Traditional Prekmurje Dinner (Bograc!) at Gujzina in Ljubljana

Firstly, I have no idea about the cuisine in Slovenia. The only thing I know is that Central and Eastern Europe is all about meat. I love my vegetables but when I am travelling I am game to try out the local fares. For all in the name of experience.

Well, I am a foodie at heart. A foodie who mainly loves to eat =)

Now I found Gujzina through the city guide booklet I picked up. The review says it’s a trendy new restaurant promoting traditional Slovenian flavours. The restaurant does not seem to be very popular with the tourists though, but it looks like it is amongst the locals, which is in fact the best way to gauge how good the food is. The locals know better.

I must however admit that I do not only go to a restaurant because it offers good food. The restaurant must be cosy as well, thus for me, interior design, ambiance, as well as location and view, play a great role in choosing a place to have lunch or dinner.

For my last night in Ljubljana, the decision was pretty easy when I saw Gujzina Restaurant.

The male wait staff who assisted me spoke excellent English and he helped me with my choice for the evening.

I have no idea of Prekmurje really and I found out that it is a lowland region in the north eastern part of Slovenia by the Hungary border. The place used to be part of Hungary until World War I broke out. Gujzina’s cuisine is based from this region and because of its history, the food here is heavily Hungarian influenced.

I started with some nut-based aperitif and some meat selection.

Prekmurje meat over wood: mix of traditional meat on wooden plate such as home-made smoke ham, tunka, salami with pumpkin seeds, dried spicy sausage, selection of side dishes such as cracklings, ghee butter and salad greens. At this restaurant I discovered ghee.

And the price is not bad at all.

For my main, I decided to try their Bograc which is really similar to the Hungarian Goulash.

I tell you, this is so far the most delicious meat stew I have ever tasted. Because of this stew, it inspired me to make meat stews at home. I have since been making them every now and then.

This is by far the best meat stew I have ever had. The flavours exploded in my mouth.

Prekmurski Bograc: a meat stew of pork, beef, venison, potatoes, onions, garlic, pepper and salt. I ordered the small plated serving of 0,31 liter. The bigger serving of 0,51 liter is served in a traditional goulash brass kettle.

A group of widely travelled locals sat beside me and they befriended me. One of the guys looked like a famous American villain actor. I forgot the name; he’s one of those villain actors with a pimple-scarred face. He really looked like him that I began to doubt if it was really him, haha.

Anyway, they were pretty nice to me and they even gave me some of their pumpkin seed oil to try. They also gave me the tip that the pumpkin oil is best paired with vanilla ice cream.

The restaurant sells gourmet items as well and I was able to buy the pumpkin seed oil here.

Travel Period: March 2014
Destination: Ljubljana, Slovenia

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