Food

Slovak food is made using a variety of traditional and European products and ingredients. In shops, supermarkets or hypermarkets you can buy all kinds of vegetables and fruit in season, meat, milk products, pastry, bread, mineral and spring water, and sweets. You can also buy fresh home-grown fruit and vegetables and some other products at open-air markets.

 

Cuisine

There are many restaurants in Slovakia ranging from cheap to expensive. For a drink it is more usual to go to a pub, where you can also have a meal. Larger cities usually have restaurants with national and international cuisine, the most common being Italian, Chinese, Balkan and also Czech and Hungarian. Beer and wine (domestic and foreign) are good and usually consumed with both lunch and dinner.

Lunch is the main meal and Slovaks are more used to eating out for lunch than for dinner. Most restaurants in town centres have special lunch offers (“denné menu” in Slovak, usually consisting of soup and a main course), which are cheaper than other meals served there.

 

Restaurants are open from Monday to Sunday from morning till night, and also in small towns restaurants usually stay open later. Stores and restaurants open 24 hours a day have a sign reading "non-stop".

 

Unless the menu states that service is included, tipping is expected. Five to ten percent is a standard tip in a restaurant with waiter service. Waiters usually give the customer the total of the bill and the customer, as he hands over the money, says how much he is paying inclusive of tip. In restaurants and bars it is usual to round up the price, the tip being roughly 10%.

More information and lists of catering places can be found at: www.menu.sk, www.zlatestranky.sk, www.gurmania.sk (only in Slovak), www.obedovat.sk (only in Slovak), www.greepages.sk.

 

Traditional cuisine

The main ingredients that have shaped traditional Slovak cuisine are potatoes, sauerkraut, pork and poultry, “bryndza” (a cheese made from sheep’s milk), and pulses. The number one national soup is sauerkraut soup (hearty cabbage soup with smoked pork sausage that often contains mushrooms, and sometimes plums, especially at Christmastime). Another typical Slovak soup is made of beans and root vegetables such as carrots and parsley. Sometimes, smoked pork is added. Most traditional national dish served as main course is “bryndzové halušky”, i. e., gnocchi/dumplings topped with “bryndza” and bacon. It is usually the least expensive menu item.and sometimes it is listed in the dessert section. Another traditional dish is „strapačky s kapustou“, dumplings with cabbage and sometimes bacon. As the most common dessert one can always have sweet pancakes with jam, farmers' cheese and raisins  and whipped cream or chocolate.

The most popular of spirits is „slivovica“, a brandy made of plums or „borovička“, a juniper berry brandy. To the uninitiated, these drinks will appear quite strong. Wine is grown almost all over southern Slovakia, resulting in good white and red table wines.

In winter, try the mulled wine. Young wine („burčiak“), is available in the first half of September, and is usually the subject of harvest festivals.

More information

http://slovakia.eunet.sk/slovakia/cuisine/bonappetit/