A Humorous Guide to Switzerland

One thing about Switzerland that certainly plays in its favour is the tasty food - most famously Swiss cheese and Swiss chocolate. Personally, I also think in Switzerland you can find some of world's best breads and pastries. Think about the braided Sunday bread called Zopf and the large variety of Christmas cookies for example. And those are just the tip of the culinary iceberg so to speak. However, today I want to talk about cakes and especially a famous Swiss cake which just happens to be one of my favourites as well. I'll also touch on the unwritten rules you have to follow in order to politely eat cake in Switzerland. Something that is indeed very typical behaviour of Swiss persons . Swiss Carrot Cake - Michaela Schöllhorn  / pixelio.de The Origins of a Swiss Carrot Cake The cake I will talk about is named after the region of Switzerland I grew up in, the canton of Aargau  and is called the Argovian Carrot Cake (in Swiss German: 'Aargauer Rüeblitorte') . I...

The Christmas season in Switzerland is just around the corner and soon people will be busy baking and eating Christmas cookies , practicing their poems for Santa's visit , getting ready their Christmas calendars and Advent wreaths, buying or making gifts and generally enjoy the holiday season. Different Swiss Christmas Traditions Although there are some Swiss Christmas traditions that most people observe - e.g. Swiss Santa or Christmas Calendars - each family also has their very own tradition of how Christmas should be celebrated. Some people will go to church on Christmas eve while others prefer to celebrate at home, for example. Some read the Christmas story, others simply enjoy family time and the exchanging of gifts. Also, the food served on Christmas eve varies from household to household. A Swiss classic for Christmas eve is Fondue Chinoise  where you cook meat and vegetables in broth in a shared pot right at the table but by now almost anything goes. Swiss Chris...

Easter will be here very soon. There is no way you can miss it. Shops and supermarkets are full of Easter related goodies and decorations in the shape of eggs and bunnies. I like chocolate and I love marzipan but sometimes Easter can be a bit too sweet . As it is, many chocolate bunnies and caramel eggs end up in the disposal bin rather than in a hungry mouth due to the over-abundance of Easter sweets. Instead of wasting precious Swiss Francs on mediocre chocolate (the one exception in my humble opinion being the Lindt Goldhase ) I decided to create my own Easter bunny. For this purpose I adapted  the recipe for a traditional Swiss Christmas treat, the Grittibänz . It's a human shaped sweet bread very similar to the braided Zopf bread  but a bit sweeter and of course smaller. However, instead of baking a Santa Claus shaped bread roll, I decided to try my hand on baking a bunny shaped bread roll . You may call the result Zopfhäsli  (which basically means  Zopf i...

In Switzerland, January 6th is called ' Dreikönigstag' which simply translates into Three Kings Day . According to Christian tradition, this was the day the three kings went to visit baby Jesus in Bethlehem and brought him precious gifts. From a biblical perspective it is unlikely that there were exactly three kings and that their visit took place in January. Today, Three Kings Day isn't really about the biblical story anymore but rather about the traditional Three Kings Cake , called ' Dreikönigskuchen',  that everyone in Switzerland eats on that day. Three Kings Cake What is  a Swiss Three Kings Cake? Three Kings Cake is actually much like a sweet bread called 'Zopf' that Swiss people eat on Sundays. Therefore, the taste of the cake is not very special but its shape makes it interesting . Three Kings Cake is made from six balls of dough that are stuck to a bigger central ball of dough and then baked into one piece. Before baking, a ' ki...

Imagine this: It's morning in Switzerland and you are very hungry. And - adding to your sorrow - you discover that your fridge is not exactly full. As you go through the content of your fridge you consider possible breakfast or lunch scenarios: Yoghurt with cereal Tomatoes  Various condiments (mustard, mayonnaise, etc,)  Pickles Except for the first option, I highly doubt any of these things will make a good breakfast or lunch. Luckily, most people in Switzerland always have a few potatoes in store and these will definitely help make a good meal. Let me introduce a tasty and very Swiss breakfast dish : Rösti or Röschti (pronounced  [ ˈrøːʃti ]) . Swiss Rösti - w.r.wagner / pixelio.de What is Rösti? Rösti is a tasty dish very similar to potato pancakes or latkes. It is made from grated raw or cooked potatoes and baked in a pan until it is golden and just a bit crunchy. You can add cubes of bacon, grated cheese or even eggs to the mixture to give it some...

During lunch with friends, we started to discuss different kinds of food and drink that are similar but different . For example, Pepsi Coke and Coca Cola are similar in look and ingredients but many people find they are very different in taste. Another good example would be the German ' Krapfen ' and the Jewish ' Sufganyah '. Both are round jelly doughnuts filled with jam but they're still not exactly the same thing. At some point during this conversation, we also started talking about a Swiss dish that would fit well into this list: the Swiss Omelette . In a way, this omelette is quite similar to other omelettes prepared and eaten all over the world but at the same it's very different too. What makes the Swiss Omelette different from other omelettes? It is true that Americans and Brits also frequently prepare omelettes. Yet, their omelette is quite different from what we Swiss call an omelette . And although it can be eaten with sweet filling, a Swiss om...

Can you tell that weather has been getting colder and rainier here in Switzerland? It seems that people are generally more interested in food, especially warm and sweet food, during the wintery season. Maybe its simply that time of the year, where you are drawn to experiment in the kitchen rather than wanting to go outside and get muddy - although that can be fun too . When it's cold outside we Swiss like to drink and eat warm stuff.   Cheese fondue and chocolate fondue are winter classics as are hot roasted chestnuts . Another popular Swiss snack or treat is Magenbrot . What is Magenbrot? Magenbrot are square sized, chunky pieces of pastry that contain cloves, cinnamon, anise and nutmeg. It is usually sold on street fairs or Christmas markets during fall and winter time. The two biggest retail stores Coop and Migros are now also selling Magenbrot in half-kilo bags. Magenbrot - lichtkunst.73  / pixelio.de Supposedly, the spices used in Magenbrot are good fo...

Zopf, a Swiss braided bread - tokamuwi  / pixelio.de It is a beautiful Sunday morning and there is no better way to start a Sunday than with an extended Swiss breakfast . In Switzerland, there is one ingredient that cannot be missing from a Sunday morning meal: fresh plaited bread, called ' Zopf' . This bread is absolutely delicious with honey or strawberry jam or just about any other topping! Since there is quite a bit of butter in the bread we sometimes refer to it as ' Butterzopf ' as well. Zopf is a bread made from slightly sweetened yeast dough. It actually is quite similar in shape and taste to the Challah bread that Jewish people eat on Shabbat. Most people buy their Zopf at the local supermarket but some still bake their own plaited bread. My mom used to bake a big Zopf every Saturday afternoon so it would be ready for breakfast on Sunday. If you're not living in Switzerland you have no choice but to make your own Zopf if you fancy one for your breakf...