MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Winter Spring 2019

78 MLCM WINTER/SPRING 2019 Growing Culinary Roots Organic since time immemorial, Slovenia’s gastronomic roots run deep. From simple, old-world cuisine packed with flavour and handed down through generations, world class chefs have recently started stirring up the scene with ‘zero-kilometre’ food practices and authentic farm-to-table dishes. Self-taught Slovenian chef Ana Roš, crowned the World’s Best Female Chef 2017 says, “We needed foraging-to-table, garden-to-table and farm-to-table approaches. It isn’t just a trend: it’s our life story.” We see this philosophy firsthand as guests at Gostilna Psnak , a 17 th century farmhouse that now operates as a restaurant/hotel tucked away in a verdant valley a short distance from Bled, one of the country’s top tourist draws. “You have to live with nature here, you have no other choice,” says our hostess Natalija Pristavec. Built in 1609, the stone home has seen six generations of the family grow old under its roof (four generations currently still live here). With her hair tightly pulled back and dressed in the traditional attire of a white shirt with lace sleeves and collar, satin vest and long grey dress, Pristavec introduces us to huge plates of sausage, sauerkraut and barley flour topped with pork crackling and pig lard. It’s a lunch that dates back hundreds of years in this very region, made inside a kitchen where “the quality of blood sausage was the mark of a good wife,” Pristavec says. After lunch Pristavec’s father, Janko Lipovec, tells us about life on the farm and in the mountains. Lipovec, his father, grandfather and great-grandfather used to mount horses to deliver materials and supplies to nearby mountain huts—dom’ or ‘koča’ as they’re called. A lasting testament to Slovenia’s alpine culture, there are more than 170 huts (some with walls three feet thick) all accessed by the country’s vast trail and mountain road network. For any active member of the Alpine Association they are a home-away- from-home, a place to fuel up with a warm bowl of mushroom soup and a cold beer by the fireplace. “We have been welcoming guests here since 1912,” says Janja Dolhar, current owner of Gostisce Pri Žerjavu . Together with six different bottles of homemade schnapps (pine, pear, honey, strawberry, blueberry and mille-feuille ) she puts enough food in front of us to feed a Toonie Ride, introducing each dish one by one. Charcuterie meats with fresh bread, cottage cheese spread, mushroom, vegetable and beef noodle soup, blood sausage, sour cabbage—food that has been consumed for centuries in this small region of the world. “Slovenia is so small, you need to pay attention to details and see our food’s origin to understand it.” –Robert Ribič Slovenian food packs an old-world punch. TODD LAWSON Built in the 14 th century, this rural Church of St. Peter still rings its bells every Sunday.