"Slovenia 'Bites': Tapas for Your Travel Bug" Gastronomy, Culinary, Food….Dober Tek!
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interested in the country oh we're live sorry are we live it happened it happened quicker than i thought sorry good morning everyone good evening everyone um uh it's me ashley so let me mute this okay um sorry it's me ashley in carmel california your fellow travel advisor and here's tinay in london um go ahead and introduce yourself tna yeah hi everyone my name is tina um i'm live from london england no it's not the one in canada but in the uk england i'm native slovenian um used to work for slovenian tourist board for six years and then i started my own company called mindbrand which basically works in the uk and the usa and promotes uh tourism destinations predominantly in in in europe in in in the balkan region and most of them in slovenia which is my as i said native country and um yes we are ashley and tina and we started this sort of um how do we call it a slovenia travel advisors academy and we post weekly um facebook posts on slovenia so stuff you need to know about slovenia uh everything from interesting um uh parts to to learn about in slovenia and the facts about slovenia and the end point of this is um plan to do a fun trip um which we hope to do it this year um subject to covet as well so yes this is quickly about us yeah so thank you all for joining us if you haven't we have two other lives we've done in the past two weeks and we plan to go live weekly here for 15 minutes to give you a small bite of what it is what everything about slovenia this week i'm really excited because this is one of my personal favorite topics and i know several people that are in this group are really into gastronomy travel um culinary travel wine travel um all that great stuff and so we're going to do a quick overview about um the gastronomic diversity of slovenia and at the end we're going to teach you one phrase that is very relevant to when you're dining in slovenia so stay tuned for that should i just go ahead and share this site teenager yes please i'm gonna share and i'll share with you all watching the um the link for this because it's a really super useful site for you all to go to for research afterwards yes thank you go talk away tinay and i'll scroll down and do what you want me to do with it i mean first we we every day every week we start sort of of um what's new on the on the front of the opening borders and travel restrictions and covet and stuff so at the moment there is no major change or improvement from last week as much as i can tell as in as much as i saw on the website i still suggest everyone to check the two major website which is uh the us embassy in ljubljana the capital of slovenia so just type in google us embassy in slovenia and they tend to have a very up-to-date information for the u.s travelers to slovenia i think the same goes for the canadian ones but please check on that website and the other one is uh obviously slovenian embassy in in the states so slovenian embassy in dc uh same you will find it online and they they have quite a good information uh basically slovenia will do the same as the european union will do so when european union will um sort of open the borders and if um the traffic light system so usa is still on the green uh sort of a list of countries which i'm sure it will be uh then we are very close to to opening that traveling uh easing the traveling restrictions and opening the travel to slovenia most likely you will still need to have um either proof of vaccination or proof of uh having covered in past or of the or one of the tests but uh it it should be much easier as it was earlier in the year so this is about to cover covet at the moment then let's talk about much more interesting topic house of the slovenian gastronomy um yes slovenia was um already in 2020 recognizes european region of gastronomy awarded by um by this association uh obviously kovic changed the stuff same as it did with everything else from the olympics to everything else so uh the region of gastronomy was put forward for a year and it's going to happen this year 2021 uh it's all sort of activities that's going to happen so on this particular website if you go on the top you have um events on the top right corner just click there and follow this um again they are still probably waiting for the the copy rules and everything but the big change was that slovenia was awarded last year the first ever michelin stars although many would say that we were overdue earlier to get them uh we are very proud of a couple of our chefs so for example if you click on the chefs button on the top um actually you probably will recognize some of you might recognize the first name which is anna rosh she used to be the best female chef in the world i think in 2017 or 2018 she was a star chef in chef stable on netflix so this is where her popularity really grew and before kovic she was practically sold out all the slots were sold out this is her restaurants her restaurant is in a beautiful part of slovenia in sacha valley in northwest part and yeah she's really one of a kind super popular and beacon ambassador to slovenian slovenian slovenia is such as a country but also the slovenian cuisine and i think with her uh the recognition of recognition of other chefs also become bigger and many other chefs got uh many other many other restaurants got the word with mission in star um ana's restaurant called hisha franco got two michelin stars and there are a couple of others uh which got um a one michelin star so i just suggested you you scroll through this website and uh you'll see a couple of um other chefs which are all uh very interesting characters and such but um if just yeah quick question so many earth that's a pretty big deal though right because slovenia is such a small country relative to some of the other european gastronomic capitals like france and italy so it's really awesome and like you said long overdue for these michelin stars in this recognition but that it's such a small country it seems to me that it's densely populated with good chefs because of it yeah i think so yeah it might be right there i mean it's beside the good chef it's also the culture of um of the restaurants and and and food i mean to start with it's a very normal thing in slovenia to to grow your own ingredients at home so every every slovenian pretty much will have some sort of uh own garden and with grown stuff at home or would know somebody for example who who produces its own um meat produce and and and so on and it's it's very much based on the mentality of the of the nature of the uh of the of the nation uh it's all down to sustainable and then live with the nature uh we are quite quite fortunate as you know with the with the gifts of the nature and and quality of water and everything so so it's i guess it all starts there and then it's also the position where slovenia is geographically in the middle of europe so you will have the influences of um of italian cuisine from one side for example some more mediterranean and then traditionally from the south it will come all down from middle east turkey and then balkan region you will get influences from there and then historically slovenia was part of austro-hungarian country and there was a lot of influence coming from the small continental star part of europe so it all sorts of mixed in slovenia but then we also have traditional foods in the country and because as we talked last week uh the landscape and the land of slovenia is very diverse uh and this is replicate replicated also in other stuff for example the way people live and the the the accent of the language but pretty much as well in what people eat and what's like typical dish for the for the region and even though it's a small country as you said and you're on the trail for a half hour or one hour away you would still see a lot of diversity and influences in the food so that's probably the reason and um and and yeah i guess i guess the culture of of eating quality food like um having time to for the meals like dinners and uh and and and lunch as well it's it's very high so that's why um that's why probably we developed a lot of very quality chefs uh it took a while obviously to to develop the culture of fine dining uh but i think uh in last 10 years things changed a lot and um and and that's why we had so many uh good restaurants i mean even though you you you only have this couple of selected ones which are the awarded chefs so the ones that go the michelin stars you're pretty much in every region of slovenia you'd find like a small farm stay um like um like like you you can tell your experience when we were dining in peter's uh homestead like it was like a winery and everything like the whole family was cooking for us but it was yeah yeah maybe you can tell this yeah so i um so i as an adult i've been to slovenia twice and i've had a really diverse experience of dining opportunities from some of the nicest restaurants in slovenia like the restaurant at um the castle in ljubljana um the castle and lake bled um some you know fine dining i even ate at anna rosa's um one of her sister restaurants not is it franco but one of the other ones in that area i mean and every every time i ate it was amazing but the ones that stick out the most to me that i i've enjoyed the most have been in the family owned and i don't know if it's like the equivalent of an agro-turismo experience in italy but you know basically they they feed you what they have available um you know and it's all locally made so one was with tiene's cousin who has a winery and i don't i can't remember if he made his own cure he cured his own meats correct or did he get it yes i mean it's a farm to a table experience but yeah so so i mean he he doesn't have he he buys locally uh the meat and then he he produces all sort of um um cold cuts all sorts of um salines and stuff by himself and you can all you can easily tell it like majority whatever is possible of the ingredients is sourced on a very micro local level so within the village or within the local villages and um and yeah the whole family is um involved in into cooking so for example uh one one the owner is sort of wine maker and the head of them and then his brother cooks and then his mother would prepare some like uh traditional slovenian puddings or sweets and so yeah it's very very much family involved business and then oh sorry there was another one i did in the karst region um and uh it was it was different than that experience but you know they they got their meats and cured their it was prosciutto i forget what the version of prosciutto is called in slovenia yeah um and then they got honey from their neighbor they got olive oil from their neighbors they got all you know um wine from their neighbor uh you know just everything was sort of acquired very locally and all these really quality high quality ingredients like we don't even talk about how some of these like super important staples of high cuisine are found and sourced in slovenia like the piranha salt and the really great olive oil and truffles can be harvested in slovenia yeah really great prosciutto honey um sorry so i'm dominating but like i was just like overwhelmed and amazed by just these local like family experiences how high quality the food was and uh and and also food can be uh pretty much diverse so you have from very meaty stuff or more continental stuff to to those who like more fish or seedish or or for example where anna roche restaurant is they are very famous by the trouts as well the socha trouts so that's a very big thing and of course the uh the plant-based food is also on the rice um so more and more restaurants will offer you uh vegeta vegetarian or even vegan dishes um very commonly so it's not really something special anymore it was like maybe a couple of years ago one thing to mention as well is that it's not just a rural slovenia it's just not just like farm stability also in the capital ljubljana has some really great fine dining places so for example you can dine at the castle um in the restaurant called strelitz which means archer yeah and you can yes and then you this basically means you you sit on the on the on the top of the castle on the on the wall and then you have like nice um background of slovenian uh julian alps and basically the whole juvenile underneath you and uh especially on like um this time of the year maybe slightly later june july it's very pleasant to be up there and enjoy the evening outside but on this website if you see on the top you also have a tab for experiences um so if you click on experiences uh i think it's second note yeah experiences and that that is very um cool stuff as well so this is something we we might replicate on our fun trip so um i won't go into all of them but you can see that there are some very interesting um experiences based on the on the part of slovenia so either you can meal uh like in cabaret you see you can have experience like being on the on the front line when because this was the front of a big the big was some of the biggest battles of the first world war war happened there and then they're lower you have something in history where it says copper when you can go into um or among olives when you are seeing it there and and so on and so on or you can see that the boat uh boat ride to the sustainable fish farm which you did as well if you remember and you liked it a lot uh it's just this amazing story by this woman in slovenia who's just produces very sustainably um sea bus and it's very dedicated whole families again engaged [Music] and then yeah i mean this is a basic basically you can travel throughout the country and experience significance of the region but then also and which can go for the through the food and through the different tastes of um of food and we haven't talked much about wine i think we talked about something about wine last time um we need a dedicated whole session to wine yes i agree i agree even though it's wine is mentioned here but let's do wine and maybe craft beer scene and spirits and all this stuff next time um or one of the next times um one thing we should probably mention today is the honey and the importance of the honey production and the beast in slovenia i mean slovenians take the the beekeeping extremely serious and we all know that story that um uh without beast the whole world will collapse in a matter of years um and um basically beekeeping is part of slovenian traditions tradition it was part of slovenian tradition from ever so it's whenever you're going to slovenia we'd see uh as you can see now on the on the screen you will hear these bee hives which are all very colorful and painted in different colors and um and all sorts of activities as well it's not just produce production of honey it's you have these and type of experiences where you can it's almost like a spa when you can go and have a spa based all around honey or you can lay on the top of the beehive and enjoy the vibration and of the beehive which heals us but apparently as well and um yeah we are very proud that it's because of slovenia and because of slovenians uh united nations recognized um uh it's sunday now actually in may the the world b day uh when 20th it said the 20th of may on this page so it's kind of oh yeah so you see it's in two weeks time yeah in two weeks time is it's it's the world b day uh and it's uh recognized by the whole um uh the united nation and and and if you go actually in new york in in your united nation building is on their garden there is a beehive there which is slovenian beehive and they have slovenian bees in in the heart of new york yes as well i mean um so maybe a new yorkers now as well already but they originally are slovenians those beasts and um and yeah i mean uh the the we tried to kind of teach the world of the importance of the sustainers the sustainability and the the responsibility towards the nature environment but especially towards this little creature uh b which is so important for for for whatever we do in however nature uh starts the circus every year it's always involves in some way uh b and um yeah it's very important for us and you would you would also find a super top quality khan in slovenia wherever you go basically and there will be some local um beekeeper who can sell you the different types of honey that they they have every year yeah i mean this is basically all short about the food and the the the culinary experience i'm sure whoever will join us for the fun trip to slovenia will be fortunate uh to try this um every day of course uh different sort of food and culinary experience and um [Music] let's go now to this uh word that uh you're gonna teach us and i'm gonna just i i just gonna judge your pronunciation this is really funny so um in in honor of our learning about dining in slovenia you need to know how to say i don't know like it's like the equivalent of bon appetit basically um so i'm gonna uh here we go dobertek fantastic excellent yeah so yeah when people would sit down somebody would save a taxi and then everybody would reply and uh this means like uh exactly the same as translation uh bon appetito or i don't know how there is nothing there it's not a similar word enjoy your meal like that's about what we would say and yeah cheers i feel like american dreams in england but americans don't for some reason we don't um i don't know i feel like there's a there's a better way to enjoy meals than what we do here and it's experienced in europe like we just maybe that's why you you invented the fast food in tennessee yeah well it's basically just uh yeah it's just kind of announces the start of the of of the fist of the meal and then you you enjoyed it and you wish everybody else to enjoy the meal as well so uh that's that's it yeah and it's like you said it's a exactly the same as they would have it in france or italy or other mediterranean countries i guess yeah um yeah cool um i don't know what we're going to talk about next week yet do you do you have an idea tna or should we we'll come back in well yeah we can announce it uh we can announce it during the week or if there is any preferences whoever wants to have any questions or comments please don't be uh scared to ask even after the video not now necessarily on our facebook group just ask the question or put suggestions what you want to learn more about so maybe slowly we can do the general stuff about slowing and then at some point we will go more into a touristy stuff so like accommodations and stuff so i don't know maybe we can talk about the region we can we can do wine we said we can do wine we can do something about the type of activities that people do in slovenia so it's up to all of us basically yeah if you have any specific requests um we did get a request from i forget what her name was but i'll look it up later about local authentic experiences and so we tried to address that a little bit in the food today and i think that you get an idea for some of the local authentic experiences in the food area that you can have but as we go through different topics we'll weave that in but i think there's a lot of opportunities for local authentic experiences in general in slovenia so um keep giving us your feedback and we will be back with you next week have a good week and dilbert thank you everybody bye bye
2021-05-12 14:33