Five hearts
We don’t go to a top-notch restaurant because we’re hungry, but because we’re curious. We go for an experience that (should) remain in our memory for a long time. But whether that will really happen is decided only at the end. Not because we have to pay, but because we have to get up (from the table). Would we rather lie down? Are we (too) full after the experience and therefore irritable and tired, or are we lively, happy and bouncy after the entire experience? The decisive factor for the right answer and a good memory is whether and how, after numerous small experiences and highlights of the chef’s culinary sequence, we can still manage – the last bite!
In David Žefran’s Milka, at the very end, when you don’t want anything more, there’s still a big and greasy sweet bun filled with jam… When you start it, you want – to start again. That’s why Milka gets 5 hearts!
Deer fat
The large bun is coated with a sweet glaze sprinkled with colorful flowers, filled with sweet jam that sticks to your cheeks, making them even redder from the exciting experience, and consists of a whole wreath of smaller buns that you tear off and dip in deer fat (in pastry cream).
Jasna
You are full of memories of the first bite and the first sip on the terrace, when the sun still painted Prisojnik’s wall red and reflected through (his) Prisankov window from the serene beauty of Jasna.
Chefova predstava
Poln je spomin na tlačenko z invazivnim tujerodnim potočnim rakom, ki ga je bilo zato potrebno zgristi kar v kuhinji. Spomina na venček rdeče pese in medvedove zaseke, s katerim je David podpisal svojo ustvarjalnost, in na hrustljavi čolnič z bučo in svinjskimi ocvirki v jedilnici z razgledom od bistrega jezera do goratega neba, ko se je ob dobri glasbi in finem gostoljubju chefova predstava začela in nadaljevala vse do – zadnjega kosa.
Until the last one
The last piece, and we are full and happy, but two… Should we share it or, just out of politeness, leave it?
Ana Roš’s Hiša Franko, which is on the other side of these mountains, is no longer alone in culinary Slovenia. David Žefran’s Milka is also for – five hearts!
Sour soup
Sour soup, cabbage, butter of baked yeast. With the first bite-sip, when we lie back in the soft curves of the newly glazed terrace and soak up the beauty of the mountain and lake scenery, the chef announces with a sour sweetness of the greasy depth that it will be superb, but still comfortable and homely. Sour soup to welcome a superb experience, made of pork legs and a burnt head of sauerkraut, soured with vinegar from smoked chanterelles and baked hay, drizzled with butter flavored with baked yeast.
Linzer cookie
Linzer cookie, chicken liver, barberry. David’s biscuit, which has already had so many festive appearances that no good food show by David Žefran and his internationally celebrated and internationally composed team can begin without it. The miniature, which simultaneously melts and crunches on the tongue, fills the mouth so much that the small and salty linguine made from chicken pate with berry compote reaches all the way to the brain.
Trout belly
Trout belly, trdinka corn polenta, horseradish. Between the corn waffles, the full flavor of the trout belly, which, after “swimming” from Zupan’s Bohinjska Bistrica, was dry-aged in the cellar below, among wine bottles and ski boots, is invigorating with the jellied fermentation of white asparagus and the spiciness of horseradish. The bite is refreshed by fresh basil and pickled rhubarb.
Chamois
Chamois, smoked ricotta, leek. The trilogy of expressiveness, fullness, depth and (because of this) bravery of flavors is rounded off by the chamois tartare on a thick barley pancake wafer, which is filled with smoked ricotta. But no, the bravery is not over yet, as it reaches to the sky, so you have to open your mouth wide and take a deep breath. On the tartare from Triglav there is a spoonful of caviar, which in Milka, which is only supplied within a radius of 150 kilometers, is exceptionally from Paris. On the caviar there is also a ball of fried leek, with pickled cucumber (from the summer season).
Crayfish
Crayfish, Bozner sauce, pork head. From the terrace, the way to the dining room leads through the kitchen; to meet the great chef in his small kitchen. It is so tight that there is only room for a few assistants, but they know a lot; that there is no room in it for big plates, but for a lot of taste.
Danube salmon
Danube salmon, potatoes, walnut leaves. At the bottom of a deep bowl is a mosaic of sophisticated cutting and folding of danube salmon from the Bohinj region, in a salad of pickled unripe strawberries, fermented gooseberries and crushed elderflowers, and potatoes cooked in oil flavored with floral notes of timut pepper.
Accompaniment
Doživljanje Milkinega doživetja ni niti najmanj dolgočasno, čeprav se je štetje krožničkov in skodelic že zdavnaj zmotilo. Ideje si sledijo brez ustaljenega sedežnega reda, ampak to radovednosti ne čudi, temveč jo buri, napetost dramaturgije pa še spodbujata obe spremljavi, vinska in nealkoholna, ker si ne konkurirata, temveč se dopolnjujeta.
There are four different accompaniments to choose from. The basic wine accompaniment is a selection of mainly smaller Slovenian, Italian and Austrian winemakers, “with whom we share a view of the world”.
The premium wine accompaniment is a selection of chef David and sommelier Joel Gomez Martin.
The non-alcoholic accompaniment – which is very good! – consists of non-alcoholic drinks prepared at Milka from fruits, herbs, spices, teas and kombucha; it is prepared by Djan Meglič in collaboration with the chef.
“Our Story” is an accompaniment to cocktails, wines and non-alcoholic drinks.
Beetroot
Beetroot, bear minced lard, caviar. The pale beetroot is pickled and ripened in vinegar flavoured with spruce tips. The dark red beetroot has been salt-roasted with spruce needles. In the middle, the sauce is a combination of cream with bear minced lard, drizzled with fig leaf oil. Over this carving of flavours, textures, shapes, woodsiness, sweetness and greasiness, a spoonful of caviar’s saltiness is heaped.
Pumpkin with cracklings
Pumpkin, quince, cracklings. Like a galley on Lake Jasna, a boat flaunts its almond sails in a buttermilk sauce from the Hlebanja farm, so fully loaded with pumpkin, quince and pig cracklings that it would sink into a shallow puddle under the weight of the flavors, if there were not also a trace of heat in this flaunting. Since the (chili) oil floats on the surface, both the cargo and the pleasure are saved. It is just right that the effect is for much more.
Accompaniment
With pumpkin: Jurassique, savagnin, 2023, Theo Dancer, Jura or Fig leaf, carrot and miso.
Team
Milka’s eleven-member team, in the kitchen and in the service, is young and international, from Slovenia, Croatia, Spain, Colombia, Nepal, Australia, Germany and Belarus. The service is top-notch and relaxed, hospitable and informative (in Slovenian and English).
Rainbow trout
Rainbow trout, sauerkraut, chanterelles. Since there was only the belly between the waffles, the whole back was left for the fish’s farewell. Smothered in butter and with an injection of fish bones, it floats in a ragout of rose petals, stirred with cabbage foam, and sauerkraut juice. But the trout doesn’t just melt gently, as the depths of the ragout also hide the strong flavors of Krško Polje pig jowl, pickled chanterelles, and fish liver. And now we know that Milka likes the dots on the surface, this time the oil is infused with chamomile to soften everything up after all.
Accompaniment
With trout: Rhine Riesling 2021, Renaissance or Mustard seeds, buckwheat, lemongrass and Earl Grey tea.
Chicken gizzards
Chicken gizzards, fermented potatoes, peppers. Before us is a fried fermented potato bun filled with chicken gizzard ragout, the taste of which is enhanced to the point of a meal by a thin slice of lardo bacon from the Krško Polje pig, pickled capers and the freshness of lemon thyme. But it would only be a good idea, reminding us that we are already halfway through and have not yet tasted the bread, if it were not accompanied by a spoonful of green pepper “spikes” and fermented jalapeno peppers “from our garden in Gorje”.
Accompaniment
To go with chicken gizzards: Hazy Sister beer, NEIPA, Reservoir dogs, or non-alcoholic beer made from old bread, fermented with kombucha for 1 week, with a little hops added for bitterness.
Wild boar
Brioche, wild boar, cream cheese.
Finally, bread? It’s not bread, it’s butter! “With brioche, we express our respect for the high quality of Slovenian butter.” Brioche, which is made from half butter, is shiny glazed with the scent and taste of dried porcini mushrooms and sprinkled with dried summer herbs, again “from our garden”, of course. We dip the rich, buttery brioche into homemade cream cheese, beautifully scented with an inlay of fresh herbs that “already grow around our house”, and we tear the chef’s spicy wild boar nduja alongside. Sinful, right, but also so good.
Deer and truffle
Deer, pickled berries, truffle. Žefran solves the eternal chef’s dilemma of how to impress with the main (meat) course after the highlights of the appetizers by hiding the deer. Because he marinates it overnight in fermented barley, then roasts it during the day and glazes it with a reduction of lard; because he spices it with the sweet and sourness of pickled berries on the bottom, and covers it with kale, grilled and glazed with chicken fat on the top; because it is in a sauce made from red wine, venison bones and pepper; because it is in a sabayon made from crayfish shells. And to top it all off at the table, all of this is covered with wafers of black Perigord truffle.
Accompaniment
For the deer: Mora 2021, Aleks Klinec (merlot, cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon) or Alpine cranberry, shiitake, carob, bay leaf, Lapsang and Pu erh tea.
Sheep cheese
Sheep cheese, juniper, green tomatoes. When green tomatoes remained “in our garden” in the fall, they were made into jam. When they were covered with sheep’s yogurt and juniper berries ice cream, they were sprinkled with dry ice made from plain yogurt. And when they drizzled this frosting with dill oil, spring came to our stomachs.
Accompaniment
Pair with sheep’s cheese: Apple Cider, Floribunda, Franz Egger, Udine (rosé apple cider) or Spruce, apple and gentian.
Buckwheat tart
Jerusalem artichoke, sea buckthorn, pomegranate. The small buckwheat tart has a lot of filling. It is filled with apple sauce and lapsong tea, in the middle is a filling of sunflower seed praline, sea buckthorn and roasted Jerusalem artichoke, and on top are Jerusalem artichoke flowers, apple peels and pieces of candied rosehip.
Pork broth
Pork broth, bread caramel, cereals. At the bottom of the cup is porridge (buckwheat, millet and barley) in a cream of pig’s blood, in the middle are plums cooked in red wine and bread caramel ice cream (made from old bread), the top is covered with a white foam of brown butter, on which the pleasant acidity of the crispy blackcurrant leaf floats calmly and precisely, not at all cloyingly.
Accompaniment
With pork broth: Tout ce qui est beau revient, 2020, AFS (Anders Frederik Steen and Anne Bruun Blauert, natural wine, fragrant Traminer, grapes from Alsace, wine from Ardèche) or Aronia, meadowsweet, barley malt and Milky oolong tea.
Sweet potato
Sweet potato, star anise, egg yolk. “Our interpretation of the Pohorje omelet.” A pancake filled with sweet potato filling, scented with star anise, blackberry compote, a little caramel and honey, black tea yolk, topped with fresh mint leaves.
Our cheeses
Videc goat cheese and apple and horseradish jam, Orešnik blue cheese made from goat and sheep cheese and plums cooked in red wine, Zidarič young cow cheese and pickled roses with figs, Jamar Zidarič cheese and quince mostarda. Served with a sourdough cracker.
Buhtelj and fat
Buhtelj, deer fat, mountain cranberry. A puff pastry filled with cranberry jam, sprinkled with dried summer flowers. In a cup, crème pâtissière, vanilla pastry cream, with deer fat (from the main course).
Accompaniment
Milka’s mountain bitters.
There is no end
No, it’s not over yet, because we’re back at the beginning (of this text too).
