Slovenian Recipes

Menu Bograč (Slovenian Goulash Soup) Crostini Green Salad (dandelion greens with cabbage, tomatoes, and zucchini) Goulash soup was the very first thing I tasted on my trip to Eastern Europe. My husband and I, along with my in-laws, had just arrived in Vienna, after seventeen hours of flying. Our guide pointed us in the direction of an airport café, where we had an hour to pass while she waited for a few more members of the tour group to arrive. We had departed from San Francisco at seven in the morning, changed planes in New York and Paris, and arrived in Vienna at what felt like midnight. It was just past ten in the morning, local time. I was excited, disoriented, exhausted. And hungry. But what to eat? The waiter was a young guy with a shaved head and a forbidding stare. He took one look at us, slapped an English language menu down on the table, and stalked off. It turned out we were in a genuine little bistro, a sort of all-hours workingman...

Menu   Chicken Paprikash II Latkes (Jewish Potato Pancakes) Applesauce and Sour Cream Green Salad My husband had invited a co-worker and her spouse to join us for dinner.  The date happened to fall on a Tuesday.  “Don't worry, “ he assured me, “I already told them to expect a Slovenian dinner.”  In his mind, it wasn't even a question.  If it was Tuesday, it had to be Slovenian. There was just one stipulation. His young colleague had a food request: Potato pancakes—or latkes, in the Ashkenazi Jewish tradition she and my husband share.  He had mentioned preparing them, a few months back, and she had been impressed, or maybe just nostalgic.  So all I had to figure out was a main course that would go well with potato pancakes.  It shouldn't be too difficult.  I had come to realize that Slovenian and Ashkenazi Jewish cooking styles have a lot in common.   So this would be my first official attempt at a Slovenian-Jewish fusion dinner....