Traditional Slovak food exposed part1

I read enormous amount of food related content, so it’s high time to write about food here in my blog.

My Saturday morning ritual includes visit to the Old city market in Bratislava.

One can’t find many things there in winter (almost all the same products you can buy in Tesco) but as soon as spring is coming this market starts to provide you with plenty of local and seasonable products. It’s just the beginning of March and still no fresh local greens or vegetables can be found. So my Saturday visit to the market has only two points: dairy and baking.

Here is some typical Slovak goodies I like to buy.

Bryndza, soft sheep cheese. I grew up in Bessarabia region (south part of Ukraine and Moldova) and I always had the idea, that Bessarabia bryndza is the only famous one. Then I came to Slovakia and discovered that Slovak bryndza is totally different and it’s a product Slovaks are proud of. Slovak bryndza is one of the local products that has PDO status (protected destination of origin in European Union). Bessarabia bryndza can be made of cow or sheep milk (or from mix of them, my favourite variety) and can be fresh made or old. Slovak bryndza can be made only from sheep milk and it’s soft, you can use it like spread. Bryndza is a base for many other traditional Slovak dishes like halušky (kind of pasta with bryndza and sour cream dressing), pirogi (dumplings stuffed with bryndza).

Kravská hrudka is a fresh cow milk cheese (it’s also a sheep milk variety) with a very tender and sweet taste. It tastes almost like fresh Bessarabian bryndza so I like it very much. Hrudka with fresh tomatoes and basil is local version of Caprese.

I will write more about these dishes in the next posts.

Some words about baking

Bryndzové oblátky are very thin waffles with bryndza in dough and cumin seeds.

Bratislavské rožky are  sweet horns made from shortcrust pastries filled with poppies seeds or nuts. Rožky are the most famous sweet pastries of this region. It’s also PDO product. This particular ones don’t look typical at all (here is an example of perfection)  and the taste is great.

Oškvarkové pagáče are savory puff pastries with greaves. It is very typical Slovak snack for wine, beer and “must have” on a holiday table.

I’m looking forward to upcoming spring and opportunity to find and to tell about more local foods.