Tasting the Cheese of Appenzellerland

Sorry for the delay in posts.  Typically, we're good about it, but the Swiss Ms has left for the United States, leaving me all alone in Zurich.  Instead of travelling, I've been spending most of my time in lab for the sake of science.  However, despite not travelling, we have quite a backlog of expeditions that I need to post for our faithful readers!

In early May, we realized that we had not taken advantage of the large amounts of cheese in the area.  Sure, we've bought some cheese at the grocery store, but we wanted to taste the cheese from its source!  We decided to go to Appenzellerland and visit the Appenzell Cheese Factory, located in a remote region in Northeast Switzerland.  Appenzellerland is actually divided into two half-cantons (Appenzell Innerrhoden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden), and is usually referred to as die beiden Appenzell (the two Appenzells).  The reason for this division was religious, with Ausserrhoden being Protestant and Innerrhoden remaining Catholic.

The coat of arms for Appenzellerland.  (Children should avert their eyes...)

Unlike the other regions we have visited, there were no direct forms of transportation to Appenzellerland.  In fact, a one-way trip took us nearly two hours!  

A one-way trip planned by the good people at the Thalwil train station.  They even gave us a print-out to help us out!  So courteous!

We first went south from Thalwil along Lake Zurich to Pfaffikon on the S2.  There, we transferred onto a totally new type of train:  the Voralpen Express!

There it is!!!  A new train!

It feels like I'm riding in a chalet with big windows and real wood paneling.  The train also made melodious sounds to inform passengers when it was about to arrive at a new stop.

The red line indicates the route of the Voralpen express.  It goes from Lucerne to Romanshorn (without going through Zurich HB), passing St. Gallen on the way!

Despite the Voralpen journey taking about an hour and a half, it was very scenic and pleasant, so the time seemed to fly by!

Beautiful rolling hills.

Cows cows cows.

We arrived at Herisau, a small town in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, where we needed to transfer to a bus line that is run by Die Post (The Swiss Postal Service) to the Appenzell Cheese Factory.  The Appenzellerland region is not serviced by the the SBB, so Die Post came in to run the public transportation for the area.  I think it has to do with the fact that the area has many hills and is very rural.

Thank goodness for Die Post!  Without it, we would have some trouble getting to  the factory!

We had to take a bus from Herisau to Stein AR, Post, another 16 minute journey to get to our destination.  After nearly two hours of travel, this cheese factory had better be open.

We're finally here.  S2 => Voralpen Express => Post Bus

The long journey has made her hungry!

It was open!  We walked inside, and immediately we were assaulted by the smell of cheese fermenting.  Very intense.  As we wandered around, a nice employee approached us.  The conversation went something like this.

Appenzeller Factory Employee:  What would you like to do here?
Me:  Eat.
(Silence.)
Swiss Ms:  Um...I think he wants to go to the restaurant.
Appenzeller Factory Employee:  Restaurant is right this way.

I think the Swiss Ms was less than impressed with my monosyllabic answer and attempted to make it more meaningful (Swiss Ms: More like polite).  I was hungry.  Fortunately, the restaurant was open.

The restaurant features cheese made right in the factory.

Cozy interior feels like I'm inside a mountain chalet.

 And then, the food!

A delightful plate of Appenzeller cheese!  Starting from the upper left, we have the:  (1) Classic, (2) Bio (Organic), (3) Surchoix (very good), (4) Extra (very very good), (5) some fig/fruit thing and (6) quarter Fett Rass (awful).

The Original Appenzeller Toast:  ham and pears on toasted bread, topped with melted Raclette  (another Swiss cheese) and Appenzeller cheese (I think it was the Surchoix).

Fully fed, we moved onto the factory tour and we saw the cheese being made!

Where the cheese making magic happens!

So.  Much.  Milk.

Preparing to make the cheese.

So.  Much.  Cheese.

We learned that the cheese is seasoned with a brine of secret alpine herbs that gives it a spicy flavor.  (The Swiss say spicy, but I think we might call it sharp.)  If I'm not mistaken, each one of the wheels of cheese is still individually rubbed with the seasoning.  The cows graze on the rolling green meadows to give them the highest quality milk.  Such care!  No wonder it tastes so good (except the Fett Rass...this is the aged reduced fat cheese).

We made our way to the neighboring museum to witness how cheese making was done before it was all industrialized!

The cheesmaker started with 65 liters of full cream raw milk (from happy cows!).  They added 5 - 6 liters of warm water with dry bacteria cultures.  It was heated to 32 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit), then simmered for 1 hour.  Rennet (Curdled milk from the stomach of an unweaned calf) was added to curdle the milk.  The resulting mixture was cut up with a cheese harp to make small identical pieces of curd.  Finally, about 10 liters of whey (liquid remaining after milk had curdled) was replaced with warm water, "washing the curd" to dilute the lactose.

The man uses cheese cloth to pick up the curd (two hands and his mouth make a triangular net) to pick  it up!

Look at all that curd!

Close up of the curd!  No gloves.

The curd is lightly pressed to remove excess whey.

The curd is sectioned off to nine pieces and placed into a mold.  The cheese is pressed and turned over several times a day.  The following day, the cheese is put in a salt bath for conservation.  Then, it is stored in a cheese cellar and brushed with seasoning until ripened to perfection!

Before we left, we decided to take some of Appenzellerland with us!

Yum!  Our favorite cheese from our lunch cheese platter.

Thanks for reading!

-Herr Cervelat

Switz Bitz 2

More Bitz- Restaurant Edition 

Eating out in Switzerland is a pricey endeavor.  This stems from two hallmarks of the Swiss lifestyle that are related to each other.  

1)  Food is sourced locally whenever possible. While listing the origin of a restaurant's meat and vegetables is a relatively recent trend in the US, it's simply expected in Switzerland.  The Swiss like keeping their money close, so they buy from local producers, even when limited supply means very high prices.     

 2)  All professions are paid livable wages.  Swiss farmers and ranchers are paid enough to make a living as are restaurant employees including waitstaff.  In a country where everything is expensive (and just across the boarder in places like Germany and France, prices are significantly cheaper), the Swiss know the importance of paying their citizens well to keep them (and their money) within national boarders.  

Cows, cows, cows.

1)  Tipping

Did I mention the waitstaff don't even get tips and they still make a decent salary?  Apparently, tipping in Switzerland will typically result in embarrassing your server and is only done in the most extraordinary situations.  While going out to eat at restaurants may seem really expensive it's not too different from the States.  

I made this pizza with garlic mascarpone, spinach, and egg.  We already shared all of our  restaurant pizza pictures, so just pretend we actually ordered this one in a restaurant...

Switz Bitz Arithmetic Blitz:

Swiss Example: 23 CHF for a small pizza with fancy toppings at a nice restaurant.  The price already includes tax (and as you now know, no tipping required) so the amount you see listed on the menu is the total price you pay. 

US Example:  Let's work backwards and find out what the price of that pizza would have been in the States.  (I'll stay in CHF for simplicity.)  Assume you are a lovely and generous person (Herr Cervelat), and tip 25%.  (25% of your total bill is $5.75, meaning your pizza plus tax was CHF 17.25.)  Now, assume the nice restaurant is located in Philadelphia where the sales tax is 8% and there is no additional meal tax.  (8% of CHF 17.25 is CHF 1.38, meaning your pizza (without tax and gratiuity) was CHF 15.87.  The lowest denomination of Swiss Franc is 5 rappen, so let's call it a day at CHF 15.90 for a small pizza.  Granted, CHF are valued higher than USD, but this reasoning makes that Swiss pizza with fancy toppings look a little more reasonable.

2)  Seat Yourself

Mission accomplished!

See a free spot at that cafe?  It's yours!  No free spot?  This calls for vulturing the outdoor tables to get that nice two-top in the sun.  Vulturing (noun)- Lying in wait near a desired object until a fellow trophic level consumer abandons the desired object. (Example desired objects include: that cafe table, last shirt in your size on the rack, hands-on exhibit at the science museum monopolized by a single child for the past 20 minutes, cookies).    




3)  A Side of Chocolate 

Why doesn't anyone else do this?  Nothing makes all that vulturing worth it more than a piece of chocolate next to your steamy beverage.  They are perfect partners.  The Swiss have this figured out.  Nine times out of ten your coffee or tea will come with some tasty bite on the side.

That chocolate says, "Come stay awhile.  Relax and enjoy".  Don't mind if I do, chocolate.

Tschüss!  

-Swiss Ms

Swiss Holidays: Swiss Labor Day, Feast of the Ascension and Muttertag!!!

Tag der Arbeit (Labor Day), May 1st:

I was surprised to learn that May 1st was a holiday for the Canton of Zurich.  In fact, upon further reading, May 1st is International Workers' Day (May Day) and over 80 countries officially recognize this holiday.  The United States equivalent is celebrated on the first Monday of September, Labor Day.  

View of Bürkliplatz, which on May Day becomes a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist and communist groups.  Because of these large demonstrations, many trams and buses originating from or going through Bürkliplatz were cancelled.

As we know, holidays are treated as Sundays, so the day before, we went out to Coop and loaded up on tons of beer and sausage for a barbecue at the park in Wollishofen, (a section of Zurich north of Thalwil).  

We are ready for the picnic!  Wait until you see all the sausage we bought! (pictured below)

Public, electric grills that are regularly cleaned and maintained!  Just add meat!

We had initially bought some aluminum pans to keep our meat from directly touching the grill, but an immense amount of heat got lost on the corrugated pans (very poor heat transfer).  Even after an hour of cooking, we had barely seared one side of our sausages.  We were so fed up and hungry we threw food safety concerns to the wind, trashed the pans and placed our food directly on the grill.  Everything was cooked within minutes!  Lesson learned: don't mess with Swiss genius.

After an hour, still very under-cooked and cold...

Pork sausage in the shape of a snail from the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

St. Galler OLMA Bratwust (very large veal sausage), similar to the sausage we had in our trip to St. Gallen.

Sausage on skewers filled with cheese, and wrapped in bacon.  The crowd favorite!

As you can see, there was no shortage of food! (And yes, as you can see from the packages, it cost quite a bit.  Meat is expensive in Switzerland).

The grill was certainly very busy that day too!  People filled the park and kept the BBQ going all afternoon.  


Auffahrt (Ascension Day), 39 days after Easter:

This holiday occurs thirty-nine days after Easter Sunday and always falls on a Thursday (also referred to as Holy Thursday).  The canton of Zurich took the day off, and as such, we decided to relax with another barbecue.   

For Labor Day, we went to Coop the day before and were prepared with grilling goodness.  Unfortunately, we were not so prepared for Ascension Day, and foolishly decided to hazard the grocery store at Zurich HB.  On Sunday and holidays, all businesses, except those that serve food or are located within the train stations are closed.  This means that the few businesses open, especially the grocery stores, are absolutely mobbed.

Ascension day was no exception.

It was packed.  The Migros at Zurich HB is significantly smaller than most grocery stores and we felt like sardines in a can. Another lesson learned.

Trekking our way back to Wollishofen, we met up at a fellow post-doc's patio and grilled some more sausage!

This would have cost us about 60 CHF.  However, they were on AKTION (means that the food is DISCOUNT and on sale) and only cost us about 30 CHF.

So.  Much.  Bacon.  Sausage.

Our host was Italian, so he broke out some delicious cibo Italiano (Italian food) to accompany our grilled meats.

Starting from the freshly baked bread on the top (courtesy of Migros), clockwise, we have olive verdi snocciolate (pitted green olives), filetti di alici all'olio di oliva (anchovy fillets in olive oil), hunks of provolone cheese from Italy, cheese filled bacon wrapped sausages, carciofini interi in olio di semi di girasole (whole artichokes in sunflower seed oil) and melanzane a filetti della Puglia (eggplant strips from Puglia, Italy).

Seriously good stuff.


(Muttertag) Mother's Day, Second Sunday in May:

Today, we decided to go out for a walk to Rüschlikon, the town next to Thalwil, and go to Park im Grüene for a light Sunday brunch!  It also happens to be one of the few places that is open on Sunday around Thalwil (aside from the Starbucks downtown).

Sponsored by Migros!

Beautiful public park with the Migros Restaurant in the back.

Amazing spread at the restaurant.

Our Sunday afternoon treat!

Migros-made croissant and creme cornet (delicious buttery vanilla cream).

A colorful (and crowded!) play-pen inside the Migros Restaurant for families.  The Swiss are very mindful of play spaces for children.

Happy Mother's Day!

-Sir Cervelat

At the Landesmuseum (Swiss National Museum) and Lake Zurich

While it has been exciting exploring different areas of Switzerland, we have to admit we haven't checked-out Zurich thoroughly.  Our initial plan was to go to a very well recommended restaurant, Alpenrose, just north of Zurich HB in Kreisboro 5.  Zurich is divided into twelve districts (Kreis).  (Sounds like the Hunger Games.)  We were aiming to go for a nice Saturday brunch, but when we got there, they were not open!  It seems that on Samstag und Sonntag (Saturday and Sunday), they are only open for Abendessen (dinner).  

So, we ended up going to Migros instead for lunch, which was fantastic!  For those of you who know about Wegmans, we feel that Migros is the Swiss' Wegmans.  Like Wegmans, Migros does not sell cigarettes (or alcohol).  However, some retailers acquired by Migros such as Denner (think discount Migros) do sell them.  The Swiss Ms. continues to prefer Migros over Coop.

Migros is continuing to win her heart (and her stomach).  Almost as good as the food bars at Weggies!

I thought that by getting food at Migros, it would be much cheaper than eating out.  WRONG.  This plate of food cost me about 22 CHF.  If you felt how heavy it was that would probably make sense.

We then made our way to the Landesmuseum (Swiss National Museum) and had a great time learning about Swiss history.  Rather than take post pictures of the entire museum (you wouldn't want that), I found two parts of the museum very interesting.

Swiss Money

The money really embodies Swiss culture.  It is incredibly thoughtful and makes a lot of sense.

The evolution of Swiss Money.  The money in circulation is the bottom row.  Note how the size of the bill gets bigger with larger values:  the size of the 1000 CHF is larger than the 10 CHF.

1000 CHF!!! Who would carry that around with them?  Note the triangle on the left side of the bill.  There is a unique indent to help distinguish the different bills' denominations (i.e. 10 CHF has a dotted circle, 20 CHF has a dotted square).  This feature, in addition to the bill size, is an aid for the sight impaired.

At values below 10 CHF, there are the 5, 2, 1 and 1/2 CHF coins, which all scale in weight!  (i.e. 5 CHF is 5 times heavier than the 1 CHF coin, 2 CHF coin is four times heavier than the 1/2 CHF).  Then there are the 20 and 10 rappen coins.  The five rappen coin (not pictured) is the smallest of all and the color of a penny.(100 rappen = 1 CHF)

Terrestrial Globe 

On our visit to St. Gallen, we learned that there was quite a fierce religious war in 1712 between the Canton of Zurich (Protestants) and Saint-Gall (Catholics).  As such, many cultural objects that previously belonged to the Abbey Library (which we visited), were transferred to Zurich.  Later on in 1718, Zurich agreed to return most of the cultural objects taken from Saint-Gall, except for some 100 items (manuscripts, books, paintings) and most importantly, Prince-Abbot Bernhard Muller’s cosmographical Globe (pictured below).  Saint-Gall asked for the rest of the cultural objects, but Zurich denied taking them, and the globe remained at the National Museum.

Fast forward to the year 1996, the issue of unclaimed cultural objects is brought up again, and the public becomes involved.  Eventually, by 2006, settlement between Zurich and Saint-Gall was reached through outside mediation.  In the end, Saint-Gall accepted Zurich's ownership of the cultural objects at the National Museum, Zurich indefinitely loaned some manuscripts to Saint-Gall, and most importantly, Zurich commissioned a copy of the Globe at its own expense and donated it to Saint-Gall.  For more information, you can go here.

The original globe sitting in the Swiss National Museum at Zurich.  We couldn't take a picture of the copy when we were at the Abbey in St. Gallen, so we're excited to show you!

Saint-Gall welcomed its copy into the Abbey with a celebration in August 2009.

After our museum experience, we decided to treat ourselves with a delicious cup of hot chocolate at Sprüngli, a Swiss luxury confectionery on Bahnhofstrasse.

Right on Bahnhofstrasse (Zurich's main downtown street, think NYC's Fifth Avenue).  Home of delicious hot chocolate and other tasty treats.

Typically at restaurants in America, you would get complementary tap water with your meal by request.  Not in Switzerland.  Water is typically not given out, and only available for purchase.  The only instances we received water were when we ordered coffee and a small glass (4oz or less) was given as a palate cleanser.  Additional glasses at 1 CHF each.

The next day, we decided to continue our adventure of Zurich, but instead of taking the train to Zurich...we took a boat!

The ticket from Thalwil to Zurich covers all means of transportation, including this boat.   Behold the good ship Albis.

Fully catered with getränke (drinks) and food!

Happy to be on a boat cruise on a Sunday morning.

Enjoying a cup of espresso as we travel up Lake Zurich to Bürkliplatz.

Once we arrived at Burkliplatz, we noticed another, much larger ship filled with people.  We learned that every Sunday, there is a brunch buffet cruise that leaves Burkliplatz and circumnavigates Lake Zurich on a relaxing 2 1/2 hour cruise!

We decided that we would save it for another time and hopped over to cafe Odeon for Sunday brunch (and unlike Alpenrose, it was open!)

According to Wikipedia, Cafe Odeon has the reputation of being an intellectual meeting place.  Some famous visitors include Albert Einstein, James Joyce, Lenin and Mussolini.  When we're famous, Wikipedia will add our names to that list.

My Rösti, a Swiss dish of grated potatoes, with two gooey eggs and loads of cheese.  The conversation may not have been overly intellectual, but it was just the right speed for a Sunday morning.

Thanks for reading!

-Sir Cervelat