Pomurje

Since World Food Travel Day is on April 18th, and from April 12th to April 21st, 2024, it's also Slovenian Tourist Farms Week, we've decided to celebrate both events simultaneously! With our family, we chose to venture to the far northeast corner of the country, to Pomurje. The land on both sides of the Mura River is a plain, the bottom of the former Pannonian Sea, now known as the granary of Slovenia.

While each of Slovenia's 24 culinary regions has its own specialties, we decided to explore the tastes of Pomurje this weekend. Spring is the time when nature awakens all its colors and scents, so we decided to spend part of the weekend in nature. A stroll through meadows, breathing in fresh air, observing flowers, and of course, some food along the way—this was our plan!

As a family, we started our journey a bit more relaxed this time and set out in the early afternoon. Mom was partly to blame for her morning obligations (work), and of course, we children were also to blame for taking our time getting ready. So, we decided that our first stop on the road would be for food. Our attempts to make lunch reservations at some tourist farms via phone were unsuccessful due to full capacity, so we opted for a local inn in Cankova.

Gostilna Ajda is situated right by the state border. To get there, we took a slightly shorter route through Austria. Since being already a bit hungry, that turned out to be an excellent decision! With the help of a friendly host, we easily found some delicious dishes from the original Pokmurje cuisine. Of course, I must mention that the children happily chose their favorite dishes (if there's no fried potatoes on the menu, only pizza satisfies them, and they even got that - a margherita with dough according to the original house recipe, baked in a wood-fired oven), while my wife and I enjoyed more refined flavors.

When Mom chose “ajdova zdevanka” (buckwheat žganci), the host happily explained that it's a kind of thick pancake made from buckwheat flour filled with cracklings, and baked in a wood-fired oven. When I found out that “pujskov file po cigansko" means pork tenderloin, buckwheat dödöle with sour cream and caramelized onions, I had no more questions. Just a glass of homemade white wine, please!

Once we finally gathered the strength to get up from the table, let's go sniff some flowers! First, we headed to Lake Ledava, located in the Goričko Landscape Park. We expected plenty of interesting flora and fauna, but we were a bit mistaken. Instead of flowers, we found only fields on both sides of the road. Perhaps we should have realized earlier that every piece of land here is dedicated to cultivation. But we're looking for wildflowers? So, we decided to take a different path.

We followed roads, observing fields of wheat, rapeseed, and much more that we couldn't recognize at this stage of growth. Occasionally we stopped, and as we inhaled the scent of nature (mostly actually manure!), we remembered how different it is in the city. It never smells so strong in the city, but it's more natural here, I comforted myself. And we continued.

After a few stops and some photography, we were almost on the highway to Budapest, but we unanimously decided that it would be too far ;-) Instead, we stopped at Expano, near Murska Sobota. We had been here several times before, so we opted for a walk around the area. But this time, we were greeted with a real surprise! Despite the warm April sun, we could hardly believe our eyes when we saw some enthusiasts (or maybe lunatics?) who had decided to take a refreshing swim. Yes, the former gravel pit of a local construction company has been transformed into a tourist center with additional programs (exhibition-museum, culinary, dry and water recreation). And there's a lot going on here...

Still full from an excellent lunch, we decided on ice cream. Since we didn't find any at Expano, we knew we had to hurry back to Maribor, home. Here, our neighbor from the Lastovka ice cream parlor took care of giving us an additional boost to our mood at the end of the journey.

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Gostišče Ajda, Cankova 33, 9261 Cankova, Slovenija
+386 (0)2 540 13 78, +386 (0)31 692 500, +386 (0)31 555 612
[email protected]
http://www.gostisce-ajda-bagola.si/

Expano, Bakovska ulica 41, 9000 Murska Sobota, Slovenija
+386 (0)8 201 53 70
[email protected]
https://www.expano.si/en

Lastovka, Trg revolucije 9, 2000 Maribor, Slovenija
+386 (0)31 744 813
[email protected]
https://lastovka.eu/en/