Foodies, welcome to Bovec. This is a place to be!
Are you also among those who like to try local food while on vacations!?
Let us help you out – here is our guide through culinary specialties of Bovec and upper Soča valley region. 😉
In the past locals were mostly living as a farmers, that’s why most of the delicious food is based on few simple ingredients, they could either find in surrounding nature or in their gardens or on the field. The ingredients of some most recognizable dishes might therefore vary. For example: the shepherds were using milk, cheese and cottage cheese as main ingredients for most dishes, while the farmers with orchards used different fruits.
Čompe in skuta
(potatoes and salted cottage cheese) is probably the most recognizable local dish.
As you probably guessed by now, it was “developed” by shepherds. Back then, they had to be thankful for the little food
they got and somehow had to make it work. Most of the families were growing potatoes since the plant is not really demanding and difficult to grow, so potatoes were available through the whole year. To add a little bit of taste they then used salted cottage cheese as a spread and the famous Čompe in skuta were born. Nowadays, locals are super grateful for this invention. We are even so proud of this, that we celebrate it with traditional holiday called Čomparska noč (or Night of Potatoes), which takes place every year in August.
Bovški sir
It’s made from raw sheep’s milk from native Bovec’s sheep breed, occasionally also combined with cows or goats milk. It’s know for it’s distinctive, slightly spicy and intense flavor.
Jota
is a sauerkraut and bean soup which originates from Italian Trieste, but the western part of Slovenia was during WWI as a result London pact, 1915, in case of Triple Entente’s victory assigned to Italy, which also happened. Anyways the western Slovenia faced many Italian features in that period, among others we were forced to speak Italian (…) and eat jota. We didn’t stick to the language, although many people in this region still speaks Italian, but we really loved jota, so it stayed on the plates of locals till this day – if you will try it, you will know why. 😉
Zaseka
is made out of smoked or cooked bacon, which is then sliced into small pieces and covered with melted fat. It’s used as a spread or delicious add to other dishes – for example instead of butter. Zaseka is known through all Slovenia, so it’s worth trying, but in this case forget your summer body. 🙂
Frika
is a dish with many varieties, but it’s basically an omelet with ingredients such as potatoes, eggs, sheep’s cheese, bacon, onion and salami.
Soča trout
is a delicious freshwater fish. The dish is especially good with roasted almonds.
Bovški krafi
is typical dessert. They are basically dumplings, filled with dried pears. They are cooked in salty water and served, covered with melted butter and bread crumbs. <- This is the version you will get in the restaurants, but shepherd’s families used sweet cottage cheese with raisins for main ingreedient.
You can find all of the dishes in most of the restaurants in Bovec.
On the main square you can also find wooden cabin Kuhnjca, where they serve exclusively local food!
