I want to apologize to my dedicated readers because it has been quite the dry spell, hasn't it. I have been dedicating most of my time to my project, to training, and to soaking up these last few weeks in Switzerland. I don't really know how to go about sharing all that has been my life lately, so I thought I would begin by describing some of my culinary choices...because after all, it is not so difficult to eat like a king [queen] here.
But I promise--this will not be a regular occurrence. There are WAY too many food blogs out there and as I am not 1. a professional chef, 2. a food critic, or 3. a profession food photographer, I don't see any reason to add to the continuous volume of food writing and photos currently in existence since I will not be able to compete with the 5% of material that is of high quality and will merely be lost in the 95% of less-professional more blah food, more blah writing, and more blah photos that are infiltrating the interwebs, especially within the blog realm.
After having just written that, I am going to completely contradict myself and add some volume to the world's mediocre food writing.
Okay here we go.
1. Starting the Day
How do the Swiss start their days? Mit Birchermüesli, natürlich! And the Birchermüesli itself is natürlich, let me tell you. It was "invented" around 1900 by the Swiss doctor Maximilian Bircher-Benner as a form of health "therapy" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli).
To make it:
Soak oats/Müesli (uncooked granola) in water overnight in the refrigerator.
In the morning, drain remaining water. Mix soaked oats with yogurt, fruit, and nuts (optional, especially if müesli already contains nuts).
In my version below I added:
rhubarb yogurt (yes that is a normal thing in Switzerland...omg)
raspberries (less expensive if bought frozen)
grapes
dried cranberries
apples
coconut
If you have the time, you can chop the fruit fresh each morning--that way the drained oats/yogurt mixture keeps longer. If you mix the fruit in right away, the müesli only keeps for ~1 week. Also, the proportions of oat/yogurt/fruit/nuts don't really matter--it's just personal preference. Swiss Birchermüesli tends to be quite yogurt-heavy.
2. Starting the Day part II
Mochaccinos. I was only an on-and-off coffee drinker before I came to Switzerland. I saved coffee for those rough mornings with 7:45am drill after a late night of language flash cards, thesis writing...or talking with friends till the wee hours of the morning.
But once I was introduced to the strong, stronger, or strongest varieties of coffee that exist in Switzerland, I was hooked ("I'll take a stronger today, danke").
One should note that stronger coffee does not mean the same amount of coffee as "normal" (okay I am comparing to the U.S. here) and also stronger. It means less, like way less, and stronger. For example, this is what you get if you ask for a large:
As a formerly non-regular coffee drinker, I must admit my weakness with regards to the strength of coffee here. A good wake-up jolt for me means the amount of espresso-strength coffee pictured above + 1/3 that much milk well frothed (good thing the apartment I ended up in owns one of these...they are my favorite kitchen appliance) + a healthy dose of sugar + another healthy dose of unsweetened cocoa powder:
Yup, so that's my morning. Trying to act all Swiss with my müesli, and knowing that I am not at all Swiss with my foofy coffee.
3. Eating Out
It has not been at all economically sustainable to eat our here on a regular basis since lunch usually starts at around $12 and dinner around $25--even a pot of tea goes for about $7.50. But since my advisor and the PhD student I share an office with have been away on-and-off all summer, and since I do not have a key to my office or even a password for the internet at the university, I conceded to the fact that I would be hunting down some cafes since working all home would make me go bazonkers after a while (the public library is nice too, but is often crowded and their internet kind of stinks).
One quite "affordable" (for Switzerland, mind you) place I have discovered is called Wander (as in "hiker"--I love this word though, because I like to think of it as "wanderer" too). They serve lunch and their dishes are healthy, delicious, and generously portioned. One day I ordered a delectable lentil salad for "only" CH8. Here is a Spanish tortilla--love the toppings on the salad that comes with it.
4. My Own Salads
Wander inspired me to try my own lentil creations. I think they were a success since I made a big batch and couldn't stop eating it...who knew that could happen with lentils?
Featured here is a lentil-beet salad with tomatoes, fresh parsley, chives, and cornichons. Dressing = olive oil, white wine vinegar, a little sugar, salt, and pepper.
Then I kept going with the whole salad thing. Here, baby greens and chards, shredded beets, apples, and gruyere. Dressing = balsamic vinaigrette with a little maple syrup thrown in:
Then we had smoked salmon in the apartment one day. So what did I do with it? Greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion sprouts (a new discovery- spicy!), chives, dill, salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil:
More of that lentil-beet salad--I'm hooked! On top of the baby greens and chards this time:
5. Drinkable Concoctions
One summer when my sister and I were little, we would mix flowers and fruits and water and goodness knows what else and try to make perfumes (or did I do this alone and tried to convince her to join me? I don't remember). Anyway, apparently I've always been fond of creating concoctions. Nowadays I prefer my ingredients to be more like lemons and ginger, rather than grass, twigs, and cherry blossoms, but aside from that I pretty much like to make drinkable perfumes.
Here: lemon juice, ginger root, honey, water. Maple syrup is also delicious instead of honey, but then I would leave out the ginger (too many flavors). I also like to boil lavender in water, let the lavender "tea" cool, then mix it with the lemon/honey/water combo.
6. Soups
It has been a wee rainy lately--perfect soup weather. One day I was really craving Lodge Tomato Soup (as in Moosilauke Lodge), but that calls for cream cheese and we didn't have any (though it is surprisingly easy to find in Switzerland). So instead, I just heated up some canned tomatoes, cream, and Sbrinz cheese (the Swiss version of Parmesan). Added a dried chili pepper, and some salt and pepper and was good to go!
Well I hope this has not been too much of a bore, though I am fully aware it lies within the 95%. At the very least, I hope you are rest assured that I have not gone hungry from the astronomical prices (in general, food here is not too badly priced, especially dairy products...sorry for you vegans out there).
Happy eating a drinking everyone!
