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Istria and Slovenia


Rieux

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Taking a 10 day trip to Istria and Slovenia in early August.  Any recommendations for good places to eat, drink, stay, etc?

I once drove through Austria about 100 or so km into Slovenia and stayed in Moravske Toplice. What is important about this is that it was a four star quality resort with a very good dining room at remarkably low prices. Slovenian wine was actually very good for the price, E 15 a bottle or so. Room was about E 75 or 80-incredibly reasonable.

I also met several people from Ljubljana at the resort and thought that I would love to visit their city one day.

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The wife and I spent a week in Slovenia last year (in May). We really enjoyed it. Much less expensive than the neighboring countries and really beautiful scenery. I don't have much in the way of notes as to where we ate, but we did have some very good wine. Did the Skocjan caves, which are definitely worth a visit. Stayed for 3 nights/days in an apartment in Bohinj. Excellent hiking around there, as it is nestled right up against the Julian Alps. Did the mandatory trip to Bled and rowed in the lake to the small chapel. There is great short hike (about 2 miles) that has amazing views of the lake.  As far as food goes, the best things we ate were all the different types of charcuterie. The make a great prosciutto-like ham and we some really excellent dry sausages. Did that for lunch a bunch of days.

Also did a day trip to Istria. Spent the afternoon in Rovinj, which was nice, but a bit touristy.  Also drove and walked up to the hilltop village of Motovun. The area around there is quite nice.

However, the highlight of our entire trip was probably to 2 nights we spent at Domacija Novak, which was near the Krka River, about 45 minutes SE of Ljubljana. Really nice couple runs the place, and we ate there both nights. Great breakfast in the morning, and pretty much everything the cook comes from their farm. The owner, Boris, is a wine guy (apparently he is some sort of expert on orange wine) and he has a great wine cellar. Also, if you at all into fly fishing, this is the place to go, Definitely worth checking out and staying there if you have the chance. I think our room was like 60 Euros/night, and dinner was like 20 Euros/pp. There is no menu, she just serves whatever she is making that day (at least that is how it was midweek, could be different on the weekends)

Have a great time. We really enjoyed our time there. People were very friendly, great scenery, and not a ton of tourists (though that could be different in the summer).

Oh, one other thing, I would avoid Hot Horse in Ljubljana (look it up)  :)

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Taking a 10 day trip to Istria and Slovenia in early August.  Any recommendations for good places to eat, drink, stay, etc?

What a wonderful foundation, and I wish I had something to share with you - I hope you'll write about this terrific journey upon your return. I await your report with anticipation.

Istria is not well-known - it is under the joint jurisdiction of Croatia (89%), Slovenia, and Italy, and is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea - see the northeast triangular peninsula, just south of Slovenia?

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My family took a trip to Rovinj--on a hydrofoil from Venice--when I was a child. Some time in the mid-80s. I'm sorry, I have absolutely no useful contemporary recommendations, but I've just read through the food nostalgia thread, and I remember the place where we stayed, a little homestay apartment over someone's house, as having the most fantastic apricots that they grew in the yard.

(It's lovely. Enjoy.)

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Report from the road. After two days in an amazing restored farmhouse near Grojznan (thanks Air bnb) I can comment on three places. The first night here (after a long drive from Zagreb, where we had excellent coffee and just ok food) we decided to go to Konoba Morgan in the town of Brtonigla. The town has a surplus of good restaurants given it's tiny size. It's the home of the famous San Rocco, which Bourdain ate at, but that place is supposedly fussy. Morgan is on a lovely hill, and we sat outside and watched the sun set over the Adriatic and the lights come up in Venice across the sea.

We started with an Istrian plate which was bread, olives, prosciutto, speck, hot ham, and two local cheeses similar to pecorino and ricotta. It was good, but what made it spectacular were the homemade spreads: onion jam, hot pepper jelly, quince paste, and by far my favorite, pear with mustard. My god, that pear jam. It was sweet, but at the end you are hit with a rush of heat and spice from the mustard (it was a jam consistency, not a honey mustard type). I would eat this on anything and travel back here just for this.

We had a nice local chalky white, which I cannot recall the name of. Our mains (we got the same thing) were local homemade pasta with black truffles (they are quite the delicacy here). It was good, but not spectacular, even though it had a ton of shaved truffle on it. Still, a nice setting, and all this was about $90 all in, which seemed pricy. Overall Morgan was good, but did not live up to the hype. I would go back for wine and the Istrian plate.

Today we went to Brijoni, Tito's island playground. Once you get there by ferry you can rent bikes and cycle the whole large island, stopping at phenomenal Byzantine and Roman ruins, swimming in untouched coves, and walking through pine forests. You can also visit various Tito sites and buildings, which are actually interesting. Officially, you need to take the boat and tour, but almost everyone ditches the tour after arriving on the island and walks or bikes in their own pace. Much better, as the tour is four hours long, and the natural setting is more interesting than the tour. There are few residents, (it's a national park) and no cars, but there are two hotels, and we had a late lunch/snack at one sitting right on the seaside. I again had an Istrian plate of cheeses and charcuterie, and an aperol spritz, which was perfect for the day.

But, the best meal so far, and perhaps the best meal I have had in 2015 was just now, for dinner. On the recommendation of a friend we stoped at Konoba Asteria, also in Brtonigla. If Lidia Bastianich had stayed in Istria and opened a restaurant in her house, it would be this. The family works the room, and there are dining terraces out front and back. We were happy to sit in the main dining room, as almost everything is cooked by the lady of the house over a wood fire in the fireplace. All tables get freshly grilled bread and some of the best olive oil I have ever had. The grill is always full of whole fish, steaks, scallops, etc. and everything looked amazing. I started with the grilled scallops in their shell, and they were, for lack of a better word, orgasmic. Perfectly cooked, just smoky enough with garlic, oil, and herbs. I think these were the best scallops I have ever had in my life.

I had the grilled steak with truffles and homemade pasta as my main and it was everything Italian/Istrian steak can be. Perfectly cooks, juicy, with truffles on top - beefy, just amazing. With some house wine this meal was excellent. Each food item, the service, the location, the ambience was phenomenal on its own, but together as a set, this was one of my favorite dining experiences ever. Info on the place here. Check out the photos.

Tomorrow we will visit hill towns, but I have to say, Istria is the Tuscany of my dreams and any serious traveler/foodie should come here, now, before it is spoiled, and you should stay in the interior, not the coast, and go local.

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Ok, so I owe part 2 of my report on Istria and Slovenia.  This part will cover the rest of Istria.  I'll post Slovenia tomorrow.

Our last few days in Istria were spent visiting Groznan, Motovun (wonderful hill towns full of food and art and wine), and Rovinij (a Venetian settlement on the Adriatic).  We also got to have a wonderful dinner at a party hosted by a friend of a friend on her rooftop where we ate wonderful traditional roasted peppers, Ajvar (a pepper and eggplant paste/condiment which I am now addicted to - http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/avjar) and Serbian meat patties called pljeskavica.  I need to find a good SE European cookbook, because I want to learn how to make all of these things and eat them regularly.

Before I get into the food, let me say that Istria is definitely worth a visit.  The hill towns have great walking paths around the parapets, nice coffee shops, good vistas, great wine (most of which is not exported), and wonderful Rakias. Rakia is local grappa and you can sample tons of flavors.  My favorites were the mistletoe and herb versions.  The cherry version was a bit too alcoholic for me, and the olive grappa (really) was just gross.  These towns are small - you could see most of them by following Rick Steves' driving tour of the area in a day.  I would suggest more time, though, in Groznan, which had many nice artist studios, cafes, and live music performances.   I think Groznan was my favorite of the towns we visited, though we did not eat there.  The Konoba Bastia was recommended, though.

Also in general 1) there are very few Americans in Istria, 2) People are friendly and speak English, 3) Coffee is excellent, as is the quality of all food.

O.K. specifics:  in Motovun we ate at the NYT recommended Konoba Mondo.  I had a lovely arugula and pecorino salad followed by a perfectly cooked risotto with eggplant, truffles, and cheese.  It was spectacular.  My friend had a nice Istrian plate, similar to the one I described in the post above.  Highly recommended.  We sat on the lovely terrace.

In Rovinij we got caught in the rain, so we ran to Sidro, a small Serbian restaurant on the harbor.  While there I tried the wonderful traditional Serbian dish of pork Muckalica, which was a pork stew with roasted peppers, and was spicy, sweet, and substiantial all at once.   The restaurants in Rovinij all look the same, but Sidro was clearly a family-run place, with a good home-made vibe.  I was glad to have gone there.

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I never got around to the Slovenia part of the trip - here goes.  We spent several days in an apartment in Kobarid, in the Julian Alps, near the Italian and Austrian borders.  Lovely mountain area with a lot of adventure sports.

Kobarid has an excellent WWI museum, and they have nicely organized a hiking path from the museum, through the mountains, that takes you to the monument to the 2,000 unknown Italian soldiers who died fighting the Austro-Hungarians in WWI in the cold mountains, and then past some WWI sites, including armaments, trenches, gun towers, etc.  Really cool.  You also see amazing mountain passes, and cross over the lovely ice-blue Soca river and to a lovely waterfall.  We spent the first day doing this, with a stop for lunch at a campground near the river called Campground Lazar.  Really surprisingly great food and ambience.  We both had very frest, huge greek salads, but the chef was also cooking a number of delicious smelling things in the open hearth fires.

That night we splurged and at at Hisa Franko.  WOW.  LOVELY.  Right out of town, we were seated outside on the terrace, next to a stream, with 180 degree mountain views.  It's best to reserve right when they open at 7 so you can 1) get a table on the edge of the patio next to the stream, and 2) have light to see the surroundings.  You can choose a 3, 5, or 7 course tasting menu.  We went with the 5 course, and it was wonderful.  I don't recall everything we ate, but I do remember some delicious local trout, excellent lamb, a gazpacho, and a frozen fig dessert that was to die for.  The wine cellar is equally amazing, with many local choices.  The chef came out to chat, the setting was great, nice company, and the bill was about 70 euros each - well worth it.  We had wanted to stay in the inn here, but it was booked. Next time I would definitely try to stay in the inn, and have the breakfast.

The next day we took a long drive through the valley to the Vrisic pass, a 50 hairpin-turn pass through the alps.  Mountain driving at its best, with great views.  We stopped at the town of Kranjska Gora for a late lunch after driving the pass, and had a pleasant meal on the main square at a place I cannot recall.  Decent food, nice town - looks like an authentic version of what Vail, CO is trying to look like.  We then drove to Lake Bohinij, walked around, and took the Yugoslav-era car train back towards Kobarid (Shaving off over an hour of mountain driving to get back!).

The next day we made our way back to Zagreb, with a stop in lovely Lublijana for lunch at restaurant Julia.  Lunch was good - I had a traditional dumpling dish, and the set menu prices at lunch are excellent.  Lublijana is also known for its chocolate, and we bought some interesting flavors at some of the local shops (lavender, rosemary, etc).

The last night before I left we ate in Zagreb at Vinodol, which has a large patio.  When we arrived the chef was taking a long-cooked veal dish out of the open hearth oven, and the chef recommended it.  It was great, with a nice veal flavor, some wine and herbs, and the smoke from several hours in the wood oven.  With some Kozlovic white wine it was a nice dinner to cap my two weeks.

In general, I highly recommend Slovenia and Croatia (beyond the coast).  Slovenia had all the charm and efficiency of German and Austrian hill and valley towns with a more relaxed Italian culture (and good pizza).

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Rieux, thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm headed to Slovenia in less than 2 weeks (!). Hisa Franko is booked for my night in Kobarid. Any other suggestions? I will be in Ljubljana for the other nights I'm eating, and venturing into Trieste for one night, but I will post in a separate thread as I'm also in Venice for a night. 

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