History

According to an old custom, visitors should be greeted with bread and salt. Nowadays, inexpensive restaurant pricing and high-quality food meet you. Almost every restaurant in Slovakia serves delicious Slovak cuisine.

Most Slovaks’ favorite dish is home-cooked dumplings with sheep cheese and bacon (“bryndzové halušky”).

Milk products, meat (particularly pork), potatoes, dumplings, and rich sauces abound in Slovak cuisine. Cabbage, onions, and garlic are required. Halusky are frequently served with a glass of sour milk (“inica”). Milk and cheese are excellent from chalets (sheepfolds), where an old man dressed in costume prepares it from the milk of his sheep, goats, or cows. Our grandmothers frequently bake cookies, pies, and cakes. It is unthinkable not to eat them all while visiting.

Slovaks adore fine distilled spirits. Request an excellent “hruskovica” (pear) or “slivovica” (from plums). The highest-quality alcohol is clean 100% distilled. It’s not for the faint of heart.

Slovakia is divided into six wine-growing regions: the Little Carpathians, the Nitrian, the South Slovakian, the Middle Slovakian, the East Slovakian, and Tokaj, which borders Hungary. These regions would be inconceivable without their numerous vineyards.

Little Carpathians, a small western portion of Slovakia, is claimed to be the best vine-growing region in the country, with nearly a thousand years of wine-making traditions. Clay, sand, and rocky soils are exposed to the action of mountain streams, allowing the land to produce high-quality vines.

Slovakia now grows 40 different grape types.

A wine tour of Slovakia’s best and most famous wine regions is highly recommended.