ABOUT SLOVAK CUISINE
Part of the joy of travelling is sampling the regional cuisine and experiencing local culinary specialities. Here is a brief guide to what you can expect to find in Slovak restaurants. You will find the food hearty and filling.
Soup
The best known Slovak soup is kapustnica, a hearty cabbage soup with smoked pork sausage that often contains mushrooms, and sometimes plums, especially at Christmastime. This soup is also served at weddings to revive guests at midnight! It is perfect to take away the chill on a cold day.
Another typical Slovak soup is fazuľová polievka, made of beans and root vegetables such as carrots and parsley. Sometimes, smoked pork is added. While in Slovakia, be sure an try cesnaková polievka, a garlic soup usually cooked in chicken broth with parsley and an egg, or croutons.
Držková polievka is often seen on menus here -- beware if you are not fond of tripe!
The fish soup Halászlé‚ is borrowed from Hungarian cuisine. Usually very spicy, it is a combination of different types of fish in a hot paprika broth.
Appetizers
A very typical Slovak appetizer is the šunková rolka s chrenovou penou, a slice of ham stuffed with horseradish flavoured cream. Bryndza cheese appetizers in pastry dough or flavored with paprika and served with bread are also typical appetizers. One of our favorites is Oštiepok, a smoked cheese baked with ham (vyprážaný oštiepok so šunkou).
Salads
Miešaný šalát (mixed salad) is readily available in Slovakia. Watch for the word sterilizovaný, however as it means that the vegetables are canned, not fresh. It is also possible to get salads consisting of one vegetable, with cabbage (kapusta), tomato (paradajka), and cucumber (uhorka) being the most popular.
Accompaniments
Side dishes, such as rice or potatoes, are usually not included in the price of your main course (they will be listed with the description if included) and need to be ordered separately. Mashed potatoes (zemiaková kaša), baked potatoes (zapekané zemiaky), French fries (hranolky), boiled potatoes (varené zemiaky), fried potatoes similar to homefries without onions (opekané zemiaky) and potato croquettes (zemiakové krokety) are the most common potato side orders.
Rice is served plain (obyčajná) or flavoured with ham (šunka), curry (kari), peas (hrášok), mushrooms (hríby or šampioóny). Some restaurants serve dumplings (halušky) as a side dish. Ketchup is found on some restaurant tables, but in most cases, it is necessary to request it and pay a separate charge.
Tartar sauce (Tatárska omáčka) also needs to be ordered separately -- it is often served with french fries, fried cheese, or fried vegetables.
Main Courses
Meat, poultry, and game
The most popular meat by far is pork, which comes in several forms: pork chops (karé or rezeo), pork steak (černohorský bravčový rezeň ), rib of pork, (rebierko), and leg of pork. It is commonly stuffed with ham and cheese (šunka, syr).
One of the best cuts is a steak called roštenka in Slovak.
Another specialty which is only sometimes on the menu is knee of pork (bravčové koleno), which supposedly has the most tender meat. Pork liver (bravčová pečeň) can also be found on some Slovak menus. This is not to be confused with Cigánska pečeň , which has no liver at all, but is baked pork with garlic.
One of our favorite dishes is a stew made of pork (Szegedínsky guláš), a delicious combination of stewed pork, sauerkraut, spices and sour cream. Pork is also popular served in a large potato pancake (zemiaková placka), but beware, it can be spicy! Pork is also served cooked similarly to schnitzel, breaded and fried and called vyprážaný bravčový rezeň. Parížsky bravčový rezeň is a variation on the same theme, but is a pork chop fried in dough. If you want a simple piece of pork (or other meat), ask for prírodný rezeň.
Many beef dishes are found on Slovak menus. The sirloin with fried onions (viedenská roštenka) is usually made from a high quality cut of meat, as steak, which is often served with a fried egg (biftek s vajcom). This is usually the most expensive menu item.
Sviečková is also usually a better cut of meat, and is often served with homemade style dumplings (domáca knedľa). Pleskavica is ground beef and can be served with a pork chop.
Stuffed peppers (plnená paprika) or stuffed cabbage (plnená kapusta) are ground beef and rice often with a tomato sauce -- you need to ask if they are spicy (štipľavá, pikantná). Beefsote is a spicy mixture of beef with sour cream. Hovädzí guláš is a tasty beef stew with paprika, green/red peppers, onion and tomatoes.
Poultry is very popular in Slovakia and will be found on virtually every menu. Chicken (kura) is served fried (vyprážané), baked (pečené), or skewered (na špíze). In some restaurants you can call a day ahead and order chickens roasted on a spit right in the restaurant (grilované kurča). Turkey also comes in several varieties here. The breast (prsia) is the most popular cut and comes prepared in any of the following ways: fried and stuffed with ham and cheese (vyprážané morčacie prsia plnené syrom a šunkou), with fruit (s ovocím), sautéed (morčacie soté) -- watch out -- this dish is usually spicy!
Veal is sometimes available, and is served grilled (grilované), as chops (teľacie rezne), or in medallions (medailónky) served with a sauce.
Fall is duck (kačica) and goose (hus) season in Slovakia. Usually served with dumplings (knedlíky), or pancakes dripping with grease from the cooked bird (lokše), it usually comes with steamed cabbage (dusená kapusta). Also, you don't want to miss the goose liver ( husacia pečienka) often served as an appetizer.
It is common to see game (zverina) on menus with venison (jelenie mäso), and boar (divina) being the most popular. Lamb is rarely found on Slovak menus (jahňacie).
Fish
Though imported seafood is making an appearance on more and more Slovak menus, the main fish staples in Slovak cuisine are carp and trout (pstruh) (raised on Slovak fish farms) and fish filets.
Carp (kapor) is very popular and is the traditional Slavic Christmas Eve meal. It can be fried (vyprážaný), baked (na rošte) or served with nuts (s orechami). It is good served with garlic (s cesnakom), or in a dough made from beer (v pivnom cestíčku). If you see a menu listing for rybie orly, it is carp fried in a light batter. Watch out for the bones!
Trout comes baked (na roste) or stuffed (plnený), often with almonds (mandle), ham and cheese (so syrom a šunkou), or boiled (na modro) for those of us watching our calories. Fish filets (filé) is a portion of fish cooked in butter (na masle) or fried (vyprážaný).
A word about fish prices. Unlike meat, there is usually a base price for 100 or 150 grams and an additional amount for every ten grams more -- usually marked next to the listing. The price is calculated according to the fish in its raw state. Do not be fooled into thinking that the base price is the entire price!
Slovak specialties
There are a couple of dishes that are typically Slovak that we want to bring to your attention. The first is bryndzové halušky, a serving of dumplings with melted sheep cheese and fried bacon sprinkled on the top. Many refer to this as the national dish and it is usually the least expensive menu item. Sometimes, for some reason, they are listed in the dessert section. Another traditional dish is strapačky s kapustou, dumplings with cabbage and sometimes bacon.
For Vegetarians
Other than salads (šaláty), vegetarians are often limited in terms of their options in Slovak restaurants but this is improving. Often, the only items are cheeses (syry), fried mushrooms (vyprážané šampiňóny), fried cauliflower (vyprážaný karfiol) or omelettes (omelety). Fried cheese (vyprážaný syr) is also available if cholesterol is not a concern for you. Vegetable risotto (zeleninové rizoto) or fried skewered cheese (syrový špíz) is also usually available.
Desserts
By far, the most popular Slovak dessert is crepes (palacinky). They come filled with jam (s lekvárom), ice cream and chocolate sauce (so zmrzlinou a čokoládou), farmers' cheese and raisins (s tvarohom a hrozienkami), and stuffed with nuts, chocolate sauce and whipped cream ( s orechami, čokoládou a šľahačkou). In some restaurants they are flamb‚ed with liqueur. Another popular favorite are gule, or parené buchty, steamed rolls filled with jam. Also recommended are makové šúľance, noodles with poppy seeds, melted butter and sugar.
Štrúdľa or jablkový závin made of flaky pastry dough and apples is also popular here, not to mention all kinds of cakes (torta) and cookies (zákusky). Ice cream sundaes (zmrzlinové poháre), fruit cups (ovocné‚ poháre) and stewed fruit (kompóty) are on virtually every menu here.
Alcohol
Alcohol is an integral part of dining in Slovakia. The most popular before dinner drink in Slovakia is slivovica, a brandy made of plums. Many like to start their dinner with borovieka, a juniper berry brandy. To the uninitiated, these drinks will appear quite strong, but experienced drinkers can throw back their heads and down a shot without even flinching. Wine (víno) is grown almost all over southern Slovakia, resulting in good white (biele) and red (červené) table wines.
In winter, try the mulled wine (varené víno). Young wine (burčiak), is available in the first half of September, and is usually the subject of harvest festivals. Cloudy in appearance, it is apparently rich in vitamins (especially vitamin B) and legend has it that if you drink seven liters of it, you will replace all of your blood. Also, let's not forget about some of the best beer (pivo) in the world - served in bottles (fľaše) or on tap (čapované) in most restaurants.
Most Slovak restaurants have well stocked bars including alcoholic spirits from around the world in case you want your usual favorite.
You will find that each menu will list the weight of the meal, in grams, generally to the left of the meal. This wonderful feature allows you to determine the size of the portion. All menus are in Slovak, however, we have indicated if the menu is available in English and other languages.
Pronounced
Cold Appetizers studené predjedlo stoodenay predyedlo
Warm Appetizers teplé predjedlo teplay predyedlow
Soup polievka polyevka
Quick Foods hotové jedlo hotovay jedlo
Foods made to order jedlo na objednávku yedlo na obyednavku
Side dishes príloha preeloha
Dessert dezert dezert
NAMES OF COMMON FOODS :
Pronounced
Poultry hydina hideena
Chicken kura koora
Turkey morka morkah
Fish/seafood ryba, morské jedlo reebah, morskay, yedlo
Pork bravčové bravchovay
Ham šunka shunka
Beef hovädzie hovadzeeyay
Veal teľacie telatseeyay
Game divina deeveena
Vegetables zelenina zeleneena
Vegetarian dishes vegetariánske jedlo veghetarian-skee yedlo
Fresh Salad čerstvy šalát cherstvee shalat
Canned Salad sterilizovaný šalát sterilizovan-ee salat
Fruit ovocie ovotseeyay
Ice Cream zmrzlina zmrzleena
Pancakes palacinky palatseenkee
USEFUL SLOVAK PHRASES
FOR DINING OUT
Tip: Most Slovak words have the accent on the first syllable.
Hello Dobry deň dobree den
Good evening Dobry večer dobree vecher
Do you speak English? Hovoríte po anglicky? hovoreetay po anglitski
Do you have a table for one, two three, four, five, six?
Máte stôl pre jedného, dvoch, troch, štyroch, piatich, šiestich?
Matyea stwol pray yeddenho, dvok, trok, shtirok, piateek, sheshtik
I need a reservation for two, three, four, five, six at seven - eight o'clock
Potrebujem urobit rezerváciu pre dvoch, troch, štyroch, piatich, šiestich
na devätnástu - dvadsiatu hodinu
Potreebooyem oorobeet reservatseeou pray dvok, trok, shtirok, piateek,
sheshtik nah devaatnastoo - dvadseeatoo hodeen
May I have a menu, please?
Prosím si, menu/jedálny listok?
Proseem see menoo/yedalny listok
I would like to order ...
Man: Rád by som si objednal ..
Woman: Rada by som si objednala
Rad bee somm see obyednal ...
Rada bee somm see obyednala ..
Please bring me the bill
Prosím, prineste mi účet
Proseem, preenneste mee oochet
May I pay with a credit card?
Môžem platiť kreditnou kartou?
Mowzehem plateet kreditnow kartow
Please give me a receipt
Prosím si potvrdenku
Proseem see, potverdienku
Where is the ladies/mens room?
Kde je WC pre ženy/mužov?
Gdye yeh Vaysteh pray zhenee/moozhow
Please call me a taxi
Prosím, zavolajte mi taxi
Proseem, zavolaytye mee taxi
In Slovakia, it is not customary to tip ten or fifteen percent to waiters and taxi drivers. It is best to round up to the nearest ten. If your payment already includes the tip, hand your money to the waiter/waitress and say thank you (D'akujem, pronounced dyakooyem). If you thank them when you hand them the money, they will not bring you any change. If you want change, say nothing to the waiter/waitress when you pay and change will be brought back to you. You should then tip the amount you wish. Tips are not usually left on the table, they are usually handed directly to the waiter/waitress.
