Postcard from Slovenia

On 3 January 2009 Leonardo from Ljubljana sent me this lovely postcard of the town of Škofja Loka in the northwest of Slovenia (population 22,000), the most beautifully preserved Slovenian medieval town.

Not only the picture is beatiful, the stamp is great too! It was issued on 27 Noveber 2008 with a print-run of 70,000, and is part of an ongoing series dedicated to gastronomy, my favourite topic.

Well, the dish itself is called Zgornjesavinjski želodec, which is "Upper Savinja Valley Stomach Sausage" and is a traditional dry-meat dish. The Slovenian Post page adds: "It had a strong ceremonial importance during the time of Eastern, when the maturity of this product was at the level, which enabled the determination whether the procedure of production, ripening and drying had been correct. Even on weddings the guests waited with anticipation to receive slices of »želodec«. The circle of lovers of this extremely high quality meat product has spread through the development of tourism in this part of Slovenia since the second half of the 19th century. Even the English king George VI. was among the enthusiasts of zgornjesavinjski želodec; namely, he tried it in Plesnik in Logarska dolina. Nowadays, the »želodec« is a protected food with a »recognized geographical mark«, while its quality is to an important extent co-shaped by the annual competition in Rečica ob Savinji."

The other stamp in the 2008 gastronomy se-tenant issue is ubrnjenik (also referred to as »ubrnjenk, obrnek, obrnenk«), which is "a filling warm or cold mealy dish in the form of a dumpling, made of roasted wheat, buckwheat or corn flour, poured over by salted boiling milk, in which they stir whipped cream and butter or buttermilk." It really makes me salivate:-)

And a note aside, what a nice price for sending a postcard to Europe! 45 eurocent! Here in the Czech Republic we have to pay some 20 eurocent more (applying the current rate of exchange).