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Fri, 11 Mar 2005

Switzerland

Last year my friends Eliot and Christine moved to Wetzikon, Switzerland, a town near Zurich, and since I was "nearby" (London) I was invited to visit for the weekend and see the sights and investigate Swiss cuisine. I had been to Switzerland before in 1988 and 1997, but had spent most of the time in the area of Neuchatel, which is in a French-speaking part of Switzerland and a cuisine most similar to nearby parts of of France. Zurich is German-speaking, with a cuisine to match, with lots of local specialties.

We last left Berch on Food at Gatwick Airport, having lunched at Chez Gerard, and about to board a Helvetic Air flight to Zurich. Alas, the flight was two hours late due to mechanical problems. This played havoc with our dinner plans, although that turned out be an advantage in the end, since I was pretty tired by the time the plane landed. Eliot picked me up at the airport and took me home, where Christine had cooked a marvelous lamb curry, which was accompanied by a unique bottle from their wine cellar -- a 1997 red from Chateau Musar, which is a winery in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. It was delicious and complex, a blend of cabernet sauvignon, carignan, and cinsault grapes. Chateau Musar was founded in 1930 by Gaston Hochar, and is still run by the Hochar family. I really appreciated the efforts of the winemakers all the more considering that they must operate under extremely difficult conditions, as the Bekaa Valley has been the scene of almost continuous low-intensity fighting and air raids for several decades, involving Lebanese, Syrian, Hezbollah, and Israeli forces.

The next day, well rested, we set out for a day of touring, beginning with lunch at the Rathaus in Rapperswil, a lakeside resort town with a charming central pedestrian zone and waterfront. The Rathaus is as traditional Swiss as you can get, and for lunch I had the boiled meat platter - a generous serving of boiled beef, ham, sausage, and sauerkraut (not unlike the French-Alsatian choucroute garni). Very filling, and a good thing we were not heading out for a serious hike. Instead, we visited the transportation museum in Luzern, the highlight of which for me was an intact, mounted Convair 990 Coronado.

For dinner, I was Eliot and Christine's guest at the area's finest restaurant, 10' Dieci, on Rapperswil's lakefront. The lower level is an immensely popular pizzeria which overflows onto the waterfront plaza in good weather, but upstairs is the dining room, a quieter venue for the chef's skills. The chef offers two tasting menus -- fish or meat -- and I elected the meat option, which began with small courses of a carpaccio of beef with parmesan cheese, chicken cooked with herbs, and a tiny roast quail with cous-cous. After a pause to enjoy the wine, a cabernet-sangiovese blend from Liano, the main course was served, which was a grilled combination of a veal chop, lamb rib chops, and a game hen portion, in a reduction sauce with gratin potatoes. The sauce had a good smoky flavor, with a hint of game juices, and complemented the meats wonderfully. I must, must return to 10' Dieci, since I have not yet sampled the fish course -- nor their summer menu.

On Sunday we arose to find it snowing vigorously, which made our planned trip to the Alps simultaneously more scenic and more difficult. The original plan was a trip to the top of Schilthorn, via cable car, to an altitude of 2970 meters, and a great view, plus lunch or dinner, depending. But as we headed toward the Bernese Oberland, the weather became more challenging, and when we stopped in Interlaken we learned that the cable car was not running due to the snow, and it would not have mattered if it was, since visibility at the summit was practically nonexistent. Which left us in central Interlaken around lunchtime. (A similar situation prevailed on my 1997 trip to Switzerland, where we made an attempt on Jungfraujoch, only to find out it was also closed by snow, resulting in lunch in Interlaken and a trip by funicular to Schynige Platte.)

The best option in Interlaken appeared to be the Restaurant Schuh, of traditional style, and we were very nearly the only diners under age 70. But I managed to get a mixed salad, followed by a very nice veal steak with asparagus, on toast with hollandaise sauce and then gratineed. Very good for the walk in the snow in Interlaken's town park that followed.

That evening, we headed back towards Zurich, to the hill town of Wald, where Eliot and Christine lived temporarily before finding their present residence. Their place in Wald, the Bleiche, is a brilliant conversion of a former textile mill into a complex with loft apartments, a hotel, spa, and bar-restaurant. We were greeted warmly by Jeff Theiler, the manager of "Bleichibeiz", and seated in the dining room, which retains much of its industrial charm. The kitchen turned out a delightful veal cordon bleu, preceded by a salad with roquefort and apples. We drank a Spanish wine, a 2000 montsant, from ENEAS, which was light and spicy, a good foil for the veal.

Early the next morning, snow notwithstanding, was my train for Paris, with changes at Zurich and Geneva, and in the Swiss tradition, it was not even a minute late. I took Eliot's advice, and sat in the dining car on the Swiss (SBB) ICN train. The service is called the Elvetino, and it's easily the best meal I've had on a train since a childhood trip across the Canadian Rockies on the old Canadian Pacific. I had a salad followed by schupfnudeln, a bowl of dumplings in cream sauce with wild mushrooms. A good farewell to Switzerland, before my wild dash through Geneva station, French border control, and on to the TGV for Paris.

Posted at 22:55 | permanent link

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