A Taste of the Slovak Traditional Meal

On the day two of our Welcome Week, Erasmus students were invited to a Welcome Dinner with a wonderful chance to try a traditional Slovak meal bryndzové halušky. These potato dumplings with bryndza cheese were served for about 80 students and ESN members in the canteen at Medická 4 dormitory in a really friendly atmosphere. For most of the Erasmus students it was the first time (hopefully not the last!) to have halušky. As Dorota from Poland and Viktorija from Lithuania said, the meal was not that much different from what they are used to in their home countries and they liked it. For Hakan Ahmet from Turkey it was certainly something completely new and he wanted to try halušky since he came to Košice. He thought that the taste of plain halušky was too simple but the meal became really delicious when he mixed halušky with bryndza cheese and bacon. We can only agree, bryndzové halušky would be nothing without bryndza!

After the plates were empty, students were asked to form groups of six and take part in the Quiz about Slovakia. The questions presented by ESN members Patrícia and Eva focused on the geography, nature, traditions, famous people and some details about Košice and ESN. Students had an opportunity to show what they already know about the place of their Erasmus and also to learn some new interesting facts. And we could see that they already knew a lot, there were three teams at the first place with 17 out of 20 points! After the tie-breaker question about the population of Košice, the winning team with the closest answer won a free drink in the Koloseum club in the city centre, where students were invited for a little after-party.

We think that everyone had a nice time on Tuesday evening and we hope that this event encouraged our Erasmus students to try some more Slovak meals and find out more about the country of their stay, maybe learn a little bit of Slovak too.

Author: Martina Jesenská, ESN Košice

Photos: ESN Košice