Gostilna Rajh: Prekmurje, Slovenia

Slovenia’s eastern-most region is called Prekmurje. Those of us in the travel biz call this part of the country ‘chicken head’ since the outline of Slovenia is shaped like a chicken with Prekmurje being the head. I have not been exploring this part of Slovenia as long as some other parts of the country so there’s more pleasant surprises in store for me. I can’t really list Gostilna Rajh as a surprise since every time dining out in the region is brought up, some locals would mention Rajh.

Rajh was included on our September Harvest Tour and it did not disappoint. We tried the classic Prekmurje standards: bograc, chicken paprikash and gibanica cake for dessert. All the dishes were excellent, not to mention under-priced. I was surprised to find out that the chef here is just 22. Rajh is part of the JRE, an association of young restaurateurs and young chefs across Europe.

I came back to Rajh in December so my 7 year old daughter could attend a cooking class for kids. It was a joy to see kids learning to use food dehydrators (to make ‘orange chips’), making the Slovenian classic cake potica and being introduced to sous-vide technique (used for creating a great chicken couscous dish). It was quite a trip noshing down on lunch created by my kid and other young rising chefs. Isabella even came home with a great cook book out of the deal and we promptly tried out the apple-cinnamon non-dairy ice cream back for New Year’s Eve.