Samobor Salami Festival is a tradition started 32 years ago, first when friends in their homes and weekend houses competed one against another, but in time it became an official yearly competition looking for a best salami made in the Samobor region.
People in this part of Croatia take their cured meats seriously, and creating you own home-made salami is a matter of pride for many a hobbyist in central Croatia. In the past three decades that the competition has been held the submitions have gotten so numerous that they had to create four categories, and the grading is performed according to the French salami-grading rules. The categories in question are: home-made products, international competition, local pig farmers, and special category (all unusual and unique charcuterie products, both by local and international producers).
This year the final event will take place this Saturday, April 13th at 8 pm, in the Samobor Sports Hall. The samples for the competition should’ve been submitted on April 5th and 6th on Samobor’s main square, and those who have done that will be graded on Saturday evening. The organizer of the event is the Samobor Golden Grinder-Plate Association (Udruga Zlatna Šajba), and the awards presented will also be a Golden, Silver and Bronze grinder plates.
Samobor Salami Festival is a part of the Samobor Spring Fair. The fair is dedicated to gastronomy this year, but in addition to the food-related activities, an international show-jumping meet will be held in Samobor, with over 350 people (and horses) participating. On Saturday morning, a workshop on traditional meals of the region of Žumberak will be held, and this year it will be dedicated to the dishes and beverages based on the local honey.
