I would recommend Bryndzove halusky, but not because it’s a good dish. It’s a very popular dish here in Slovakia. Many Slovaks absolutely love it and celebrate it as something that is finger licking good.

Chances are you will not love it.

I like it about as much as I like a hard boiled egg. It doesn’t taste bad and it doesn’t taste great and it does fill.

Given the choice I’d still go for the hard boiled egg though.

When you will conclude it’s not so great, they may say you haven’t tried ‘the real ones’. (plural)

Where those real ones are to be found is a bit of a mystery. Supposedly they can be found in the east part of the country.

I have tried them everywhere.

I think the real ones are only the real ones when your grand-mother makes them.

My grandmothers were both Belgian so they made ‘stoverij’ (meat cooked in some sort of beer sauce)

Still, I recommend tasting it. You haven’t really been to Slovakia if you haven’t given this dish a try.

Fans of Asterix and Obelix will understand when I say what Obelix would say to this dish.

‘Ils sont fous, ces slovaques’

No, that’s just a joke.

I’ve been told Slovak food was born out of poverty. The theory goes that Slovaks were always poor and had to work hard, so they wanted to get a lot of calories out of simple dishes made with simple ingredients.

Slovaks no longer work particularly hard and neither are they poor, but they still love bryndzove halusky.

Try it.

You will appreciate your own national cuisine a bit more.

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