Villa
It starts with a reception in the living room, where there is no boundary between the reception, lobby, bar and restaurant. They offer you clean and healing lake water. Then they offer you woolen socks-slippers in your room and recommend that you put down your phone. After all, you came for peace, rest, nature, relaxation, i.e. disconnection! A message on the soft bed: “Welcome to Vila Planinka, where time flows differently.” There are homemade cookies with plum jam next to it.
Chef
Vila Planinka has had several chefs, but the quality remains the same. After Blaž Derlink, who and his team gave Planinka three hearts, the successor, Jernej Kamič, emerged from this team and continues to maintain this top level. It is pleasant to indulge in his ideas in a natural and holiday environment, because with them in the lakeside Vila, time really does flow – differently.
Dinner at the hotel
“We always start our dinner with freshly baked homemade bread.” It’s a Planinka tradition to have three types, buckwheat with walnuts, with beetroot and with spelt. Chef Kamič recommends dipping it in a pesto made from pumpkin seed oil and pumpkin seeds, or spreading it with whipped homemade butter sprinkled with pepper.
Warm for the soul
For an aperitif, there are bubbles (Bjana, blanc de blanc), and for a “warming” treat, there is a glass of hearty venison consommé with thyme oil. It warms the soul!
Masovnjek
Masovnjek, buckwheat porridge cooked in milk, with sour cream and small, crispy cracklings.
Trout and kohlrabi
Marinated trout from the Vodomec fish farm, kohlrabi and apple juice dashi, celery and kohlrabi powder, chickweed, spruce tip oil, hazelnuts.
Venison tartare
Venison tartare seasoned with raspberries, mustard and a little raspberry vinegar, smoked mayonnaise, fermented black walnuts, hazelnuts. Served with buttermilk bread, which was left over when the sweet cream curdled into butter while stirring.
Wine consultant
In Jezersko, not only time flows differently, but also wine. Both wines and non-wines are “complicit” in the satisfaction of the dinner. Head sommelier Vanesa Centrih (photo) and sommelier Marko Koren are responsible for the wine and non-alcoholic accompaniment.
Accompaniment
Game tartar: Vitovska grganja 2023, Pietra (Marko Tavčar), a Slovenian indigenous variety from the Karst, short maceration for 4 days, half the wine was aged in large wooden barrels, the other half in concrete eggs. Vanesa Centrih: ”The wine went through malolactic fermentation, so it is creamier, which will go well with milk bread and fermented black walnut.”
Trout: Green tea kombucha. ”A regular kombucha, just the first fermentation, which goes well with kohlrabi dashi.”
Chicken consommé
Chicken consommé, semolina dumpling, bay leaf oil.
Yolk and truffle
Poached egg yolk, pickled Swiss chard stems, smoked potato foam, grated black truffle. Since there’s a good soup on the other side of the table, egg yolk is expected on this one.
Accompaniment
Potatoes, Egg and Truffles: Essence 2022, Šuman (Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Riesling). ”One of the most beautiful wine farms I’ve visited, because of the close connection with nature. They don’t usually make vintage wines, but this one was bottled in 2022 anyway. One month of maceration, then 2 years of aging in barrique barrels. When you see their vineyards and when you feel what they’re doing, you love their wines. Because the dish is strong in flavors, we need a strong orange wine to accompany it.”
Chicken Consommé: Grim Reaper IPA, Reservoir Dogs. ”The soup needs a sweet and sour accompaniment, so beer is the best combination.”
Zander and almonds
Zanderfillet, almond puree, almond crumb, fish lemon sauce, orange oil, nasturtium leaves.
Deer and buckwheat
Deer thigh fillet, rolled in buckwheat popcorn, celery root puree, sweet and sour cranberry agrodolce, demi glace sauce with cranberries.
Accompaniment
Zander: Šardone 2020, Anže. ”Gravner’s student. We have almond puree in the dish, and these marzipan notes come through in his wines, if the wine is not aged.”
Deer: Širja 2019, Rurall (Primož Rojac). 5 years of aging in barrique barrels. This is his second label, the first label was Dobro rdeče. He does something different every year. There will also be a cranberry agrodolce on the plate and the sweetness of the Shiraz will go well with that.”
Milk cream
Milk cream made from sour milk, carob sorbet and “winter” blueberries (compote with orange and lemon peel, cinnamon and star anise), crushed honey cracker. Light enough for a peaceful night.
Blueberry soup
Blueberry soup, miso ice cream, candied lemon peel.
Accompaniment
Milk and carobs: Fuga Mundi 2007, Miro, 10 years in barrel. “The only rule with sweet wine is that the wine has to be sweeter than the dessert, otherwise the dessert overpowers the wine. We can feel the nice carob notes in the wine, hence this combination.”
Blueberry soup: Hot People Drink this Cold “Cold brew of Earl Grey tea, homemade lavender syrup, verjus from Repovž (blue velvet).”
After
Petit four: chocolate truffle for goodnight.
