Gostilna Ančka

For štruklji, immediately after landing

“Welcome to Slovenia,” announces a member of the cabin crew when a plane lands at Ljubljana’s Jože Pučnik airport. The passengers, united in voice, ask: “Where’s the nearest restaurant with real Slovenian food?” The answer is: one roundabout on from the turning for the motorway.” A location worth its weight in gold, hence there is also a small hotel alongside the good restaurant.

Mention Gostilna Ančka to anyone in Slovenia and they are likely to say: “Štruklji!” Say Slovenia to anyone and what are they likely to answer: Carniolan sausage? Potica? Žlikrofi? Prekmurje gibanica? Štruklji? Unfortunately not, because there are too few restaurants like Gostilna Ančka.

The most well-known Slovenian štruklji are filled with curd cheese or chives, buckwheat štruklji with walnuts, and chocolate štruklji, then there are Ančka’s štruklji. The dough is as pliable, thin, kneaded, twisted and turned and a little sticky as it was 50 years ago. The eggs and curd cheese are from nearby farms, the flour from a mill in Prebačevo. Even now, when son Marko is in the kitchen (and Jurka and Toni still circulate among the guests), they cook the štruklji in a cloth to order, so we all have to wait for them, including politicians who are in a hurry to get to Brdo, passengers who are waiting for a plane, business people whose time is money, and all the rest of us, ordinary guests who are just hungry.