Its been a rush of food memories during this wonderful trip of magical Switzerland. Thought that I must write about the few things which have touched my heart and stomach. Many will make it to full posts… hopefully, with pictures. So this is more like my diary, live for you.
Please excuse the typos. I just began to come to terms with the French keyboard at Montreux when I had to grapple with the German one at Zermatt. But that’s Switzerland.
I am sitting in the lovely wooden, empty bar in the quaint and elegant Hotel Christiana at Zermatt as I write this. The clatter and chatter of the hotel guests is drifting in from the restaurants. But we are Indians, we have dinner at night and not in the evening.
So here are some of the highlights so far:
A lovely hot chocolate in a petite and poetic little cafe an hour back. The hot chocolate turned out to be a chocolate lollipop dissolved in milk. Lived up to the recommendation of Alexandra, the friendly Swede girl at the counter. She actually pushed this over the hot chocolate I initially ordered which was twice the price of what she later pointed me to. That’s so typical of this fairyland. And, K had a lovely dark chocolate from the chocolatarie (pardon my French) in the shop below
The village fair we bumped into while hiking down to Zermatt after our day at the Matterhorn glacier. Walking down a road actually, where we had a dish called ratcine – slice of cheese, melted and put on your plate, a few chopped roasted potatoes, paprika, heaven
Warming my hands on a cup of hot cappuccino in the restaurant at the Matterhorn glacier after freezing in the glacier palace. And the best spaghetti bolognaise that I’ve ever had in my life.
The world’s largest slice of apple pie at Grampies beside Hotel Post at Zermatt last night. Just what I needed in the icy cold night after a long walk and a million train changes. With a hot chocolate of course
The best Doner Kebabs in the world outside Visp station, Switzerland. Doner kebabs are the Turkish cousins of shwarmas! The meat in the one at Visp was far more succulent and well flavoured than any that we had at Istanbul last year. A nice spicy, Oriental break in the holiday amongst all the cheese and cold cuts of Europe
And talking of stations, how can I forget the delectably cheesy quiche, richer than the average Swiss banker, which we had in the departmental shop outside Geneva station?
And our last night at Montreux where we finally found Paradise Chalet while looking for Swiss food? Ham and cheese rosti which excited K no end as it reminded her of the Parsi sali per eendu with home made chips. The potato fries reminded me of my mom’s alu bhaja. Sans the rice and moong daal of course. And the horse meat (!) steak which we had there. Our first. I found the coarse bite of the meat with the faint bitter after taste interesting. Add the excitement of new discoveries and it was quite unforgettable. The romance of horse steak didn’t turn on K though and she preferred the rosti
We are yet to have a fondue though!
