From Switzerland to France....

It was time on our family's three week trip around through (some of) Europe to start the truckloads of driving we were going to do. From where we were in Schiers (an hour and a half from Zurich), we were planning to drive straight down south, through Italy (passing by Milan) and to Bargemon, a small village about an hour out of Nice.

It was a surprisingly enjoyable ride, my parents and I each took turns to drive, got to actually drive at 130 kph! Except downhill...on a windy mountain road. So I might've slowed down a bit there, but the autobahn in Switzerland is an absolute pleasure to drive on and the Volkswagen we had rented was so easy to drive!

Driving through Switzerland, as I may have mentioned before, is an absolute pleasure, I cannot stop gasping in awe at the snow capped mountains and just the majesty of it all!

Giant Lindt bunnies...only in Switzerland I guess? Sigh....

We were recommended to stop by Locarno, which ended up being a bit of a detour as the traffic going in and out from the autobahn to Locarno was quite heavy. One of the biggest lakes in southern Switzerland can be found here, and it is quite pretty, but the town itself was just very touristy and not particularly appealing to my family and I. So unless Locarno is really in your way, I wouldn't recommend making a side trip really.

It was interesting driving down from 'German' Switzerland, which is more to the north and east, to 'Italian' Switzerland which is predominately more the southern region of Switzerland. I find the orderliness and systematic feeling, which I quite like, that I get from the German side, is not so apparently in the Italian side. It's a little bit scruffier, a little bit more worn around the edges.

That and it's bizarre to see a complete change in languages on some of the signs. Quite confusing.

On our last toilet stop just before we crossed the border from Switzerland to Italy, we went to McDonalds and I had to try the McFlurry. Because it wasn't just any McFlurry, but in Switzerland, McDonalds had partnered with Magnum to make Magnum flavoured McFlurry's! I had seem them advertised on billboards in my first few days and I was super excited. You'll have to understand, McFlurry's are my favourite thing after drinking. Some people like their kebabs, some people like other fried and oily delicious things, but I'm a sweet tooth. I want a McFlurry.

Seriously, Australia needs to get onto it though. Was hips-wideningly delicious.

After a long 6-7 hour drive, a lot of karaoke (mostly dad and I) and a lot of swiss chocolate later, our friends in France met us at a tollway exit and escorted us to their place. This is the village that they live next to, Bargemon. Isn't it the cutest looking thing? The Beckhams have a holiday home around here too, they weren't visiting when we were around though....ah well...

Their house is just beautiful.

I learnt on the trip, that rose wines are particularly famous in Provence and everyone that Barry gave us, I thoroughly enjoyed.

Every night that we were in Provence, Catherine treated us to the most amazing home made meals. (Yes finally getting on to the food stuff...) I loved how traditional and orderly she would be very night about setting the dining table, even with simple, but cheerfully coloured plates, it looked so neat and dressed up, it was quite comforting.

For our first night, we were presented with an amazing fish soup which is possibly the most delicious I've ever had. It was aromatic, thick and just delicious. The way you ate it was you popped in a few pieces of the sliced baguette, sprinkle some cheese over it and then dollop some spicy aioli over it. Then proceed to go all mushy with joy as it softens and melts into your soup. It was the perfect thing to warm you up on a cold night.

I forgot to take a picture of it (yeee!) but to follow the soup, we had a home made beef bourguignon, which came in a massive black pot. It was so alcoholic, but so tender and delicious.

I remember, as we were still suffering from jetlag, almost passing out at the table after the meal started to happily digest in my stomach.

Switzerland - Eating with Friends

My blog is slowly turning from a food/restaurant review blog into a travel blog! Although I suppose that's inevitable as a travelling foodie, have to share all the goodies I get to devour no?

So it's just another day in Switzerland, more countryside and getting stuck behind tractors going at 40 kilometres and hour. On our third day in Switzerland, after a quick trip to Zug station for a somewhat business related meeting (can never fully escape that grind...), and picking up some adorable macarons from Sprungli, we drove to my old classmate's house (Izzy) to have lunch with their family. When I say old classmate, I mean old, we were classmate's and neighbours in primary school when I was still back in Hong Kong, so well over 12 years ago now! It's so wonderful to have friends all over the world...

They have the most gorgeous house in the hills, that's right on the edge of a lake. Like literally. The last time I was here my Izzy's brother had just jumped into the lake for a swim. Although it was a tad too cold this time.

They had us over for a barbeque, isn't their old school barbeque cute? With a lil smoke chimney and all? Love, love, love!

The food was plentiful, but not overly indulgent, and when you're with good company, the food is always tastier. Don't you think?

Although that was a serious slab of meat. They cooked two of them, plus some delicious veal. Mmm!

Izzy's father used to work for Movenpick, so they're always very well stocked! And I found it so interesting, I don't think I've ever met a more particular connoisseur of ice-cream before! He made sure the ice-cream came out a little after we finished lunch, so that they had time to soften, warm up a little to the right temperature and make sure they were the right consistency to eat.

It's amazing how much difference it makes, I've had Movenpick in Melbounre once or twice and been a bit underwhelmed at it. However when you do let it soften, it really is absolutely creamy and rich. Something else I didn't really realise initially until he mentioned it was that all their flavours have some of the actual flavour ingredient in the ice-cream, so chocolate obviously has chocolate, their caramelita flavour (which I LOVE) has small chunks of soft caramel candy in it, so on and so forth.

So amazing. I ate so much ice-cream that afternoon, it wasn't funny. It's amazing how many little scoops of different flavours fill you up...

Izzy and her mum had gone down to Zurich to pick up these adorable (and naturally delicious cupcakes), I don't have the name of the bakery but I'm sure I can always find out...

These are the macarons we picked up from Sprungli, (which has some connection with Lindt), which are delicious. It's interesting in Melbourne that they are sold at cost per piece, but in Switzerland, they are sold by weight! Which seems a little surprising as they are so beautifully uniform in shape. The macarons from Sprungli are about half the diameter of the macarons I'm used to seeing in Melbourne (although they're probably about the size of the macarons you get at EARL canteen or Le Petit Gateau), but absolutely stuffed with filling.

They were all so delicious, the texture was just beautiful, light...mmmmmm.

Ah travels. You finish one meal and then you're immediately shepherded off to the next one, we drove back to our host's house in Schiers....for yet another barbeque! I think I had barely enough time to finish digesting from the first meal!

We had an absolute plethora of fresh salads, I loved how bright and colourful everything was!

This is a special bread that's had especially around Easter (it was Easter Saturday), home made by our host's sister, just look how beautifully glossy it is!

Bratwurst and chicken wings. Sorry Australia, your sausages cannot compare the the deliciousness of veal bratwurst. Those guys seriously swelled up while getting grilled, they were about half the size uncooked!

And to finish up, a home made lemon cake. Yum yum.

It's interesting eating in Switzerland, the breakfast's are typically cold, the lunches are usually the biggest and warmest meal of the day, the dinners tend to be quite light. As you can see mainly with one protein and a bunch of salads. And surprisingly, they really make just enough to finish, whenever our Swiss friends have cooked for us, we've always finished everything without any leftover's. That's something Asians have always spectacularly failed at, with one meal lasting for a few days after....

Davos - Switzerland - Schneiders Backerei

Davos.

If you google, the first thing that comes up? The World Economic Forum, which is I suppose a pretty big thing and it makes sense it's held somewhere so remote, this town is really one way in up the hill, one way out down the hill!

We visited Davos with our host's siblings on Easter Friday, since it is big enough and slightly touristy enough to have people, there was bound to be something open for lunch (and it's a pretty place).

Davos is also well known for ski resorts, it's 1500m above sea level (where we were staying in Schiers was 800m above sea level). There was still quite a bit of snow on the mountains, but not in Davos itself, so it was quite bizarre to see people, on a blue sunny sky type of day, to be in full skiing gear, walking around in their ski boots!

Our host's initially wanted to take us to one place, but it ended up being closed, so we ended up at Schneider's which belonged to one of their friends, and we later discovered that it is quite a well known bakery with a couple of specialities.

We were initially going to sit outside, but the sun was quite strong and we didn't really want to contend with the smokers. This was of course, not an issue, as inside was absolutely charming. And yellow.

I was pleasantly surprised they had an English menu, although it did bring on a couple of laughs with the Engrish. A serve of diabetes for anyone...?

When I ordered apple cider, I wasn't quite expecting such a large bottle! I easily got 3 or 4 glasses out of it and had to share it around with my parents as I was getting a little bit tipsy (being Asian I can be a lightweight...at times. Body's a bit funny like that).

It was lovely though, in comparison to the Australian apple ciders, it was not as sweet and definitely not as gassy, which made it easy to drink, hence me getting tipsy. Makes sense right?

My brother and dad ordered the meal of the day, which came with this lovely green salad to start. I'm not sure what most of you call this salad leaf, but my mum and I always refer to it as lamb's ear (because of the shape, not the taste you weirdo's!), which is something I came across quite often in Switzerland (it's not as easy to find in Melbourne). With a bit of mayo, a bit of egg and some tasty, crisp Swiss cheese it was quite delicious and delicate. I was suitably impressed.

Their salad's were then followed with this. Ehm. Where'd the refined touch go?! Although to be fair, both my dad and brother ordered it because of the 'wasabi potatoes' that were served next to a fish, our host's weren't able to find an English word for it (if it exists) as it was a local fish.

The fish itself was lovely, sweet and well cooked, but the wasabi potatoes, other than looking radically nuclear in all their neon green glory, had no hint of wasabi in them at all, which would have otherwise been awesome. (If you ask me anyway)

Feeling a tiny bit bloated from all the chocolate I had the day before, I opted for a soup and was recommended this one as it was something local from Davos. On the menu it was called 'homemade Grissons barley soup with Viennese sausages'. Grissons? No idea.

Delicious though? Absolutely. It was an extremely hearty soup. I absolutely loved the barley in it and the sausages added a delicious amount of savoury. It's supposedly well known for it's nutrition level, being filled with barley and vegetables and what not. Normally I am more of a fan of creamy blended soups, but the chunkiness provided by the barley made a very appropriate alternative.

So while I might have been a bit bloated from chocolate....when I saw this on the menu I knew I had to have it. And just as well, I haven't come across it since, since apparently it's coming out of the season to have Mont Blanc's. It's typically a winter dessert since it's a bit 'heavier'. But yes. I love my sweet pureed chestnut like nothing else. I'm so sad this isn't seen around in Melbourne more often and I really don't remember the last time I had this (probably sometime in Tokyo...).

For those not in the know, it's basically 'vermicelli', which is pureed chestnut...noodles would be the best description, with a bit of cream and with this one, they put crunchy crunchy meringues underneath the chestnut.

All in all? Perfection. I was happy. My tastebuds were dancing.

I didn't understand why they added a few grapes to it though...

Dad got a variation of the Mont Blanc with ice-cream instead.

And my brother got a 'Mini' Banana Split. How the heck is that mini sized?!?!

After our lovely meal, we popped (or rolled) into the bakery next door to look at their delicacies. I forgot to take pictures (bad me), but they do a fruit bread, which is almost like christmas pudding with pears that they're famous for. They're about 30 centimetres in length and weight like a kilogram. It's ridiculous.

They're also very well known in Davos for their 'Bunder Nusstorte' (imagine the 'u' in Bunder has two dots over it), I'm not sure how to describe it, but there's a light flaky, biscuity pastry all around it. Upon cutting into it inside, it's pretty much just caramel and nuts. It's delicious.

After walking around a little bit to aid in lunch digestion, we drove down the windy roads again and drank in more beautiful scenery. In the pictures above is where the wealthy buy their holiday homes to go skiing in the winter or hiking in the summer.

Prince Charles is apparently at this hotel every year when he comes up to go skiing.

All in all, a lovely lunch and whilst I may not suggest staying overnight in Davos (unless you're important enough for the World Economic Forum or like skiing), it's definitely a lovely drive up and down. And Schneider's ain't bad either.

Mmmm Nusstorte.

Schneider's

Promenade 68 · CH-7270 Davos Platz