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A Taste of Slovenia!
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1st Lt Anton Zbogar
Pl Comd
Slovenian Contingent
25 October 2004
We have excellent food in Camp Julien, there’s no doubt about that. Hey, we even have a barbeque every Saturday. The variety of food that is available every day can satisfy even the pickiest of personnel. The soldiers of the Slovenian contingent attached to Recce Squadron and based in Camp Julien are certainly happy about that. Still the taste of the food that we are used to back in Slovenia is a bit different.
 Since the start of the tour the Slovenian contingent had been considering the idea of hosting a social event. One Saturday in October we all agreed to host a barbeque. The choice of the BBQ allowed us to prepare the food in a traditional Slovenian manner and give the other nations a chance to taste what we are used to eating, and above all else, we all would have a chance to hang out together and exchange war stories. The Canadian Recce Squadron has been tasked a lot lately hence we haven't had much of a chance to relax. It was decided that the BBQ would occur following the presidential elections. The date of choice was Friday, 22 October 2004.
 We invited a number of representatives and guests from different organizations that included: ISAF HQ, Firefighters from KAIA, the Croatian contingent from Camp Warehouse, some folks from CANCAP and last but certainly not least the members of the Canadian Recce Squadron. All together we had close to 200 people in attendance. It turned out that we had fewer visitors then initially planed as not all could attend, but the attendance was good and all our preparations paid off. I must thank a number of pers whom without their help we could not have made this happen, specifically the members of Recce Sqn HQ, CANCAP personnel and Canadian NSE we couldn’t have made the BBQ happen.
The preparations started the day prior to the BBQ. The meat had to be prepared in accordance with the Balkans tradition of ensuring that the meat is well seasoned at least 24h prior the barbeque in order to allow the mix of various spices to trickle through the meat.
One of my soldiers, Leon, being a hunter for quite a few years and having quite a few barbeques behind him, took initiative for preparing the meat and of roped his “twin brother”, Stan, into helping him. Stan has been his colleague for several years but since the contingent has been deployed those two are inseparable.
 The following day preparations started early. As stated, we had expected quite a bunch of people so we had to ensure the food would be ready for majority of the guests no later then 1300hrs. Leon and Stan started at 0700hrs in the kitchen. Since they were required to put so much effort into the preparation, cooking and service of the food that I thought it only fitting that I recognize their efforts. In order to do this I developed a diploma that I will be certain to send to each of their wives, proving that they can in fact cook. In all serious though, without the efforts of Leon and Stan this BBQ never would have taken place.
Well although we couldn’t make a real Balkans Grill since not all ingredients were available, Leon and Stan did their best with what was available. We were lucky in that the weather was perfect, sunny and warm, with no trace of clouds or sandstorms. At the end of the feast there were a large number of well feed and satisfied personnel who all seemed to truly enjoy the food.
 After the majority of invitees finished their lunch, the Recce Sqn BC, Mark Lubinecki took the opportunity and presented a drawing to the Slovenian team. The drawing is showing three Slovenian Special Forces soldiers commandeering a radio from a small kid. The story behind goes as the following: Recently while the Slovenian patrol was tasked on a presence patrol within Kabul a report came out of Sqn HQ that there was a missing Matra radio. 
The patrol spotted a kid holding a radio and turned back to check out the type of the radio. When they managed to return to the position where the kid had been he was gone. When we were talking about in the Recce Sqn command post later that night, the Battle Captain said that it would have been quite the scene; “Could you imagine a little kid surrounded by huge Slovenian Special Forces guys taking a kid’s radio away?” And from there was when the idea for a drawing evolved from. It was at this same time that I took the opportunity and presented diplomas for achievements in operation BBQ to Leon and Stan.
Unfortunately not everybody could be there. We had some troops out there that couldn’t come. We might have to do it again just to ensure that those who missed the first BBQ would have an opportunity to taste Leon’s and Stan’s creative culinary talents.
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