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The vintage, friends, is over
And here sweet wine makes, once again,
Sad eyes and hearts recover,
Puts fire into every vein.
Drowns dull care
Everywhere
And summons hope out of despair.
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Spet trte so rodile,
prijat'lji, vince nam sladko,
ki nam ozivlja zile,
srce razjasni in oko,
ki utopi
vse skrbi,
v potrtih prsih up budi.
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Thus begins Slovenia's national anthem, written by the greatest
Slovenian poet, France Preseren (1800-1849).
In this benevolent spirit, we now invite you to the Slovenian
Gostilna in the center of Olympic Sydney.
Situated at the crossroads of various European cultural currents,
Slovenia developed its own tradition of hospitality,
gostoljubnost. From this term came the name for a house where
travellers could stop to quench their hunger and thirst and find
shelter for the night. The gostilna is a house where guests are
welcomed and hospitality rules. An old Slovenian proverb says,
"Life without holidays is like a long road without a
gostilna."
The Slovenian gostilna
The Slovenian gostilna had its doors open wide, and still today it
is a place for the friendly gathering of people who come for the good
food in the middle of a long working day, to converse, or to celebrate
under its roof some personal or family holiday. As once many bargains
were made under its roof, today many business decisions are still
crowned around its tables. Life ran according to its own rules in the
gostilna. The normal care for the guest was devoted primarily to his
or her well-being, which means that for the guest, the gostilna was
always a good substitute for the comforts of home: good food, good
drink, a friendly word, and pleasant surroundings. The everyday
rhythm was varied by events to which the gostilna gave its own stamp:
the singing of Slovenian songs, the playing of the accordion, cultural
and political meetings, weddings, baptisms, wakes . . .
Today, the modern gostilna means a warm welcome and an offer that
combines the heritage of traditional Slovenian hospitality with the
requirements of modern diners. The modern menu offers dishes from the
traditional environment as well as a cosmopolitan range of modern
favourites.
An integral part of the gostilna concept is linked to the culture
of drinking, since while not disowning beer, Slovenian gostilnas have
brought back the custom of drinking water, brandies, and wine with
meals. Connoisseurs will appreciate the Epicurean model adopted by
Slovenia's wine culture, which is based on the principle of small but
good-and if possible, the best.
Slovene Cuisine
Slovenian cuisine is composed of various regional and local
cuisines that slowly developed on the basis of the natural assets of
the area and the influences of neighbouring culinary traditions:
Mediterranean, Alpine, and Pannonian. The western influence brought
more pasta and vegetables into Slovenian cooking. The influence of
Viennese cuisine, first known to Slovenian townsfolk and subsequently
spread to rural kitchens, brought breaded and pastry items, while the
Pannonian influence added spicier flavours. All these influences were
only additions to the authentic components of Slovenian cooking that
were dependent on economic and, of course, climatic conditions.
Slovenian farm food certainly contained great amounts of cereals and
legumes with large amounts of fiber and other healthy ingredients. All
these are returning today to the offer of the good Slovenian gostilna,
which has never disowned roast pork, venison, or other game
either. Today, there is an increasing selection of seafood, and in
some places even river crayfish are returning to the kitchen. The
offer of struklji is truly immeasurable, with over three hundred
recipes for serving in soup, as side dishes, or as desserts. And while
we are speaking of rolled dough garnished with the most varied
fillings from walnuts to tarragon, we can't overlook the potica that
is familiar to every region of Slovenia, not to mention the prekmurska
gibanica from the easternmost part of the country. In any case, we
mustn't forget the traditional meals na zlico ("on the
spoon"): stews, sour soup, ricet (a thick barley soup), and
buckwheat kasa (groats). In winter, the Slovenian gostilna served the
very popular pork sausage and other preserved pork items, meat from
the home-fattened pig, buckwheat zganci, sour turnip, and sour
cabbage. Recently, there has been a revival of the formerly common
serving of white, red, and green asparagus in the spring, and suburban
gostilnas in particular are cultivating asparagus in their own
gardens.
