eG Foodblog: Boris_A - A life in a week, a week in a life

[Boris_A]

I might do the Alain Chapel book of which i have a copy -- it would be slightly dodgy from a copyright point of view though -- too much to be fair use.

Great!

Wrt. to fair use, let's just extract one or two small portions. The "Cuisine is much more than recipes" motto is so wonderfully expressed in that preface.

[cakewench]

I've had very little time for eG lately (frantic shuttling between Köln and Amsterdam - apartment hunting in the latter is a pain in the... ), and haven't even read most of this blog yet, but I wanted to pop in and say how excited I am that you're doing one, Boris!

You're one of the first people to have replied to one of my sad posts. I believe it had to do with Bircher muesli, off in our quiet "Elsewhere In Europe" corner of eG.

Boris brings ordnung back to the blogs! (I'm still trying to get through Mongo's! It did inspire me to inflict some red chili-based curry on the inlaws, though. He should be ashamed, really...)

[Boris_A]

Gruezi, Boris!

My parents have lived in Ebikon for 35 years, so I know Switzerland rather well. My grandmother's chalet is in Hasliberg.

Can you talk a little about Hobelkase? I have always enjoyed that. And about the chocolate industry! What is your favorite brand?

Danke viel mals!

Salü and Grüezi foodie!

Hobelkäse it's a full fat, well matured (up to three years!) cheese.

Sbrinz (i have explained a bit about it and I love it immensly, even when my grandfather was a ... Parmigiano (!) citizen, that is, not cheese, ) is the most widespread cheese suited for planing.

The most delicate and typical Hobelkäse comes from the "Berner Oberland". That's the frontier region just before the mountain peaks (Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, for instance) are elevating up to 12000 ft.

This kind of cheese is produced mainly during summer times in many small valleys around there. They got their names from the names of these valleys (a typical AOC case). They all are slightly different, and their aromatic profile can overlap, to make things easier to understand.

For me, the more mature ones have a slightly waxy taste and I prefer to consume it paired with white wine, which balances a bit that "oldish" taste.

As for chocolate brands, my preferences go more with the individual type of the produces by chocolate brands, not so much with the brand itself.

I like "Suchard de Luxe", "Frigor", "Lindt Crémant" and "Toblerone" as the most widely known. But I suspect that nowadays, the recipes vary from country to country.

Mit dä beschte Wünsch, Boris

Edited June 24, 2004 by Boris_A (log)

[Boris_A]

but I wanted to pop in and say how excited I am that you're doing one, Boris!

You're one of the first people to have replied to one of my sad posts.  I believe it had to do with Bircher muesli, off in our quiet "Elsewhere In Europe" corner of eG. 

Boris brings ordnung back to the blogs! 

Thank you, cakewench!

Switzerland is a nation of will, and I'm a Swiss of will (hey, almost all my ancestors are or have been foreigners here). We are very serious people, unless we had some wine and are sitting together.

[ludja]

Just came back from visiting my fisherman.

Dinner will be whitefish (powan?) "poêlée" with some basilic infused butter, steamed rice and sauteed string beans. Dessert a local, very popular pastry bought at the bakery.

For wine, we'll take a bottle of "Räuschling", a native white wine variety. Almost unknown outside of our region.

Sounds like a wonderful supper... I would love to hear more about the pastry... ("local and very popular" sounds interesting)

Was it customary in Switzerland to have the biggest meal midday as in other parts of Europe? Does this persist at all nowadays?

Some family of mine in Europe still come home from work midday to have the big meal then...

[Boris_A]

Escoffier remarks

"Poelings are, practically speaking, roasts, for the cooking periods are the same , except that the former are cooked entirel or almost entirely with butter....

It is of paramount importance that these are not moistened during the process of cooking, for in that case they would be the same as braised meats"

Very interesting.

Essentially, that boils down to the problem that fish, poultry and something like veal liver are "sweating" moisture when roasted. Therefore you need a heat source which is capable to develop a lot of energy stream in order to take away that moisture. I'd like to hear slkinsey's opinion on that particular method of cooking.

[Boris_A]

I would love to hear more about the pastry...  ("local and very popular" sounds interesting)

It's a rather dull thing:

It's called "cream slice". There are 3-4 layers of puff pastry with filled with a firm vanilla sauce and covered with icing. It's all about the consistency and taste of the vanilla filling.

It's not really local or regional in it's layout, but it's different from similar pastries I had abroad.

It's a Swiss-German signatur pastry. A bakery can gain not much when doing it well, and loose a lot when screwing up. If a village has two bakeries, the way they do this simple thing can be a divider for the population.

As I said, many bakeries have a coffe bar attached. This is a typical "little piece" (as we call such kind of pastries). You buy it in the bakery shop and it gets served in the bar. So if not done well, the bakery is loosing on the coffee bar also.

Here are btw, typical bread and buns.

The croissant (a bit a distorted instance here) and the bun at the right are the classic bun you eat with a morning coffee.

The bread in the background is about 1 lb. It's made by relatively dark flour. It's of firm consistency, not unlike the bread you get in Austria or Germany. It's one of the most badly missed thing, when people are living outside these countries for a longer time. A friend of mine living now in the Toscana buys regularly a bunch of such bread when going home after a visit.

[Boris_A]

Was it customary in Switzerland to have the biggest meal midday as in other parts of Europe?  Does this persist at all nowadays?

I think so. When I was a kid, many dinners had been just "café complet", essentialy a like an real breakfast, or something like Müesli.

Does this persist at all nowadays?

That's gone, except in families with really young kids.

The people here have a speedy way of life. I remember a study that measured the "value" of time in economic capitals in different countries. One of the criterias they applied was precision of clocks in public and semipublic places, the other was pedestrian speed in the inner cities.

The clocks here in Zürich were - not astonishingly - by far the most precise, and walking speed was second or third rank. They hurry all the time.

[Boris_A]

would love to hear more about the pastry...  ("local and very popular" sounds interesting)

But now I remember a pastry (rather a pie) really exclusive: "Appenzeller Biberflade":

With Google, I could find Swiss links only.

It's from the north-eastern part of Switzerland. It is very popular. It can be really "yum". It's a gingerbread variant, and recipes for the filling are true secrets. This inner core is a spicey almond/hazelnut paste.

Do you know such a thing?

Edited June 25, 2004 by Boris_A (log)

[bleudauvergne]

Hobelkäse it's a full fat, well matured (up to three years!) cheese.

Sbrinz (i have explained a bit about it and I love it immensly, even when my grandfather was a ... Parmigiano (!) citizen, that is, not cheese, ) is the most widespread cheese suited for planing.

The most delicate and typical Hobelkäse comes from the "Berner Oberland". That's the frontier region just before the mountain peaks (Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, for instance) are elevating up to 12000 ft.

This kind of cheese is produced mainly during summer times in many small valleys around there. They got their names from the names of these valleys (a typical AOC case). They all are slightly different, and their aromatic profile can overlap, to make things easier to understand.

For me, the more mature ones have a slightly waxy taste and I prefer to consume it paired with white wine, which balances a bit that "oldish" taste.

This is very enticing. I think I may have to take an exploratory cheese tour up into the mountains. I went to the fromagerie on the square next to my house yesterday and asked about Swiss cheeses.

Madame.

Do you have any Swiss cheeses?

huh?

You know, made in the mountains of Switzerland.

Oh. (shrugs).

No? Nothing from Switzerland?

Well, -ahem- madame, judging from the summer which is about to be very hot, I made the decision not to stock them this year.

Yah, ok.

(note: Must plan Swiss cheese excursion soon.)

[Boris_A]

I went to the fromagerie on the square next to my house yesterday and asked about Swiss cheeses.

...

huh?  Oh.  (shrugs).

There's the famous Maître fromagier/affineur Antoine in Alsace. Once he presented cheese at a national (!) cheese fair in Paris and took along some Swiss Gruyère.

During the tasting, someone said " Monsieur, ce n'est pas Français." "Oui", he replied, "mais c'est grand!"

On your excursion, take the road from Aigle over Col des Mosses to L'Etivaz. If you go further in direction to Gstaad, there you should find fromageries offering "Justitaler Hobelkäse" and "Saaner Hobelkäse" in any case. Sbrinz should widely available.

If you go for two days, Gruyère itself is nice to stay. During daytime it's crowded by tourists, but in the evening, it's just a normal, beautiful small town.

And if you dont' like the cheese, the landscape should be enough compensation for the trip. If you are interested in art, watch out for Rossinière and the fondation Balthus.

[ludja]

would love to hear more about the pastry...  ("local and very popular" sounds interesting)

But now I remember a pastry (rather a pie) really exclusive: "Appenzeller Biberflade":

With Google, I could find Swiss links only.

It's from the north-eastern part of Switzerland. It is very popular. It can be really "yum". It's a gingerbread variant, and recipes for the filling are true secrets. This inner core is a spicey almond/hazelnut paste.

Do you know such a thing?

I've never heard about it, but don't know very much about Swiss pastries and cakes. That really does sound unique and delicious though--gingerbread and almond-hazelnut paste!!! You may have created an urge that is difficult to fill! --although needing another "reason" to go back to Switzerland is nice.

A nice Swiss sweet I had over there though was "Birnbrot" or "Pear Bread"-- a yeasted bread filled with a spicy mixture of dried pears, prunes, raisins, figs, walnuts--and things like cinnamon, nutmeg, kirsch and dry red wine... (This also traveled well and I brought some back as gifts).

I have a recipe for this and your thread had now inspired me to mak this sometime (I had forgotton about it).

Another Swiss dessert I recently read about in Maida Heatter's "Cakes" is the "Zuger Kirschtorte" which I also feel compelled to make.

It can be constructed as follows: crisp almond meringue; layer of kirsch buttercream; a 2-in thick, light buttery sponge cake soaked in kirsch syrup; more buttercream another meringue layer and more buttercream. Sides covered w/buttercream and toasted almonds. Top has a simple crosshatch design in the buttercream.

I was at the library yesterday and included my customary stroll past the cookbook section for potential reading--took out "The Swiss Cookbook" by Nika Hazelton and it is pretty good. The desserts although similar in spirit to some in Austria and Germany have some unique interesting themes though... spices, honey, cherries, dried apples and pears, chestnuts, chocolate, almonds and hazelnuts...

Does anyone know of any other good Swiss cookbooks written in English? (or German, potentially) and especially with a good dessert section?

Thanks for a nice blog Boris!

Edited June 25, 2004 by ludja (log)

[ludja]

I would love to hear more about the pastry...  ("local and very popular" sounds interesting)

It's a rather dull thing:

It's called "cream slice". There are 3-4 layers of puff pastry with filled with a firm vanilla sauce and covered with icing. It's all about the consistency and taste of the vanilla filling.

It's not really local or regional in it's layout, but it's different from similar pastries I had abroad.

It's a Swiss-German signatur pastry. A bakery can gain not much when doing it well, and loose a lot when screwing up. If a village has two bakeries, the way they do this simple thing can be a divider for the population.

As I said, many bakeries have a coffe bar attached. This is a typical "little piece" (as we call such kind of pastries). You buy it in the bakery shop and it gets served in the bar. So if not done well, the bakery is loosing on the coffee bar also.

Here are btw, typical bread and buns.

The croissant (a bit a distorted instance here) and the bun at the right are the classic bun you eat with a morning coffee.

The bread in the background is about 1 lb. It's made by relatively dark flour. It's of firm consistency, not unlike the bread you get in Austria or Germany. It's one of the most badly missed thing, when people are living outside these countries for a longer time. A friend of mine living now in the Toscana buys regularly a bunch of such bread when going home after a visit.

Cremeschnitten, simple but not dull...! (I like cream slices as well--and it is basically a simpler cousin of Napoleans which I also think are great!)

Thanks for the photos of the breads as well. It is difficult to move away from good bread... I love the breakfast rolls available in Switzerland, Austria, etc served with some good sweet butter and maybe some honey or apricot jam....

Edited June 25, 2004 by ludja (log)

[Boris_A]

Does anyone know of any other good Swiss cookbooks written in English? (or German, potentially) and especially with a good dessert section?

There's a speciality bookshop for English books in Zurich claiming to offer 30'000 titles. I'm there from time to time to check for English wine books. They might have what you are looking for. I'll ask next time.

[ludja]

Does anyone know of any other good Swiss cookbooks written in English? (or German, potentially) and especially with a good dessert section?

There's a speciality bookshop for English books in Zurich claiming to offer 30'000 titles. I'm there from time to time to check for English wine books. They might have what you are looking for. I'll ask next time.

Thank you... if you do happen to remember I'd be very interested!

[Boris_A]

Made a walk through the shopping area of Zurich City and tried to make some pictures of choclatiers and other shops.

Digi-cams and their operators seem to be out of favour these days, not only with the Pentagon. "Why?, "For whom?", "We have to ask the boss", "Sure it's possible, but you should contact the office first" and so on. Modern times.

But it's not always that way:

Ok, it's not exactly fine dining, but for sure it's good food.

THE classics of grill sausage here. The brown ones are called "Cervelat", the white ones "Sankt-Galler Kalbsbratwurst".

It's a really cool place called Vorderer Sternen Grill. I f you like sausages, visiting this stand is a must.

BTW, there was a thread here about Zurich, and a noble Englishman called the place "simply heaven". I scanned all "Elsewhere" threads, but I couldn't find that threat anymore. Are we loosing threads?

Edited June 25, 2004 by Boris_A (log)

[Boris_A]

As for chocolate, I bought some pralinés and made the pictures at home:

Impressed, eh?

But - if there was a worldwide praliné competition, this walnut-size balls would be a strong contender. These are Sprünglis "Truffe du jour", and the decisive words here are "du jour". Daily made and intended for immediate consumation. 2-3 days in the fridge is possible. But you need a strong will or you bought several pounds. ($40/lb)

Edited June 25, 2004 by Boris_A (log)

[Behemoth]

Ok, it's not exactly fine dining, but for sure it's good food.

THE classics of grill sausage here. The brown ones are called "Cervelat", the white ones "Sankt-Galler Kalbsbratwurst".

It is very cruel to post this picture right before lunchtime. Looks like fine dining to me

[Boris_A]

Why I like so much artisanal produces.

Those who followed a bit my eGullet posts should have noticed that much of my food interest surrounds cheese, wine and cured meat.

For me, these things have something in common: their best representants are artisanal produces and many are fixed to a certain expression and thus remain recognizable. A parmigiano cheese should taste like a parmigiano cheese, a cabernet sauvignon should taste like a cabernet sauvignon, a felino salami taste like a felino salami.

Within the scope of such produces, creativity and innovation of a producer aims not so much at more variety (horizontal enlarging) , but rather at higher refinement of the same process (vertical enlarging). He has to innovate his processes, yet regard the characteristics.

It's a kind of innovation which has more to do with a Kai-Zen approach: stepwise, constant refinement over extended time. And one should not forget that a producer has not only to try to achieve improvement in order to reach his goal of excellence, but has to regard the constant shift in the underlying parameters over time. (pantha rei).

As a consumer, I'm fascinated by the search for superiour or simply different produces within the same species. I feel challenged by the task of compairing such produces. I feel overwhelmed by the depth of the variants, the different techniques, the different terroirs, the subtle change within the range of the same producer over time. And how sometimes the character of a person can be detected in a seemingly same produce. Or to use a metapher: it's more like watching the work of calligraphs than that of painters. In the end, small, hard to notice differences are overweighing the obvious similarities.

[Boris_A]

This evening, two pizzas in front of the tv: one marinara, one a "white" pizza with minuscule quantities of EVOO, rosemary and garlick.

No wine. Yesterday, the Portuguese kicked out England. There are two Portuguese here in the neighbourship. They showed up after the match. We had a very strenuous third half time until "early" in the night. No wine please.

[bloviatrix]

Oh.

My.

God.

Those look divine.

[winesonoma]

Cheese,wine and cured meat works for me also. Great Blog. Blog on.

[helenjp]

There are two truly outstanding pieces of text waiting for a translation. Really!

Boris, really! Trying to push your "I would love to translate this if somebody would just pay me for it" list onto innocent Gulleteers!

I just discovered your blog - congratulations! It almost makes up for the fact that my husband missed the chance to meet you when in Europe this year - the translation software conference was moved to Germany from Zurich, so he just had a quick trip to Ramsen in the clutches of company men the whole way!

He did bring me home a bottle of German wine, though...and a pewter wine cup with a design in heavy relief on the outside. The shop-owner told him they were traditionally used, but in Britain, pewter seems to have been used only for beer and similar drinks. What kinds of cups/glasses are traditionally used for wine in Switzerland?

Your cooktop looks impressive, but I bet it's hot in summer??

[Boris_A]

I  just discovered your blog - congratulations! It almost makes up for the fact that my husband missed the chance to meet you when in Europe this year -

Hello Helen!

Incindentally, this very evening we are going to dine at that restaurant I recommended back then. And I wasn't there since I posted it then!

What kinds of cups/glasses are traditionally used for wine in Switzerland?

There is a tradtitional glas. It's intended for white wine and clearly shows that there was a time when coming together and having a good time was much more important than sniffing, tasting and talking about some liquidity. You used to get your glas, you sipped, you had to say "Ahh, that's a nice wine" and that was it.

I can't really recommend it for wine, of course, except you want to express: "Please no wine talk this evenening". (Hmmmm, OTOH maybe it could be useful to silence some of those non-stop wine talkers):

Here's a picture showing that particual glas shape, and same time, now everybody should know what's the meaning of "planed cheese":

Your cooktop looks impressive, but I bet it's hot in summer??

It's bad, but it's not as catastrophic as we suspected before we bought it.

[petite tête de chou]

Hello Boris. What is your favourite dish to cook? The most joy?