Know Thine Enemy – Slovenia

Following on from our coverage of American and Algerian cuisine, we are back in Europe to look at the food of England’s next opponents, Slovenia.

Given England’s poor form, this might be their last match in the tournament. Therefore we may need another team to follow through the knockout phase. If you have any suggestions for whom we should adopt as our second team, please do let us know.

But back to the food and drink of Slovenia. This is a difficult subject as Slovenia is a young country, only gaining its independence from Yugoslavia around 20 years ago. There is also the problem that there is no such thing as a uniform Slovenian cuisine with the different regions of the country having many different specialities. There is also the quandry of Slovenia’s geography.  The country borders Italy, Austria and Croatia and a lot of Slovenian food is a mixture of the cuisines of these countries with pasta, goulash and soups all featuring heavily.

Given that Slovenia is a young country, there are few exclusive Slovenian restaurants in London. However, one place to visit if you are in search of Slovenians is the Colonies pub in Victoria. The Slovenian Tourist Board has made this place an outpost for Slovenian ex-pats. Although there is little to recommend this pub by itself, the arrival of the Slovenians has brought a little curiousity factor. In order to bring a little of Slovenia to London, the tourist board has brought in Slovenian beers along with Slovenian wines.

There is not much to choose from and sampling Slovenian wines is only for those who are interested in broadening their horizons. There are two wines worthy of mention: the Teran, which is a very full-bodied wine with notes of blackberry and raspberry. The other wine which is worth perusing is the Cvicek, a white wine made from a mixture of grape varieties.

Trying to pick out individual Slovenian dishes is difficult given the mixture of influences but there are a few dishes that stand out due to the stories behind them. One such speciality is the funštrc, an omelette which is also known as the coalminner’s sun. Its popularity stems from its simplicity to prepare and its yellow colour, which would remind those down the mines of the light that they were currently without.

One dessert that is worth sampling is prekmurska gibanica, a layered cake that features apples, raisins, honey and cottage cheese. Hopefully, Slovenians will be requiring a lot of it to ease the burden of defeat.

The Colonies
25 Wilfred Street
Victoria
SW1E 6PR‎