions differed depending on the time of year. Thus, more dried meat was included in the barley in winter, and more vegetables in the summer and autumn. Fresh or dried beans are available throughout the year. As barley as a dish is easily digestible and does not give a feeling of satiety, it was not very popular among people and was considered a less favourable dish. There was not much meat in it and when it ran short, housewives usually used bones for cooking. So it happened that a housewife cooked barley twice with the same prosciutto bone, which she gave afterwards to her neighbour for a third cooking.

Plum gnocchi was eaten in the Ilirska Bistrica region as a main dish for an afternoon snack (mala južna) throughout the year (dried fruit, jam). Although plum gnocchi is the best and therefore the most popular and well known, the housewives in Jasen, Janeževo Brdo and other surrounding villages prepared them with other seasonal fruits such as cherries.

The story about the chef My name is Rihard Baša, I am a professional chef who has been happily doing his job for thirty years and I am interested in everything related to this profession, also the culinary tradition of places where I come from and live. I prepare the offered dishes or menus in original locations in front of the guests with an explanation. Dishes can be offered in the context of trips around the area of the Škocjan Caves Regional Park and the Karst and Reka River Basin Biosphere Reserve. Address: Jasen 137b, 6250 Ilirska Bistrica Mobile: +386 (0)31 209 629 Opening time: by agreement Distance and time it takes from Škocjan Caves:

34km, and half an hour by car

A proposed site to visit in the surrounding area OLD CITY CENTRE OF ILIRSKA BISTRICA

The old city centre of Ilirska Bistrica is a half an hour walk from Jasen. This is a settlement monument of local importance, which dates back to the first quarter of the 14th century. In the town with a central square, the church and ruins of the Gradina Castle, the traditional architecture of mills and saws from the 19th century is mixed with buildings with a commercial, financial and administrative character. AHEC HILL

You can also go on an one-hour hike up Ahec Hill from us along a well-maintained and marked trail. At the top of the hill, you can visit the ruins of the early Christian church dedicated to St Achatius. Ahec has been populated from the bronze age onwards.

Vrbin Homestead, Pared

Offer of historical dishes and beverages throughout the year • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Spring: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• V rbin barley – barley minestrone with peas, home-grown carrots, potatoes, parsley, garlic and onions, enriched with smoked pork ribs, pieces of prosciutto or sausage • Cooked shoulders (Easter time) – traditional salted, smoked and partially dried pork shoulder from home reared pigs • Vrbin aspic (Easter time) – typical Easter aspic from pig feet, ears, tail, calf ’s bones, parsley roots, celery, onions, garlic and whole pepper, with the addition of bay leaves and the cooked meat pieces • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Summer: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• B ean soup (pašta in fžu) – soup made from home produced fresh beans, home-made pasta (bleki) and

potatoes, peppered and topped with onions roasted in lard

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Throughout the year: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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Autumn: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• Ždroc – cooked potatoes with kale and/or fresh cabbage, salted, peppered and topped with garlic roasted in lard or oil • Plum gnocchi – our gnocchi filled with Brkini plums • Kožarica sausages with ždroc and sauerkraut – home-made Vrbin sausages stuffed with meat and mixed pork skin (3:1) with a characteristic Brkini side dish

• V rbin pancetta, dried sausage, home-made prosciutto – dried meat products made from home reared pigs • Home-made apple juice – mixed home-grown apples pressed into juice, filled in barrels heated to 81°C, slowly cooled and, if necessary, bottled. • Vrbin fruit or plum spirit (sadjevec, slivovec)

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Winter: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• J ota hot pot – soup with sauerkraut or turnip with pork • Kožarica sausages with ždroc and sauerkraut – home-made Vrbin sausages stuffed with meat and mixed pork skin (3:1) with a characteristic Brkini side dish

Stories about offered dishes and beverages • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Spring: Everyday local lunch and Easter delicacies • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Barley minestrone ( ječmen) is a recognizable dish from the Slovenian Karst gastronomic region. It was eaten at Vrbin Homestead in all seasons with a piece of black home-made bread as an everyday lunch. If it is prepared correctly, with a sufficient amount of ingredients and with pork meat, it is still appreciated in the house, thus the leftovers are eaten for dinner. It is interesting that instead of beans, barley at the Vrbin Homestead was always cooked with peas, which were always produced in abundance here, so that they could be dried as well. Cooked shoulders were taken for the blessing of the Easter basket in this area on Holy Saturday to church, together with other obligatory dishes, which were eaten by the family on Easter Sunday for breakfast. This is still a tradition in religious families of today. Meat in the Christian tradition is the symbol of Jesus’s body. 24

As long as they can remember, aspic was prepared for Easter Sunday at the Vrbin Homestead, and eaten on Easter Monday if there was any left. Guest were typically served with potica walnut cake, cooked shoulders and aspic as a symbol of Easter Sunday. Today, this dish is rarely cooked as it requires approximately three days of preparation (soaking, scraping, washing the meat) and 10 hours cooking, where the fat needs to be regularly scooped off the top of the pot where it accumulates. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Summer: Stew • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Bean minestrone (pašta in fžu) as a main daily meal at the Vrbin Homestead was eaten with a piece of bread throughout the year, but in the summer it was prepared only with fresh beans. Unlike other minestrones, no meat was cooked in the bean soup, as it was topped with lard, garlic, onion and flour (roux), which today is no longer a habit. Instead of flour, chefs like to thicken today’s minestrones with potatoes, which is a welcome for guests with special dietary requirements (coeliac disease). 25

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Autumn: Popular mashed dish and seasonal dessert

Winter: The taste of old Slovenian local dishes is not the same without pork

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Potatoes mashed with kale and/or fresh cabbage (ždroc), used to be served at the Vrbin Homestead on Sundays beside soup and meat cooked in soup in summer or autumn instead of roast potatoes. The latter was also eaten as a main dish for dinner. It was prepared from fresh kale or cabbage, and sometimes from both. Potatoes, kale and/or cabbage cooked together. When the water is poured off, the dish is well mashed and topped with lard. It is a distinctive dish of the Slovenian Brkini gastronomic region.

Jota hot pot is a recognizable dish from the Slovenian Karst gastronomic region. At the Vrbin Homestead its was eaten as a main dish for everyday lunch. It is interesting that in the first half of the 20th century, turnips were also kept on grape skins at the Vrbin Homestead, which was the general practice in the Karst region. At that time, in the area they still had their own vineyards and the cellars. Unlike the conventional method of preparation and storage of sour turnips, which were grated, turnips on grape skins were stored as a whole and grated when necessary. Today, Pared and the surrounding villages have no vineyards anymore.

Plum gnocchi were on the menu for only a short time of the year at the Vrbin Homestead, i.e. in September when the plums ripened. They were always prepared exclusively with freshly stoned fruit. They were eaten as a main dish, topped with bread crumbs and butter and sprinkled with sugar. Today, Vrbin gnocchi are smaller than before. Mrs Marija says that they can only be evenly cooked from the inside and the outside as such. 26

Vrbin’s hour or two smoked kožarica sausages are sausages stuffed with meat and cooked ground pig skins. The ratio of ingredients used to be fifty-fifty; today, the amount of skin is reducing. These sausages were never kept in lard as they quickly go bad and need to be consumed within two months. They were eaten in minestrone or cabbage. Today’s 27

ratio of conventional and kožarica sausages at the Vrbin Homestead is 6:1. There are even less liver sausages from bloody meat, i.e. 2kg per pig. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Throughout the year: Typical dried meat and drinks • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Typical slightly smoked dry-cured meat products from the Vrbin Homestead made from home-reared pigs are prepared according to the recipes of our grandparents. In the past, pancetta, dried pork neck (ošokolo) and sausages were eaten at the Vrbin Homestead mostly on holidays or for an afternoon snack ( južna), while prosciutto was sold and new pigs bought from the money they received. Only one was saved for the village feast, which was served to the relatives who came to visit. It is interesting that the Vrbin family opened the first pancetta on Saint Joseph’s Day (19 March) when Marija’s father name day was celebrated. Thinly sliced and slightly peppered it was eaten with freshly baked bread and dumplings (štruklji).

Apple juice has long been known here as these areas have long been known for fruit production. The preparation was the same as today, but it was not boiled, so it was necessary to consume it within one or two months after preparation. Then, they said, »it changes to wine«. Juice which began fermenting was poured onto grape skins, or alone into a still to produce fruit spirit (sadjevec). From more fermented juice, vinegar was prepared. There used to be many high trunk apples of varieties bobovec, štajerska trdelika and goriška sevka around here in the valley (Potu’ći). Once they were in abundance, apples were ground in the tub at the Vrbin Homestead, covered, and in spring spirit was distilled from them. The latter was drunk by farmers when they were covered with sweat during farm, forestry and masonry work.

The story about the host The Vrbin Homestead is located on the outskirts of the Škocjan Caves Regional Park on the transitional area of the UNESCO Karst and Reka River Basin Biosphere Reserve. Irena, Tomaž, Mrs Marija and our children are working very hard to make the best use of the natural resources coming from Brkini, Karst and Slovenian lstria, and to serve them to our visitors as delicious homemade dishes.

Address: Kačiče Pared 25, 6215 Divača T: +386 (0)5 763 1065 Mobile: +386 (0)41 473 905 W: www.vrbin.si Opening hours: Friday from 5pm to 10pm

Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 12pm to 10pm Other days − for groups by prior arrangement Time it takes from Škocjan Caves: 10 min by car

A proposed site to visit in the surrounding area STROLL AROUND THE RENOVATED PONDS IN LASATKE AND PR VRABCIH

In the past, the ponds used to serve as a place for providing the livestock with water, and after being renovated they are mainly intended for the conservation of flora and fauna, which grow and live in them and in the surrounding area. You can visit them on foot along aÂ marked path from our homestead and it will take you half an hour.

Restaurant Mahnič in Škocjan Caves Park, Matavun

Offer of historical »a la carte« dishes and beverages • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Throughout the year: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• K arst pancetta (kraška pancetta) – geographically protected dried meaty peppered bacon • Dried sausages • Karst sheep and Brkini cheese – hard aromatic intensive sheep cheese with a protected designation of origin (kraški ovčji sir) and organic cheese • Jota hot pot – typical Karst soup with sour turnip or cabbage • Home-made plum spirit (slivovec) and Karst gin (brinjevec) – protected brandies from domestic Brkini plums and juniper berries with a protected designation of origin (brkinski slivovec, kraški brinjevec)

Offer of historical menus for groups throughout the year For groups by prior arrangement. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Spring: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• C hicory with vinegar, pancetta, beans and hot potatoes • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Summer: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• Bean soup with green beans • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Autumn:

Offer of selected historical dishes and beverages for tasting • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Throughout the year: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• Karst pancetta (kraška panceta) • Sausages • Karst and Brkini sheep cheese (kraški ovčji sir) • Plum gnocchi • Brkini dumplings (brkinski štruklji) • Home-made plum spirit (slivovec) and Karst gin (brinjevec)

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• B arley minestrone with smoked pork meat • Mushroom stew with potatoes or polenta • Mushrooms with eggs • Baked potatoes with pancetta • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Winter: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• C ooked potatoes and sauerkraut (krompir v zevnici) with pancetta • Pork with krompir v zevnici • Black pudding with sauerkraut or turnip • Aspic (žuca)

Most dishes are prepared from ingredients delivered by the producers living in the neighbourhood. Some of them include a protected designation of origin. They are prepared according to traditional recipes, but in a modern way.

Throughout the year: Salty, sour, sweet and disease prevention our way • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Sliced dried sausages, pancetta on a kitchen board and black or so-called mixed bread were usually served to guests when they came to visit in these places. For these opportunities, they sometimes kept a slice of prosciutto, which they never ate themselves. Men also sliced a piece of pancetta for an afternoon snack or dinner. When working on the pasture or field, a combination of cooked pancetta, sauerkraut and sausage was frequently served. Sheep grazing in these places was still significant in the 1830s. Among other things, farmers produced sheep cheese for their own use and for sale. In the beginning of the 20th century, the industry shrank, but survived, and on the basis of incentives in the 1980s reached such an extent that breeders achieved a protected designation of origin in 2008 for their Karst sheep cheese. Of course, people also produced cow’s milk cheese if the milk was not sold, but this was rarely. 38

Jota hot pot is a typical main dish, which in the vicinity of Matavun was prepared more frequently with turnips than with cabbage, and was always eaten with a piece of fresh bread. A 200-litre vat of turnips was usually grated for the winter. In the summer the pigs were fed on leftovers. Unlike turnips, cabbages require more work (hoeing, spreading with ash, etc.), therefore it was planted in smaller quantities. Jota hot pot is a recognizable dish from the Slovenian Karst gastronomic region. Home-made spirit was a common drink in these places. It was mostly drank during cooking, when men gathered around the still and started »tasting« it. Men had a habit of drinking a shot of spirit several times a day, especially during heavier work to prevent a cold. It was always offered to guests. Unlike other types of spirits, Karst gin was not drank so often. It was said that it was more of a »cure«. Brkini plum spirit (brkinski sadjevec) and Karst gin (kraški brinjevec) include a protected designation of origin of the Slovenian gastronomic regions of Brkini and Karst. In the past, plums were often planted in these places near the fields as it was said 39

that »plums need manure«. Fresh fruit was used in autumn to prepare gnocchi with butter or a drop of oil and large quantities of grated bread. Some more advanced housewives also prepared them during the year with plum jam, but these were considered not to be real plum gnocchi. Whether it was a main dish or a dessert at lunch differed from house to house. At the end of work or at major holidays, the people of Brkini liked to prepare dumplings (štruklji), which differ from the others by being filled with walnuts and bread in butter. They are a distinctive dish of the Slovenian Brkini gastronomic region. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Spring: Awakening of nature which leaves us full • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Chicory with vinegar, pancetta, beans and hot potatoes was a common everyday summer dinner in the past.

for lunch, which was topped with roux, but did not include meat and potatoes. Green beans with potatoes and vinegar was often prepared for dinner. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Autumn: From Izbirčna Metka (picky child) to Brkini pastures and forests • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

In the villages in the area of the park, some kind of derivative of Čebular’s song Izbirčna Metka (picky child) from the year 1923 was preserved in connection with barley, which is one of the most recognizable dishes of the Slovenian Karst gastronomic region. Children who did not like to eat barley were usually scolded that they were picky when they complained that barley stung them. As it does not make you feel full, barley at the Strmulin Homestead in Betanja was considered »hospital food«.

In the summer, housewives sometimes prepared bean soup with green beans

Brkini is famous for being a land of mushrooms. However, some locals did not know them, hadn’t picked them or eaten them. Some were even afraid to eat them in case they were poisoned. Those who knew a thing or two about mushrooms, prepared them for lunch in autumn as a mushroom stew with

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Summer: Meat of the poor with a high nutritional value • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

yellow polenta. Mushrooms substituted meat in this case. Goulash was cooked by adding parsley, garlic and tomato sauce to the mushrooms. In Škocjan, there was a wise folk saying which says that a mushroom which was eaten by a cow is certainly edible as »cows know mushrooms«. Fried mushrooms with egg yolk were prepared by »mushroom« families in the Karst region for dinner, or for lunch with potatoes. Baked potatoes with pancetta were eaten in some houses for dinner. Again in other houses, there was not enough pancetta, therefore salted baked potatoes were cut in half and were eaten without meat. It was also often prepared by shepherds out on the pasture on charcoal.

fruštk), but it was also eaten at home for lunch or dinner throughout the year. Often, pancetta or sausage (pork) was added more as a decoration, however, cooked potatoes and sauerkraut, which today is one of the most recognizable Slovenian Brkini gastronomic regions, was topped with lard or cracklings. Salty black pudding stuffed with rice and blood (slane mulce) was eaten in Škocjan when a pig was slaughtered (koline); without other additives, or with sour turnip. Thus for lunch, they prepared gruel (prmjtno) with lard, garlic and flour, which they used for topping on fried black pudding and sour turnip. Unlike this habit, in Brkini, sweet black pudding was more common in the Karst part of the Karst and Reka River Basin Biosphere Area, which was eaten as a treat e.g. with barley.

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Winter: The Brkini snack with meat and sausages and a holiday dish • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Cooked potatoes and sauerkraut (krompir v zevnici) with pancetta was taken to the haymakers in the meadows in the summer for a morning snack (prvi 42

Aspic (žuca) has long been a typical Easter dish, which was served for Easter Sunday stuffed with pieces of pork and sometimes with hard boiled egg.

The story about the host Restaurant Mahnič in the Škocjan Caves Park is located within the Park Information Centre at the meeting point to visit the Škocjan Caves. The facilities were fully renovated in 2010. They were equipped with a presentation of the pulse of the local life and heritage. We are proud of our homemade recipes, the preparation and service of the old dishes based on local ingredients and prepared in a modern way. We cater for visitors to the park, and weddings, parties, business meetings, and we also offer quick lunches, brunches and snacks.

Address: Matavun 12, 6215 Divača T: +386 (0)5 763 2960 Mobile: +386 (0)41 391 075 W: www.mahnic.si Opening hours: Summer − from 9am to 8pm

In the spring, autumn − from 9am to 6pm Winter − from 9am to 3pm Group reservation − until 3am Time it takes from Škocjan Caves: 0 min by car

A proposed site to visit in the surrounding area ŠKOCJAN CAVES

The Škocjan Caves are still the only natural heritage in Slovenia entered on UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites. This places them on a special – honourable – place among the world’s natural monuments. Our restaurant is located at the information centre of the Škocjan Caves Park, only a step away.

Map with the locations of providers and sites in the vicinity

legend

1 Rihard Baša s. p.

core area

4 Vrbin Homestead

Jasen 137b 6250 Ilirska Bistrica

Pared 25 6215 Divača

Ahec Hill

5 Lasatke Pond

3 Old City Centra of

6 Pr Vrabcih Pond

Ilirska Bistrica

buffer area

transition area

NOVA GORICA

highway

Vipava

Unic a

N S

Komen R

Cerknica

Postojna

ša

Pivk

Sežana Divača

TRST TRIESTE

rže

Pivka

Škocjanske jame

E OK BL

ital y

SLOVENIA

Logatec

Ajdovščina

Restaurant Mahnič in Škocjan Caves Park Matavun 12 6215 Divača

n Obrh

Re k

Hrpelje−Kozina Ri

Izola

KOPER

ža

Ilirska Bistrica

j gon Dra

CROATIA

Text: Rihard Baša, mag. Vanja Debevec, Irena Iskra Miklavčič, Darja Kranjc, Drago Kreš Informants: Albina Bak – Škocjan by Divača, Rihard Baša – Jasen, Irena Iskra Miklavčič – Pared, Marija Miklavčič – Pared, Tomaž Miklavčič – Pared, Vilma Žnidarčič – Betanja Photo: Autphoto (Restaurant Mahnič), Tine Bač, Rihard Baša, Martin Babič, Borut Lozej ( JZ PŠJ), Emil Maraž (Fotoatelje M araž Ilirska Bistrica), Antonio Naglos (Pierpaolo Sonnoli) Edited by: Darja Kranjc Translated by: Leemeta Translations Designed by: Jerneja Rodica Printed by: Abakos d. o. o. Number of copies: 1000 Published by: Park Škocjanske jame, Slovenija Škocjan by Divača, 2016

United Nations Educational, ScientiďŹ c and Cultural Organization

The Karst Biosphere Reserve since 2004 Man and the Biosphere Programme