Essen in Slowenien – Portoroz, Piran und Umgebung

On our first day we visited the lovely old town of Piran (full article here). We spend the morning in the city and sightseeing makes indeed hungry. This was perfect to try some local food in an authentic scenery. Being at the seaside means lots of seafood, which I love so much. I bet you can imagine how excited I was before.

Fritolin Pri Cantini is a small restaurant hidden at a small square. There are a couple of tables outside, which is perfect for summertime. It is very laid back and you can have the food there or take it away. We were lucky because that it wasn’t so crowded. In fact, people are queueing here for a bit sometime. But it is absolutely worth it! The food is just delicious and every fish meal was excellent. We tried fish-stuffed olives, fried calamaris, squids and much more. My favorite of all were the mussels gratinated with cheese – so good!

The region of Portoroz and Piran is also known for their great truffles. We had a traditional truffle dinner in the country side. The family Forte at their Organic Farm Forte was so welcoming and charming. Our visit was organised by Istra Terra and you can book more tours through them. They’d organised such great food for us. Making a delicious truffles pasta is indeed not so difficult. Al you need is some butter, egg, parmesan cheese and truffles. After you mix it with the pasta and enjoy!

Within the Bay of Piran lies the Fonda Family fish farm, and their unique approach to raising the now renown Piran Sea Bass. We met with marine biologist Irena Fonda, who explained us everything about her researches, how their sea basses are held and much more. Truly such an inspiring woman who’s fight for her passion for many years and succeeded. Afterwards could taste some of her delicious fish. Before she’s also told us what signs of good fish is and there is only two possibilities to see this: if it is staying horizontally if you’re holding it and more importantly the smell. Knowing these two you’ll always know how fresh the fish is.

Back in Portoroz we were invited to the recently opened Istrian Tapas restaurant at Hotel Slowenija. A really modern and warm restaurant. The cuisine offers various tapas. A really lovely idea is the Fritaja S Tartufi, fried egg with truffles and bread croutons with hazelnut butter, which you can prepare your own in the small pan. Moverover we had Bobiči as main course, which was an Istrian stew with pork meat, beans, potatoes and corn. But wait it got even better – the dessert. We had a little but really filling Torta Solni Cvet with some apricot ice cream and little crumbles on top. Way too pretty to eat it!

Our last evening couldn’t have been cheesier – romantic dinner at the pier, perfect sunset and delicious food. We were lucky to get a little gourmet preview. In fact, you can book this dinner for your stay in Portoroz. Known cooks of the surrounding hotels will cook for you, e.g. Borut Jakič (Restaurant Tomi), Marko Gorela (LifeClass Hotels and Resorts) and Tomaž Bevčič (Restaurant Rizibizi). We had such an amazing time and I think you will have it too. I can highly recommend it!