As we all know, food is an important part of life. On top of its ability to keep us from starving to death, which is one of its main attractions, food is one of the defining factors of culture, identity, and waistlines. What is American food? Burgers, fries, apple pie, potato chips, pizza, meat loaf, tuna casserole. Even specific regions have their own culinary identities, whether real or stereotypical. Californians love their alfalfa sprouts, New Yorkers love their hot dogs, Texans love their beef, and Southerners deep-fry everything.
The same applies to Switzerland. Get ready for your new dietary staples!! Because they are Swiss, the Swiss will only eat certain foods at certain times of year, because everything needs to go according to its proper schedule. Summertime is warm, sunny, and perfect for cookouts with friends. When shopping, head straight to the sausage section. Sausage, sausage, and nothing but sausage. Yum! If you don’t feel like having a hot meal, you can make a delicious and balanced sausage salad: take two kinds of pre-cooked sausage, chop them up, throw in cubes of cheese, some mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper, and you’re all set. If you want some color, add some diced tomatoes or apples, but not too much, or you’ll ruin the sausage-y goodness!
At any time of year, you can have rösti. Take some day-old boiled potatoes, grate them, and fry them up with some onions, cheese, milk, salt, and pepper, into a big, soggy hash brown. You can top it with some meat and gravy. Just like Mom used to make, right?
Wintertime is approaching, so it’s time for fondue and raclette!! Raclette is slices of potato, grilled with some cheese and maybe some onions and ham. Fondue, as you know, is a big pot of melted cheese, which you dip bread or potatoes into. If it’s made right, it should smell, as one Swiss friend described it, like you took dirty, wet gym socks and squeezed them into the pot. In the mountains, McDonald’s serves up, you guessed it, McFondue, which I’m guessing is not good enough to smell like nasty gym socks.
If you hadn’t noticed already, you can make almost every Swiss dish with sausage, cheese, potatoes, and onions. If you want to try something off the beaten path, however, restaurants serve horsemeat. I’m sure it comes with a side of potatoes and cheese.
For non-Swiss food, you have plenty of enticing (by enticing, I mean puzzling) options. Want some pad thai? It is served, obviously, at the Chinese restaurant, since it is Thai food. Hummus is considered exotic, and has been upgraded from New York’s take on hummus. You don’t buy it at the green grocer and eat it in front of the TV with carrots. You order it in the restaurant, and it comes as a stand-alone dish. California rolls are considered to be real sushi, despite their lack of sushi-ness. I think that the source of the problem is that few ethnic foods are centered around sausage, cheese, and potatoes, so the Swiss aren’t quite sure how to make them.
The same applies to Switzerland. Get ready for your new dietary staples!! Because they are Swiss, the Swiss will only eat certain foods at certain times of year, because everything needs to go according to its proper schedule. Summertime is warm, sunny, and perfect for cookouts with friends. When shopping, head straight to the sausage section. Sausage, sausage, and nothing but sausage. Yum! If you don’t feel like having a hot meal, you can make a delicious and balanced sausage salad: take two kinds of pre-cooked sausage, chop them up, throw in cubes of cheese, some mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper, and you’re all set. If you want some color, add some diced tomatoes or apples, but not too much, or you’ll ruin the sausage-y goodness!
At any time of year, you can have rösti. Take some day-old boiled potatoes, grate them, and fry them up with some onions, cheese, milk, salt, and pepper, into a big, soggy hash brown. You can top it with some meat and gravy. Just like Mom used to make, right?
Wintertime is approaching, so it’s time for fondue and raclette!! Raclette is slices of potato, grilled with some cheese and maybe some onions and ham. Fondue, as you know, is a big pot of melted cheese, which you dip bread or potatoes into. If it’s made right, it should smell, as one Swiss friend described it, like you took dirty, wet gym socks and squeezed them into the pot. In the mountains, McDonald’s serves up, you guessed it, McFondue, which I’m guessing is not good enough to smell like nasty gym socks.
If you hadn’t noticed already, you can make almost every Swiss dish with sausage, cheese, potatoes, and onions. If you want to try something off the beaten path, however, restaurants serve horsemeat. I’m sure it comes with a side of potatoes and cheese.
For non-Swiss food, you have plenty of enticing (by enticing, I mean puzzling) options. Want some pad thai? It is served, obviously, at the Chinese restaurant, since it is Thai food. Hummus is considered exotic, and has been upgraded from New York’s take on hummus. You don’t buy it at the green grocer and eat it in front of the TV with carrots. You order it in the restaurant, and it comes as a stand-alone dish. California rolls are considered to be real sushi, despite their lack of sushi-ness. I think that the source of the problem is that few ethnic foods are centered around sausage, cheese, and potatoes, so the Swiss aren’t quite sure how to make them.
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