Gusti di frontiera (that can be translated as flavours of the border) is a traditional gastronomic festival that is taking place in Gorzia, a city in north-eastern Italy, right on the border with Slovenia. Because of its location (Italian Gorizia and Slovenian city of Nova Gorica are strongly connected through history and today they live almost like one city).
This year it was already the 17th edition with 327 booths with exhibitors and vendors that came from 40 different countries. The event is a great and very intense food and culture festival. The last weekend in September a large part of the city centre is transformed into small multicultural quarters. The main purpose of the event is to taste and learn about the word food. As mentioned there are numerous booths that are cooking and preparing the traditional food of their countries. It is all very well organized, since there are several sections dedicated to geographical areas. In this way you have the Latin American quarter, the Asian quarter, the Middle East quarter, the North American quarter, the Italian quarter, the European quarter, and more.… Inside each of these quarters there are different booths from different countries or regions.
The whole event looks like many open-air kitchens and restaurants, with flavours and fragrances spreading all around the city.
We went to Gorizia around noon to have our lunch on the festival😊. In the past years we’ve tried food from different countries, but this year we somehow chose to have our lunch between different regions of Italy.
We’ve stopped by the region of Puglia, where we’ve tasted delicious “bombette” small balls of pork meat, filled with bacon and cheese, and nicely grilled.
Our second course was again meat…ha ha ha... The decision was taken by me and my soon 😊. It was the first time that we tried “arrosticini”. Meat dish from Abruzzo (Italy), made from mutton or lamb meat, cut in chunks and pierced by a skewer, and grilled. The meat was super tender; my son said that that was the best meat he ever had.
We stopped by a Tuscan bakery booth and took the traditional “focaccia” – flat bread. Very simple food but really delicious.
From the beginning we’ve decided to take small portions of each food in the way that we would be able to taste quite some of them.
The next one on our list was the “panzerotto” a small pocket made of dough (similar one as a pizza), filled with ham and mozzarella cheese and then fried in oil. Yes, I agree, not the healthiest food bit yummy.
Well, with dessert, there was no much space in our stomach and we decided to take some sweat home (or to eat it later the same day), but we definitely agreed that we needed a walk first 😊.
We couldn't leave the “Italian quarter” without buying “cannoli” a symbol of Sicilian cuisine. They are pastries consisting of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling of ricotta with some additional flavours.
We continued our walk to the Balkan quarter, where you had long lines of grills with all meat supercities. One of the most popular and visited quarters with lively atmosphere and music.
Another place for meat lovers was the USA quarter and the Latin American quarter. These two were apparently also the most popular, since the queues to buy food were quite long.
We then continued on our way and arrived in Spanish Quarters. And of course there we came across the various huge paellas.
Passing by the Spanish booths, we arrived in Latin America quarter, and we noticed a big pineapple that attracted us with eye-catching cocktails. We had first Mojito with mango and passion fruit and they were super good (and quite strong 😊).
Already after the first steps into the Latin American quarter, it was clear to us that we had arrived in the kingdom of meat. There was a smell of barbecue and we saw the trailer of the truck that had been transformed into one big barbecue.
We couldn’t leave the event without taking home a piece of France. We love macrons and we had to select some of them for evening dessert 😊.
The music was present throughout the event. From DJ’s to live music.
There were many locations that were offering wines from all over the world, and there were also many booths with craft beer.
Beside the possibility to taste the international and local food, visitors can also buy some products to take home. There are many booth-shops that are offering additional products connected to cooking (like species, dried fruits, jams, etc) and there is are also few booths that are offering some additional (non- food) things.
This weekend festival is really one of a kind in our region and attracts many visitors. It is a great celebration of food but also a great occasion to meet new people from all-over the world. With them you can have a quick talk and discover more about their culture through their food.
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