These articles were published in the Spectacular Slovakia travel guide, published annually by The Slovak Spectator since 1996. The latest editions can be obtained from our online shop.

The goose's golden egg

By Jana Liptáková

Slovenský Grob

Population: 1,930
Mayor:
Jozef Javorka
Tel: (033) 647-8220
javorka@slovensky-grob.sk
Municipal Office:
Obecný úrad, Hlavná 132
Tel: (033) 647-8220
open Mon-Fri 07:30 to 15:30

	Traditionalists insist that only a goose roasted in a stone oven has the authentic husacina taste
	Photo Jana Liptáková

Roast goose in Slovakia is served with lokše, potato pancakes covered with goose fat, and often with goose liver as an entree. While husacina can be enjoyed in many Slovak villages, the western Slovak town of Slovenský Grob is recognized as the Mecca of freshly roasted goose.

The tradition of goose roasting in Slovenský Grob is over 100 years old. Jozef Javorka, the town's mayor, said the area had been ideally suited for raising geese, "with a brook flowing directly through the village surrounded by lakes, marshes and rich pastures."

Housewives originally kept geese for their own needs, but during the economic crisis and difficult times of the early 20th century, they were forced to sell pre-roasted geese and ducks at markets in nearby Bratislava, Pezinok and Svätý Jur.

Friday came to be known as "goose day" in the village, the day when the local baker, Rudolf Pribula, roasted geese in two enormous stone ovens, each of which had a capacity of 40 geese. Housewives brought dressed birds in clay pans, which together with the stone oven gave the geese the desired tawny color, delicious smell and irresistible crispness.

The roast geese were particularly in demand among gourmets from nearby towns and cities, many of whom wanted to savor the meat warm. As a result, in the 1960s and 1970s the Slovenský Grob housewives started to take guests directly into their living rooms.

After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, the villagers began to take a more businesslike approach to their culinary assets, and many small restaurants offering roast goose were opened. These days, as many as 22 venues, mostly family businesses, provide seating for a total of 1,300 roast goose connoisseurs in the village. Roast goose can now be enjoyed not only during the traditional season lasting from September until December, but throughout the whole year.

"The number of facilities offering roast geese in Slovenský Grob is increasing as well as the number of visitors. Now we are seeing somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 guests every year, 40% of whom are foreigners," said Mayor Javorka.

Rudolf Gaštan and his family are among the newcomers to the business, this being only their second season of offering roast goose meat at their 50-seat Husacina u Gaštana. New restaurateurs they may be, but greenhorns with geese they are not.

"As a small boy I used to watch the goose roasts at Pribula's bakery," said Gaštan. The Gaštan family, along with Ľudmila Lipertová, are the only two families in the village that still roast geese in the traditional stone ovens. They insist that a goose roasted in an electrical or gas oven is never as juicy as a bird from a stone oven.

Gaštan seems as proud of his fire-making skills as of his husacina lore. His oven, which can take up to six geese, must be pre-heated for about four hours with hardwood logs before the geese are put in. "I usually use beech, oak or locust-tree," said Gaštan. After he removes the ash and the remains of the wood, the oven is ready for the geese.

It takes up to three hours to roast geese. During the process, Gaštan's wife Terézia, who is the chef, pours the fat released from the geese during the roasting into a separate pot. It is later spread on lokše, Slovakia's famous potato pancakes.

Then the daughter of the family, Adriana Cedulová, serves the roast geese cut up in portions with lokše in a room decorated with paintings inspired by local embroidery and the folk costumes of the family's ancestors. The wall paintings are the art of a young local woman, another proof that traditional customs are not in danger of disappearing from the village.

The scope of facilities offering roast geese in the village will satisfy every visitor. There are small family businesses with limited space offering a cosy, casual and rustic atmosphere, as well as larger and better-known restaurants, such as the Pivnica u Zlatej Husy, whose guest book has been signed by Slovak and foreign dignitaries, including Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič, former Czech president Václav Havel, and many ambassadors.

For all that Slovenský Grob has built its prosperity on roast geese, the honking of live geese is nowhere to be heard in the village these days. The brook that used to support their husbandry has been channeled into an underground tunnel, the lake has been filled in and a local cultural center built in its place, and the marshes drained.

In addition, keeping geese is not an easy business. A husacina goose needs three to four months to reach the proper size. Before its throat is cut, it must be fattened up with corn for three weeks to ensure that its meat is juicy after roasting. This is allegedly the most difficult part of the whole business, as the gosherd has to force-feed an 8-kilogram fighting and biting goose.

These days, rather than raise geese themselves, Grobans travel to villages in eastern Slovakia like Tešedíkovo or Trstice to buy them. But Mayor Javorka has said he would like to see this division of labor ended and the geese brought back to Slovenský Grob. After all, with 15,000 geese roasted in the village annually, gosherding is too good a business opportunity to neglect.

Restaurants offering goose

Husacie Hody
Pezinská 28
Tel: (033) 647-8391
www.slovensky-grob.sk/
husaciehody.php
Capacity 60 people, by order only.

Grobská izba
Hlavná 193
Tel: (033) 647-8582
www.slovensky-grob.sk/
grobskaizba.php
Capacity 70 people, by order only.

Husacina u Gaštana
Záhumenná 22
Tel: (033) 647-8402
www.husacinaugastana.sk
Open year-round, orders only.

Husacina u Galikaq
Lipová 21
Tel: (033) 647-8550
www.husacinaugalika.sk
Open Mon-Fri 12:00 to 22:00, Sat 12:00 to 23:00, Sun 13:00 to 18:00 Capacity 165 people, 100-year tradition, over 100 varieties of wine, catering and delivery services offered, also offers other traditional foods.

Reštaurácia Husiarik Družstevná 32
Tel: (0903) 754-863, (0903) 600-737
www.restauraciahusiarik.sk
Capacity 50 people, by order only.

Grobský dvor
Vajnorská 3
Tel: (033) 647-8889
www.grobskydvor.sk
Open daily 11:30 to 23:00, Sun to 22:00
Capacity 75 people, also offers other food, delivery service.

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