Switz Bitz 3

Switzerland is an amazing country, but it still doesn't quite feel like home.  A recent trip back to the States reminded me what I missed most about being in America.

1) Family and Friends.

Working from home certainly has its advantages (case in point: traveling to the States without taking time off), but it also means it's hard to get out and meet people.  Meeting people here takes effort.  From what I've heard, (and according to my book on culture in Switzerland) the Swiss are slow to warm up and make friends, especially with foreigners.  They are reserved and don't go out of their way to introduce themselves when they meet someone new.  It takes them a long time to build meaningful relationships.  In fact, they tend to keep to themselves so much that it's said that "Even the Swiss don't like being friends with the Swiss"!  During my visits, I had the opportunity to see friends from all over.

Friends from near and far...sometimes very far!

Three beautiful weddings this summer!  So glad I could be there!

LOVE!

2) Incidental Conversations  (Not sure what to call this...)

Those pleasantries with the grocery clerk, comments about the weather with the bank teller, the simple "How are you today?" from the security guard...those don't happen in Switzerland.  Prior to moving to here, it never would have occurred to me that I would miss those things.  The Swiss are friendly, but not in the warm, open way that Americans are.  Swiss tend to err on the side of business-like efficiency.  In America, it was my habit to greet most people, from the coffee shop barrista, to the front desk attendant at the gym, with a "Hi. How are you?"  When I tried the same line for the first time at the train station ticket office, I could tell that my greeting took the clerk by surprise and answering made her uncomfortable.  I quickly learned to remove such greetings from my social script.  These seconds-long side conversations were always part of my life in the States, albeit a part that I never paid much attention to.  As soon as they were absent, I realized how, in a small way, they brightened my day.   

Good ol' visitor's center of Dixon, IL.  I cleaned up on brochures and soaked up small town America.

3) Sweet Potatoes, Peanut Butter, Greens and Sweet Corn

Despite spending a year in North Carolina, I'm far from a Southern girl, but this list sure makes it look like it.  These very American foods are not popular in Switzerland.  Sweet potatoes are the only food in the produce section of our Migros sourced from the US and it shows in the price: over 6 CHF per kg.  Compare this with any variety of white potato for around 3 CHF or less. 

Imposter!

Ah, peanut butter how you have sustained me through the years as my lunchtime companion.  Alas, no more.  The peanut butter here is sadly lacking in flavor and concocted with tropical oils and sugar.  In short, it is not the peanut butter I know and love in the States.  48oz of Trader Joe's PB made the transatlantic flight back to Switzerland with me a few weeks ago.  It will be carefully rationed over the coming months.  

Salads: yes.  Sweet corn: no.  (Reminds me of a Nasco food model!)

While salad greens are very popular in Switzerland, cooking greens such as collards, kale and (ironically) swiss chard are not.  I have yet to see cooking greens sold in our grocery store or farmers' markets.  Unlike cooking greens, sweet corn is available, just ridiculously expensive.  The price at Migros this afternoon: 5.35 CHF for 4 ears.  In short, don't take your CSA box's overabundance of mustard greens and wormy organic corn for granted!  Enjoy, friends!

-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