My husband and our daughters traveled to Europe in the summer of 2006 to visit family — my sister in Italy, and our cousins in Slovenia. It was a picture-perfect trip with balmy weather and friendly faces everywhere.
We found the transportation system in Italy to be amazingly efficient and dependable. With the exception of one wild and crazy taxi ride just like in the movies, we moved from city to city by train or bus with no drama and nary a problem.
The trip to Slovenia was not quite so easy to plot out, so we rented a car for that part of our journey.
Our first evening meal was at a restaurant in Bled, ‘Gostilna Pri Planicu,’ one of that town's oldest pubs. I chose the Golaž name Ivanke s Trofie testeninami (Grandmother Ivanka’s goulash with Trofie pasta). When in Rome, do as the Romans, right?
Fat homemade noodles and tender bites of potato swam in a broth brightly hued with red paprika and tomato and seasoned with onions and thyme. But the star of the show was the chunks of beef — so tender they fell apart in submission at the mere prod of one’s spoon. It was a rustic and homey meal, one I knew I had to recreate for my family (who were dining on a shared pizza 🙄).
