Slovakia & Travel

Medovníky: Slovak Spiced Honey Cookies

Medovniky, a Slovak Spiced Honey Cookie, is a favourite in the winter months - Almost Bananas

Slovak medovníky is translated as gingerbread, but it is a very different cookie, in my opinion.

Medovníky can but doesn’t have to have ginger in it, never has molasses, and has a much drier texture than gingerbread cookies. Instead of molasses, medovníky are sweetened with honey.

They are sold beautifully and elaborated decorated by artists wielding an icing bag. More medovníky cookies are made and given around Christmas time, as they are full of warm spices. The cookies can be hung as a tree decoration, as I have done here with the decorated cookies.

The cookies themselves aren’t super sweet, probably because they are usually caked in icing. I actually like them plain and are perfect tea or milk dunking cookies.  Click to continue reading

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Medovniky or Perniky Spice Mix (simple and elaborate versions)

Spice mix for making Slovak medovniky or perniky, simple and elaborate versions - Almost Bananas

Medovniky (recipe) are Slovak spiced honey cookies eaten year round but made especially during Christmas and the winter season. Perniky are soft cookie ‘sandwiches’ with plum butter and uses the same spice mix as medovniky. Available to buy prepackaged in Slovakia, this spice mix is for those who don’t have medovniky spice mix in their store, or for those who just want to experiment and make their own.

One of the adjustments of moving to a new country is getting used to different packaging and availability of foods, including spice mixes. You would never find pumpkin spice mix in Slovakia, for example, even though all the spices are common here.

I’ll never forget the time I first made chilli here. It was within the first few months of coming to Slovakia and I bought a package of ‘chili’ and liberally dumped the contents into the pot. But it was pure chili pepper, not chilli powder like I assumed. It was a spicy mistake (although I think I realized my mistake before it was too late and managed to scoop out a good amount of the pepper).  Click to continue reading

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Vianočná kapustnica: Slovak Christmas Sauerkraut Soup (vegetarian version)

Slovak Christmas Sauerkraut Soup (vegetarian version) - Almost Bananas

All over Slovakia, Christmas Eve dinner consists of fish and potato salad (read more about Slovak Christmas traditions). Families, influenced by the area they have come from, have different preceding soups, however. My husband’s family makes Cream of Lentil Soup with prunes and thus so do we.

Many families make Vianočná kapustnica, a Christmas sauerkraut soup, but what exactly that soup consists of depends from family to family: some make it without meat, some with; often with prunes and mushrooms, but not always; prunes added at the end, prunes left to cook awhile and infuse the broth; with cream or without.

One friend even told me her mother always made two versions of sauerkraut soup, vegetarian for Christmas Eve and meaty for Christmas day.  One upon a time, Catholics didn’t eat meat on Christmas Eve and although that is no longer done, the meatless version of kapustnica remained as a tradition for many. Click to continue reading

Fermented Food, Food, Savoury Food, Slovak Food, Slovakia & Travel 12 Comments

Traditions: finding the balance between the past and the future (October 2015 photos)

Are traditions your garbage or your treasure? - Almost Bananas

As any reader of my blog will know, I’m a big fan of keeping traditions alive, whether a village, song and dance, or lighting candles in the night. So many people, however, seem to take these traditions for granted or consider them as unimportant.

I was taking pictures in the old shed behind my inlaws’, grinning that they would not understand my fascination. A shed of old junk, to them.

Treasures in an old shed - Almost Bananas

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Musings, Photos, Slovak Traditions, Slovakia & Travel , 21 Comments

Chata M.R.Štefánika: a chalet in the Low Tatra mountains

Chata M.R.Štefánika, a chalet in the Low Tatra (Nizke Tatry) mountains of Slovakia - Almost Bananas

Nestled in the side of the hill under Ďumbier, the highest mountain in the Low Tatra (Nizke Tatry) mountains, Chata Štefánika is full of charm, comfort, and convenience.

Last week we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by going for the first overnighter since having kids (9 years). I’ve been wanting to hike in the Nizke Tatry for some time, so even though the weather forecast wasn’t promising, we went anyway.

The Low Tatras are the closest mountain range to the west high enough for a tree line, which was handy given that we only managed to drop the kids off by noon. We drove through to Bystrá, a hamlet where the road was very narrow and had no shoulder and often no sidewalk. From Bystrá we turned off the main road and drove up hill towards ski resorts. We parked at Trangoška and started to hike up the green trail (map at bottom of post).  Click to continue reading

Slovak Places, Slovakia & Travel 16 Comments

Hody: the modern take on a religious medieval festival

Every town in Slovakia has 'hody'. Here's the modern take on a medieval festival - Almost Bananas

Every town, every church in fact, in Slovakia has a festival called ‘hody’. Each church is named/dedicated to a particular saint or feast, and when that annual feast day rolls around it’s party time. The consecration of the church coincided with finishing the building, so hody feasts are in the warmer month and full of food and fun. In my parents in law’s village, hody is in the fall and usually coincides with Jarmok in Trnava.

In the Catholic Church, if you attend Mass on the feast of the consecration of a church (as well as meeting a few other criteria) the person receives a plenary indulgence (in simple terms, related to the eternal state of your soul, so it’s important).

Traditionally, when it was hody in your parish, you invited extended family to come and gain eternal advantages. And then you had to feed said friends and family, so you prepare a feast.

And when there are all these extra people in a town, it’s a great time to sell things and go on carnival rides.

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Food, Slovak Food, Slovak Traditions, Slovakia & Travel 8 Comments

Lendak, Slovakia: a mix of old and new

 

Lendak, Slovakia, a town that still carries on traditions in everyday life. - Almost Bananas

I’m so excited to share my favourite village in Slovakia with you. There are many other similar villages, I am sure, but this is the one that I know.

At the eastern end of the Vysoke Tatry (the High Tatra mountains) is a village, nestled between meadow covered hills, called Lendak. This is a place where many aspects of a traditional farming life are still lived, while also embracing modernity.

Farming in Slovakia is set up differently than I know. I am used to farms being spread out, surrounded by large tracts of land. The nearest neighbour is a good jaunt away and town is even farther.

In Slovakia, on the other hand, villagers live close together and the farming land surrounds the town. Each family has a part of the surrounding fields, but the land on which they live is narrow and can be quite small.

Lendak is the same. Many older pieces of land have, in the front, the original log house, usually consisting of two rooms, the kitchen and the living/bedroom. One woman told me she grew up in such a house and that she and her siblings were only ever inside on Sunday – the rest of the time was spent outside. Right behind, even attached, to the log house is a newer house, where one of the children lives with his/her family. And right behind that, some outbuilding, often a few animals and maybe a tractor.  Click to continue reading

Slovak Places, Slovakia & Travel 29 Comments

August Photos: mostly from the road on our vacation

Vysoke Tatry in Slovakia - Almost Bananas

We had two weeks of holiday in August and the first week was spent at the end of the Vysoke Tatry, the highest mountain range in Slovakia. I’ve got a number of posts coming up about different places we saw coming soon (so sign up for the newsletter, if you haven’t already), this is random bits of what we saw on our journey.

Ruined Castle in Slovakia - Almost BananasThere are ruined castles all over Slovakia, tucked up on the hills. I find the ruined castles more romantic, in a way, that preserved castles. And so many times I wonder at how much work it must have taken to build these huge buildings, high on hills with not-modern technology and often in awkward places.  Click to continue reading

Photos, Slovakia & Travel , 6 Comments

Cream of Zucchini Soup with Dill

Slovak Cream of Zuchinni Soup with Dill - Almost Bananas

This super easy creamy soup is a delicious way to eat abundant zucchini, even for those who don’t like it!

I’m a terrible food blogger. I made this soup a while ago but didn’t write down how much of what I used (because I was going to remember, ha!) and then we went on holiday…and now it’s past dill season. But it will be dill season again, and you’ll have pinned this recipe to try then, right?

My mother in law makes this soup fairly often in the summer. Every year she claims she’s not going to plant as much zuchinni as last year, and every year she does.

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Kremnica, Slovakia: a town of gold

Kremnica, Slovakia - Almost Bananas

On our recent trip to the Vysoke Tatry (High Tatra mountains), we stopped in Kremnica, where one of the oldest permanently producing mint factories in the world is located.

Gold was discovered as early as the 8th century in the area and reached the peak of activity during the 14th to end of the 18th century. Due to mining and minting, Kremnica was a town of wealth and importance.

Settled in the hills, merely driving through Kremnica only shows the abundance of socialist-era built apartment buildings.  Upon entering the centre, one can immediately see the medieval fortifacations.

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Slovak Places, Slovakia & Travel 10 Comments

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