Irish garden - Photo by an Irish-American editor living in Geneva

Geneva, Switzerland – Green beer, green sweaters, green hats and green water surround me. I have not gone color-blind by greenness, it’s Saint Paddy’s day!

Geneva, and surrounding areas, are joining in the celebration with a few, must-not-miss events for those who like to party:

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Bread classes in Geneva

Geneva, Switzerland – Today’s Geneva tip will not burn a hole in your pocket but might leave your mouth watering. Learn how to bake your own Swiss-style bread. Once a month the Association des Amis du Four à Pain Saconnésien, loosely translated as Saconnex’s Bread Oven Friends Association, provides a 4-hour course on how to bake the perfect loaf.

The classes are taught in French by expert, local boulangers and help you to prepare, sponge, knead, rise and bake a perfect loaf. This month’s feature is cream and honey bread – also known as torsadé. In April, learn to make the bee’s nest, or Nid d’abeille.

Each class is CHF20, which is only CHF5/hour: now that’s a bargain. Register right away as courses fill up quickly! Other courses will include Neuchatel-style bread.

Find out what’s up in Geneva through my Twitter channel, which has additional tips about Geneva, or subscribe to this blog by using our RSS feed. You can also subscribe to get it by e-mail, it takes two seconds, and it’s just as easy to unsubscribe at any time!

This is a Chinese 100 year old egg. Most of us prefer them fresher.

Geneva, Switzerland – And today’s question is: are your eggs fresh? That is easy to tell. All you need to do is to visit the “what’s on your egg” website and enter the number printed on the egg. The results will tell you when it was put on the shelf, where it came from, and how the mother hen lived until the day she popped that egg: free range, in the barn or battery raised.

The site tracks down all EU eggs, but not Swiss eggs.  Don’t despair: the Migros supermarket’s site allows you to search your egg’s background and postal code information. Read more…

Find the season's veggies in Geneva

Geneva, Switzerland – What do you get if you mix: Local produce, food shopping, the internet and a bicycle? Before I answer this question, I have to say it came to my mind after reading my colleague’s (Jonell) blog about cardoons being in season. It reminded me of three  things: Read more…

Ismael food guru in Geneva

Geneva, Switzerland – For me one of the great things in Geneva is shopping at “Ismael’s.” I am not talking about a fancy shop but rather a very friendly vegetable and fruit vendor that comes to my neighborhood twice a week.

All fresh, edible things found in my house come from the mobile stall that he sets up in Saint-Jean every Tuesday and Friday.

Ismael Novoa has been my veggie guru in Geneva since we moved to Switzerland. “That’s called Choux and it is very commonly used in Geneva for hearty winter soups,” he says in his thick Galician accent. Once I grabbed a bunch of heavy, pale green pears which I thought would make a great snack for my constantly hungry daughter.

”No,” he chuckled.

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Did you know the number of smokers in Switzerland, aged 14 to 65, has lowered from 29% in 2007 to 27% in 2008? In a similar trend, teenagers also smoked less in 2008 at 23% versus a staggering 31% in 2001.

Now the million dollar question: if the number of smokers is much lower than 50% then why are most restaurants in Geneva and other parts of Switzerland still  buried in a haze of smoke? Well, I guess that is a question for another blog, but fortunately, there is an ever growing number of smoke-free places in Geneva. But, do you know how to find them?

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One of my favorite websites is GenevaLunch. -I know I’m not an impartial party, but it is true-. Recently I was looking for a fun gift idea in Geneva, when I found the following in the 2006 archives:

• For the gourmet in your life, with the l’assiette Genevoise card, you pay SFr80 and can eat in some 70 restaurants for half price during a year.

A Calabazita platter, a typical New Mexican (U.S.) plate

Now, that’s a deal!

I decided to find out if this offer is still valid and I found out that not only is it valid, but it has been enhanced.

A few things have changed though. The price of the card has increased from CHF80 to CHF90 per year but it now includes 82 restaurants in canton Geneva instead of 70.

The formula is simple: present the card at participating restaurants and receive 50% off your bill, based on a party of two diners. If that were not incentive enough, consider that the deal can be shared because the card is not marked!

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