A walk in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland

Before heading back to the States, R and I did a few hikes near our house and some day trips in France and Switzerland.

In late May, we made a trip to the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland. On the way back we took the Jaun Pass home. It was a gorgeous day and knowing that R and I would be back in the US before we knew it, I fully appreciated all the beauty before us. I wanted to capture everything with my lens, but in the end I opted to take it all in. But you know me, I did manage to snap a few to help us remember our trip!

Swiss knoepfli in a herb butter sauce

Sorry I haven't posted any stories or photos of Paris yet. Since returning from Paris last Monday night, R and I have been quite busy, doing daytrips to Geneva then Lyon. And on top of that, we've had brilliant weather. Warm enough that I'm wearing skirts, shorts, and my Tevas everyday.

On Friday I spent many hours shaping the garden, planting seeds and transplanting some of the seedlings that had been germinating in the serre, including tomatoes, leeks, salad greens, courgettes, kales and kohlrabis. After a long day of gardening and on my knees, a good warm shower never felt better. As the sage, chives and thyme plants are growing strong, I decided to make something using fresh herbs. And what better then a big plate of Swiss knoepfli or spätzli which is sort of like German spätzle.

Luzerner Fasnacht Photos

During Carnival season, many Swiss-German towns and cities organize Fasnacht festivities. The Luzerner Fasnacht—known for its informal and inclusive style—stands out from other Fasnachts held in Basel, Bern, and Zurich, among other cities.

In Luzern locals and tourists alike are invited to masquerade themselves—the more whimsical, creative, and colorful the better.

Chateau d'Oex Balloon Festival

On Balloon Sunday R and I awoke to gray overcast skies with plenty of fog. Not a good sign for the 9th and last day of the 33rd annual Chateau d'Oex hot air balloon festival. Despite the real chance that balloon flights would be canceled due to clouds and wind, we took our chances and hoped the weather would improve in a few hours.

Geneva's Escalade

After a hearty breakfast of omelets with wild mushrooms (ones I dried from this fall's harvest), R, J and I dressed warmly for our trip to Geneva. Every year, around this time, Geneva remembers and celebrates the brave Genevoise who fought off a surprise attack in 1602. On that cold December night 408 years ago, the Genevoise banded together to overthrow the troops of the Duke of Savoy (Charles Emmanuel II) and his brother-in-law (Philip III of Spain) who coveted Geneva for themselves.

The city all lit up in lights, near the Pont du Mont Blanc.





On the L'Escalade Wikipedia page, you'll see a pic of "A soldier in the commemorative parade". I think I got a picture with this exact same guy on Sunday (see below - had to crop myself out because my eyes were closed)!

August 22 harvest and food, food, more food!

Yesterday was a good day. Before R and I drove to Lausanne, a French-speaking Swiss city north of Geneva, I had the best omelette I have ever had. On Friday, at R's invitation, our neighbor Pierre came over to pick the mushrooms in our backyard. And yesterday morning, his wife Denise made the omelette below using eggs from the chickens that they keep! The mushrooms were tiny, but full of flavor and this is a taste memory that will last a lifetime for me. Mmmm.


Pierre and Denise's chickens and rabbits - the eggs came from these chickens, which ones exactly, I don't know! The big breeder rabbit is going to have a new litter in a few days and I can't wait to go over there and meet the new bunnies.


It's been a strange, wet month...but now the sun is out and my garden is thriving. The past week, I've been harvesting 5 tomatoes daily; smaller in size than the ones you may find at the market, but these ones taste so much juicier and full of tomato goodness. Yesterday I harvested another monster zucchini, or courgette in French.

To combat the heat today, I decided to make something fresh and healthy using ingredients picked fresh from the garden: Vietnamese summer rolls with peanut sauce. Everything you see on the plate was picked this morning (except for the store bought red peppers and carrots): garden lettuce, mint, baby tendrils of cilantro, tomatoes, 1 lonely baby beet with beet greens, and zucchini.


With so much zucchini, I wondered what I could make. After a quick Google search, I found a great recipe for Korean zucchini pancakes, or Pa Jeon. Has anyone made these before? Looks simple enough...if only I could also have Korean BBQ and all the side dishes with it too.

Yesterday, before driving to Lausanne, R and I stopped at Mekong Market at Ferney-Voltaire so I could stock up on a few Asian staples. I got nori, pho paste, cha lua, rice flour, and tapioca starch to make Bánh Cuốn, steamed Vietnamese rice rolls with pork sausage.

I also got some nems, yellow mung mean cakes, sate paste (to make satay skewers), and a Chinese pork bun with Chinese sausage, egg, and pork in it.

And finally a view of the mountains from a skylight in my bedroom - the mountains you see are the Juras, a chain of mountains that are older than the Alps but much lower. They run from this area all the way to Basel, Switzerland, which is near Germany. I often hear and see cows grazing on grass on these meadows between our house and the mountains.

Photo catchup

Photos from the past week. My friend J posing by le Valserine et Rhone with a box of petit French pastries. She didn't pose long...we pretty much finished it all in under ten minutes.




Standing on Mount Saleve with amazing views of Geneva below. We got lucky and captured a paraglider in the background. I would love to do it one day, when I can get over my fear of heights. I parasailed in Thailand and wasn't scared. It was so cool to watch the takeoffs and see them playing with the wind. Even though I can learn to steer and control how rapidly I descend, my fear of heights makes me hesitate. But perhaps next year.



The next few pictures are of Nyon, Switzerland.




Seyssel and Aix-les-Bains. Bought some guimauve framboise (housemade raspberry marshmallow) and brownies. The "brownies" in France taste like chocolate cake rather than the deep, chocolately, fudgey brownies I know and love. According to David Lebowitz (Chez Panisse's former pastry chef who now lives and bakes in France, it's because the French flour is more like cake flour than all purpose flour).






At the Fête des bucherons

Freiburg, Bern, and Bears

Currywurst sandwich

En route home from our friends' wedding in Germany, R and I made stops in Freiburg and Bern. So I could see Germany and the German part of Switzerland. Freiburg, the southernmost German city, borders the Black Forest where I imagined "Hansel and Gretal" was set. Freiburg is charming—I loved the Munsterplatz, the farmer's market, and the "Bächle" that run through the city center. 

I love good good, I'm not a snob when it comes to eating well. I love fine dining at the best restaurants as much as the next girl, but I'm also really happy eating lovingly cooked meals at home, and more so when it's prepared by some of my favorite foodie friends. Sometimes on the street is where you find the best local food.

Take this simple currywurst sandwich at Freiburg's daily farmer's market in Munsterplatz. The pork sausage was perfectly sauced with a tomato sauce with a good dose of curry in it. Even though it seemed early for strawberries—I couldn't resist buying a quart of little strawberries for 2€. These strawberries tasted they were picked straight off the plant on a hot summer's day. I should have bought at least four more quarts.

Asian markets in Geneva

Watching Ocean's 13 right now as I write today's post. The weather was really nice, so R and I decided to spend the day in Geneva. Overall today was a success—I bought a Swiss cell phone so R and I can contact each other while in Switzerland (and for emergencies everywhere else). Then we visited some schools that offer French language courses.

FRENCH CLASSES

There are several good options which I've listed below—at this time I'm leaning towards Migros' École-Club which is located in Geneva, Switzerland just over the French border. Before signing up, I will check at the Mairie in case they can suggest French classes closer to home.

University of Geneva (UNIGE) offers fairly cheap, intensive summer French classes, and is located a short tram ride away from Cornavin, Geneva's central train station.

Migros, a Swiss supermarket chain offers French courses as part of École-Club. In addition to French and other language classes, they also offer dance, fitness, cooking, finance, and business classes. At École-Club, I took a free French language placement test and got 26/36 questions correct, placing me at the A2 level (which is advanced beginner). 

Ifage is another option. Like Migros, it is well-priced, with good schedules, and is centrally located at the train station. But it was kind of depressing looking. I saw some brochures for EF at Ifage, however, I don't think EF is associated with Ifage.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO GENEVA
Before arriving in Geneva I knew very little about the city, only that it ranked as the number one city to live (having tied with Zurich in a study conducted in 2007) and that it was home to the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions. Therefore I knew Geneva would be international, but just how much was quite a surprise. Wikipedia gives la ville de Genève a population of 191, 000 (as of 2010) while the Canton of Geneva has a population 457,428. Of that nearly half a million population, 39.2% are foreigners and more than 50% of people living in Geneva (the canton I believe) hold foreign passports. These numbers don't even take into account foreigners who work in Geneva but live in neighboring France (such as me and R and many expats who work for CERN situated both in Pays Gex (France) and Geneva).

The United Nations and its many agencies play a huge part in creating an international, bringing in diplomats, staff, and support from 192 countries, or member-states. Wikipedia cites that Geneva is home to 22 international organizations and more than 250 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). In addition Geneva serves as the European headquarters for many corporate companies like Proctor and Gamble, HP, and Dupont amongst others.

Due to its international setting, there are more Asian stores than I expected, most of them centered in the Paquis district, close to the railroad station. Walking around the Paquis, R and I found many more shops than we found through a quick Google search. I read somewhere that Geneva has a large Japanese ex-pat population. And more recently Geneva is trying to court the Chinese banks so there may be a small Chinatown here in the near future. Genève is quite small and compact so we weren't that far away from the Paquis district. Today we visited the stores below.

ASIAN STORES IN GENEVA

Asia Store 

• Pros: Clean and organized, no weird smells, with good basic selection. A nice surprise was the owner of Asia Store was not only Chinese, but he spoke Teo Chew, my dialect. We chatted briefly and I found out his last name is Chan, which is as common as Smith or Jones. He emigrated to France from Cambodia and now lives in Switzerland.

• Cons: Tiny with only about 3 rows of food. Not a wide selection. Quite expensive. I paid 7.10CHF for ginger, vermicelli, and rice paper (which would have cost maybe $3 in Boston). Eating out, and food in general, costs much more in Switzerland partly due to universal healthcare and the high salaries the Swiss enjoy. I have to keep that in mind instead of making a straight comparison to Boston prices.

Alimentation Japonaise Miyai
45 Rue de Zurich, 1201 Genéve
Tel: 022-731-4862
Pros: Neat, well-stocked Japanese grocery store where I bought pickled plums, miso paste, wasabi peas, and gyoza wrappers.
Cons: Expensive, but not any more expensive than Asia Store or other Asian markets in Geneva.

Vietnamese Market (whose name I forget)
En route to find dinner, we accidentally found the best Chinese/Vietnamese supermarket.

• Pros: The owners are Vietnamese—and directed us to Cho Lon, a Vietnamese restaurant around the corner from their store. We should have heeded their advice, but we didn’t, opting instead for another one nearby. Before heading to dinner, we checked out the store. Although still quite small compared to Asian markets in Boston, it was still the biggest one yet. It carried a big selection of Asian fresh vegetables, packaged goods, big bags of rice, different kinds of tofu, lots of frozen fish, fish sauce, shrimp paste, rice paper, many kinds of noodles, and even "mam", fermented river fish. Most of the goods came from China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand. I quickly bought some hoisin sauce, roast pork "char siu" marinade, and a bag of dried green mung beans. Why mung beans? From these dried beans, I can sprout my own bean sprouts at any moment to use in fresh summer rolls, or to use in Vietnamese dishes. I have yet to find fresh bean sprouts in my French markets, so I'm super excited that I found the dried green mung beans today!

• Cons: None