Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Food, Glorious Swiss Food!

Yes, there was much chocolate eaten. The most frustrating part, in fact, was that the very best brand of chocolate we found was in a convenience store somewhere in the Swiss sticks, and we just assumed we'd find it again. We never did. It was called Villars. We miss you, wherever you are.

That said, we did enjoy very much our visits to Sprungli, which I discussed in an earlier post. We made it to one that was open late in Zurich on Saturday before we flew out Sunday to, I thought, get some for gifts. Turned out, Miles figured we'd keep this stuff for ourselves. Good idea. We still have two left for a little post-Swiss celebration sooner or later. This was the only shot I was allowed to take...


...because they apparently don't allow photos inside the store. Weird.

Anyone who reads this blog or listens to the podcast knows I've got a serious sweet tooth and I love to snack. That wasn't a problem in Switzerland. Here I am with a lapful of interesting treats including chocolate, some sort of chocolate-coated rice cookies and these little wafer things with chocolate in the shape of the Alps. Oh, and some sort of sugary vanilla milk beverage to wash it down...

Milky Way had this delightful offering over there, too! See this candy-related blog for an exposition on it...


The also sell gum by the, uh, ball...

And here's what we bought that snowy day in Crans Montana when we knew we'd be stuck inside our chalet room. There's some cookies, plenty of bottled water (which actually tasted weird), lots of Coke Light, the name of which tickled Miles, and three things of ice cream in the front there.


Here's what one of the cheese display cases looked like at the grocery...


Perhaps the loveliest snack came in the town of Gruyere (yes, like the cheese), when we stopped in for some raspberries and cream. Love the placemats, right?


There were many excellent cappuccinoes, including this one in Crans Montana...

One of the things we loved about that place was that each coffee order came with this delightful little chocolate cup filled with whipped cream. Here I am eating it with relish...


And of COURSE there was fondue. Once. At the restaurant inside the Hotel de la Foret in Crans Montana where we stayed...



...Although for $20 a person, all we got, though, was a crock of salty melted cheese and two baskets of torn up, day-old sourdough bread.


It wasn't ALL decadence, though. One night in Fribourg, we had a great deal of trouble finding a place to eat where we didn't have to navigate a foreign-language menu or the blank stares of waitresses. We found this handsome spot, a little bakery-deli place.


Here was Miles' delicious sandwich...


And here's my tuna salad with all sorts of other odd things in it...


See? That was healthy! Still, mostly, it was a lot of this...


And I throw in this final photo just to remind you all that, somehow, despite all of this, I am not a big fat cow...

...yet.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Easter Mad In The Chocolate Capital

I'm still catching up on our big trip and will be doing so all week. Today's lesson is how a country built on chocolate (and illicit banking, but that's not very tasty!) goes absolutely bananas over Easter. This sort of thing...


...was everywhere...

And just like here in America, it was made of the utterly worst, waxiest, cheapest chocolate around. Poor Easter bunnies! Oh, and not a single Peep anywhere to be seen. The JustBorn company has some globalization to do, methinks.

Beyond the candy, though, there were signs of Easter every-frigging-where. Even in random shop windows like Anika's costume shop...

And doesn't a demented Easter bunny just make you want to buy a Swiss watch?

We were relaxing over a not-great cappuccino in Geneva at a cafe called Central Perk -- we'll get to THAT later in the week -- when I noticed this hideous, hopefully seasonal, light fixture...


I actually have no idea what this one is about but it has something to do with something called Biolust.ch...


And here's another that stumped me. It was on a bus. From what I've gathered with help from an online German-English dictionary, it reads: "Easter? We'll be open." But, Bugs Bunny, why the long face?


Maybe it's a depression hotline or something? You know, from someone who got the seasonal blues because the chocolate bunnies were so gross?