Swiss Food

Swiss food incorporates considerably more then fondue and raclette. As Switzerland functions as the crossroads of Europe, its cuisine features influences from France, Germany, Italy, and other areas further afield. Traditional Swiss food is simple, filling, and very good: food designed to keep you going up that rocky mountain pass or down that ski run. The tenets of Swiss cuisine are cheese, potatoes, and meat (generally beef) - these basic elements can be tweaked to produce up market treats, or can be consumed by the side of the trail during ambitious tramping trips. Cheese is perhaps Switzerland's most impressive export: everyone knows Emmental, Gruyère, Vacherin, and Appenzeller cheeses and for good reason.

Raclette and fondue are Switzerland's most famous imports insofar as cooking methods, but there's more to be had. Rösti , a dish produced of grated potatoes and served with various meats, is one of Switzerland's favorite eats. Birchermueseli - you may know it as granola - is another beloved Swiss treat, and seems to turn up just about everywhere. (Birchermuesli, incidentally, was invented by one Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner (1867-1939) - you may blame or thank him depending on how your preferences sit). Far as meats go, the slightly pale but good sausage called Cervelat is widely adored (and is often tossed into salads with strong cheese,) as well as brundnerfleisch, a savory and extremely good sort of dried beef.

My host in Wil, Vreni, is an excellent Swiss cook, and I enjoyed quite a few Swiss specialities during my stay in Wil. Here's an overview.



This rosti (a dish made of pan-fried shaved potatoes) was served with Vreni's take on Züri gschnätzeltes, a traditional dish prepared from meat,often veal but in this case chicken, red wine, cream, and mushrooms.



This is a leek tart, prepared with leeks cooked in cream, onions, and bacon, then put into a puff pastry crust and baked.



Milk rice is a common Swiss treat, and is often served as a hearty and sweet dinner time dish. It's prepared rather like a sweet risotto - milk is cooked with rice for a long time, necessitating a lot of stirring. There are huge quantities of sugar put in near the end of cooking, making this delicious indeed. To accompany the rice, cherries are stewed with more sugar for a while, producing an excellent compote.



This is a delicious dish of baked Spätzle, a traditional dumpling produced of flour, egg, and salt. Although they are associated primarily with Germany, they are eaten with gusto in Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and France/Alsace. Vreni prepared these with some boiled vegetables of various varieties and some cheese (tasted like Emmentaler). This was baked in the oven for about 20 minutes or so and served. Delicious.



One night we dined on meat and cheeses - just about the perfect spread for Switzerland. Here are an assortment of cheeses. I particularly enjoyed the sort with the dried fruit in the middle and the slightly reddish one - this is prepared with rosehips.



A very fetching meat plate. The dark colored stuff is Bündnerfleisch, Switzerland's beloved dried beef. There's also salami and ham, which are popular in Switzerland, with some varieties produced in-country.


Other interesting Swiss food things -

Ovalmatine is the same as America's Ovaltine, a kind of malted chocolate drink popular with children. It's delicious sprinkled on a cappuccino. Incidentally, the reason we know this stuff as Ovaltine in the USA is because a spelling error occurred on the packaging of the first imports many moons ago. Go figure.

Aromat is a beloved Swiss seasoning, often sprinkled on cucumbers but used on pretty much everything consumed by hardcore fans. (Probably would suck on ice cream). Aromat tastes to me sort of like a more complex celery salt. The ingredients include salt, MSG, dried porcini mushrooms, dried onions, turmeric, caramel color, and lactose, and tastes much better then that combination sounds.

Rivella is a curious beast indeed: a soda pop made out of milk whey and infused with delicious lactose, lactic acid, and minerals. It is definitely an acquired taste but I liked it: a soda with an almost cheesy sort of undertone. There are four varieties: red is classic, green has green tea in it, yellow is produced with soy, and blue is low-calorie.