Malichkan banquet

This shows what a typical 17th-18th century Malichkan banquet looked like.

Story
Guests at a Malichkan banquet sit on couches made from soft cotton. They use napkins to clean their fingers and hands. It is crucial that all types of people - whether peasants, average or rich, are welcome to the banquet.

The banquet starts with a servant pouring water into a bowl over the guests' hands, which they use to wash them. Then comes a traditional drink called pirjagode, served ice-cold and garnished with shaved ice and a cherry, offered to every guests. Then comes plate after plate of the different courses.

The first course is a tomato-based soup with mushrooms, called rdečmorje. This is reserved for Europeans who cannot begin a meal with no soup. Asians on the other hand are given a noodle soup called posodvrvico, a beef broth-based noodle soup topped with green onions, soft-boiled eggs, corn, and fish cakes called "tortamletjem".

The second course: dumplings containing meatballs filled with mozzarella, dipped in marinara sauce. The guests pick it up with a fork and slice it with that and their knives.

The third course, considered the main course, is a piščanca - a roast chicken stuffed with mixed vegetables and its own meat. The guest tear pieces off of it with their utensils.

The fourth course is a pie that takes a maximum of 2 days to prepare. It is nine inches in diameter and is filled with a miscellany of corn, carrots, peas, shrimp mince, fried eggs, ground beef, pork and chicken, and the curds from soy milk. Extremely delicious and easy to eat with utensils.

Four more courses follow in succession. The last main course is considered the rice meal, and has no name. Reserved for Asians, the rice (risotto) is cooked and made into mounds filled with beef, prawn and vegetables. They eat the rice with a spoon.

Generally the last course is the dessert, a zemelpogača (chocolate mud cake topped with cherries). As at the beginning, the guests are given pirjagode, the drink that gives Malichka the global fame it deserves, at the end of the meal.

Meat is forbidden for Buddhists (who only make up less than 10% of the population) and Catholics do not eat meat on Friday in accordance to traditional rules.