French cuisine.

L’Alhambar

American-style Sunday brunch, with mimosas, Bloody Marys. Nice price.

Calm

Saturday and Sunday brunch from 10H00 to 18H00, including scrambled eggs, pancakes, sandwiches, muesli, bread, croissants, brioches, etc. Garden terrace in summer.

Le Cheval Blanc

All-you-can-eat buffet for CHF 22. Buffet includes bread and jam, pastries, birchermuesli, various kinds of eggs, as well as quiches, original mixed salads, cheese and sausage. Also a selection of desserts. Reservation advisable.

Le Cheval Blanc, Place de l’Octroi 15, 1227 Carouge, tel. +41 022 343 61 61 from 11H00 to 15H00 on Sundays.

Here is a great double-chocolate walnut biscotti recipe by Patricia Turo, born into an Italian family in the US, but now living in the Klosters ski resort in Switzerland. This recipe is therefore more in the spirit of Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.

Be careful about the quality of chocolate you use: Avoid buying the American chocolate chips in a bag. You’d be better off buying a bar of dark chocolate from your favorite local (Swiss) chocolate maker and crumbling it up into bits. The same goes for the cocoa powder. Make sure it is good quality, preferably from a good chocolate maker.

To convert the measurements, refer to How to convert measurements for American recipes.

I spend a lot of time reading, researching and tweeting about food and restaurants these days, so I thought I’d jot down my tweets from the last few days. These are from both The Rambling Epicure and Swiss Foodies and should give you an overview of what’s going on in the foodie world this week.

These tweets are often focused on Switzerland, but also include a lot of links to Swiss, French, German, British, American, Canadian and other research on food.

This week was the countdown to Valentine’s Day, so I listed oodles of Valentine’s dinners, weekend packages at hotels and chocolate shops. You can find the Valentine’s venues I tweeted last week in the 20 Valentine venues, posted earlier this week.

Sometimes I couldn’t resist writing about the snow and skiing conditions, because that determines how a lot of us in Switzerland plan our weekends, and therefore what restaurants we go to or what recipes we cook up. And of course occasionally, watches and Alinghi . . .

Remember, these are just tweets

Remember these are just tweets, so they are short and sweet. They are not particularly orderly; I just tweeted the information as I found it.

I suggest you skim over the headings, and if you’re interested, just click on any of the links that interest you in order to read the detailed article.

Who knows, this might even tempt you to start tweeting yourself!

This week’s tweet list

Valentine’s

20 Valentine venues: restaurants, chocolate and hotel packages for the “big day”!

Valentine’s events in La Gruyère.

Valentine’s package at Bernard Ravet, CHF500, hotel, champagne, 9-course dinner, breakfast for two, Relais & Châteaux.

Restaurants in French-speaking Switzerland w/ Valentine’s specials; just click on your canton! NOT TESTED BY THE RAMBLING EPICURE.

GenevaLunch: Lake Geneva Valentine’s cruise.

Ramada Geneva offering Valentine’s Day brunch as well as candelit dinner.

Hôtel des Armures in Geneva: special Valentine’s package, rooms, champagne, breakfast and chocolate.

Valentine’s package at Hotel Royal Geneva. Le Duo, chic delish restaurant & brasserie, chef trained by Bernard Loiseau.

Jamie Oliver’s Valentine’s Day menu, along with recipes and tips for a romantic feast.

GenevaLunch: Valentine’s for the “older” crowd.

Chocolate

Salt on chocolate, chocolate on salt, chocolate fondue & fruit. A great post about mixing chocolate with other flavors.

Swiss ate less and cheaper chocolate as part of 2009 belt-tightening.

Sweet chocolate dreams package at Lausanne Palace, room, spa, chocolate class.

Photo courtesy of Southern Living.

Restaurants

Bombay-born masterchef Vineet Bhatia of the Geneva restaurant Rasoi By Vineet, which has a Michelin star, is off to culinary festival in Abu Dhabi.

Have you checked out the Metropolitan Truffles Burger at the Café Métropole in downtown Geneva?

What is probably Zermatt’s best restaurant is Mediterranean, not Swiss, buy boy is it good!

Café Berra in Monthey: one of my favorite restaurants. It’s simple, elegant and refined all at the same time.

Michelin star chef Philippe Rochat’s chocolate dessert recipes. Perfect for Valentine’s and use Swiss chocolate!

In case you didn’t catch this: all the best addresses for Valentine’s in Switzerland.

Restaurant: Les Pérolles in Fribourg: bit of paradise right in heart of city. Delicious refined “daily” menu for CHF72.

Have you checked out the Myò Sushi Bar in Lausanne? They also have authentic Japanese cooking.

Restaurant suggestions for every budget and occasion.

Guide names 30 ‘most important’ restaurants in US: Thomas Keller’s French Laundry and Per Se restaurants topped this year.

Chef Ferran Adria to close El Bulli ‘world’s best’ eatery in search for inspiration.

Restaurant Genève Les Armures lists its CHF 19 daily special on site every day.

Untested commercial listing of Geneva restaurants serving special Valentine’s dinner.

Mégève’s Les Enfants Terribles has opened in Paris, taking over Johnny Hallyday’s restaurant!

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Restaurant notes – 4 December 2009.

Check out the exquisite brunches at L’Esquisse near L’Hermitage in Lausanne.

Recipes

This coconut shrimp recipe may not be healthy, but it sure does sound good, and easy to boot!

Chocolate recipes in all forms and fashions. Just convert the American chocolate bars and use chocolate from your local chocolaterie.

Recipe: Caribbean recipe, red snapper with tamarind glaze and banana salsa. In Switzerland, use large rougets.

A Mexican mole recipe adapted to European kitchens. But replace Mexican chocolate with Swiss chocolate, of course!

Alain Passard of L’Arpège in Paris made his restaurant entirely vegetarian (he’s now added a few non-veg items). Here’s his winter vegetable recipe.

Recipes: old-fashioned, American-style cakes, revised to modern tastes (a lot healthier!).

Recipe: lake perch from La Pérolles resto in Fribourg. Good for now, using seasonal Peruvian asparagus and oranges.

Pear rissole: a winter delight, and a specialty of Geneva since time immemorial. History and recipe.

@RebekahDenn With all the untested recipes online, I firmly believe we’ll return to the tradition of cookbooks one day. Be optimistic!

In loverly pink for you…the wonderful valentines day recipes http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes so u dont have an excuse now boys (in his own words).

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Recipe and history: Bern-style rösti.

Cheese

Cheese is still Switzerland’s top export, despite some fluctuations last year.

Wine

List of Geneva wineries that offer wine tasting on Saturdays.

GenevaLunch editor and wine specialist Ellen Wallace competing for the Glorious Vines photo competition.

Check out this food and wine social network.

Swiss wines get a marketing boost with naming of top oenologist as president.

GenevaLunch: AMONG THE VINES: Silver linings: Taramarcaz’s Domaine des Muses.

AMONG THE VINES Don’t forget Changins wine school now gives courses in English.

Wine bars in Geneva!

The 2010-2011 Swiss Wine Guide will be coming out soon in English! Can’t wait.

Anglo-Swiss club in Fribourg, International Beer Festival at 19H30 Thursday Feb. 11th.

Berthaudin in Carouge has a great selection of both local and global wines, and they deliver!

Miscellaneous food and related info

Overview of scientific studies explaining all the reasons green tea is good for you.

Alimentarium food museum in Vevey, founded by Nestlé, permanent exhibition on cooking, buying, eating and digesting.

Hey you American Southerners, remember Spoonbread?

Teach your kids how to shop for food, Let’s Move!

Geneva protected itself from the Savoyards by pouring a cauldron of vegetable soup on their heads, or so they say . . .

Check out these authentic weight loss blogs.

Some great food blogs!

Foodimentary Did you know that many US Civil War battles were fought to capture salt mines? Without salt food couldn’t be preserved.

Fabulous video by Michelle Obama about Let’s Move, her campaign to raise a healthier generation of kids.

Sex, no I mean, Cupcakes in the City, the city being Geneva.

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Swiss have some of best quality cookware available. Check out the Durotherms.

THE RAMBLING EPICURE How to keep up with what food is in season in the Lake Geneva region.

The 7 foods experts won’t eat in the U.S.

What to do with all those pumpkins you’ve stored away for the winter.

USDA report says estimated 49.1M Americans including 16.7M children experienced hunger multiple times throughout year.

McDonald’s is outperforming the sector, despite the general move toward better eating habits.

Photo courtesy of Free Digital Images.

Michelle Obama launched “Let’s Move” campaign today in DC in efforts to fight childhood obesity.

Sugar supply may not meet demand for third year: is this a message we should just quit eating so much?

Have you bought a copy of the Betty Bossi Swiss Cookbook, with both traditional and contemporary recipes?

Better start making your Valentine’s dinner reservations now. Restaurants and hotels fill up quickly.

Have you joined The Rambling Epicure on Facebook? World and Swiss news for foodies.

British Online Supermarket, order online, they ship abroad!Have you joined Swiss Foodies on Facebook? We follow the food scene in Switzerland!

The up-front costs of feeding our kids better food are wiped out on back end by high cost of treating Type 2 diabetes.

GenevaLunch: Cake and pastries buffet.

Swiss in good health, but still smoking, gaining weight.

New vaccines for cattle could cut risk from deadly bacteria – but who will pay for it.

Swedish Bitters, the most popular herb remedy in Europe were actually first produced by *Swiss* physician Phillipus Paracelsus in 1541.

Estèbe’s Top Slurp gives recipe for hottest new food ingredient: the citron.

Find a farmers market in your neighborhood in Geneva.

USDA Announces New Framework For Animal Disease Traceability.

US Food & Drug Administration wants food makers to post nutritional & calorie info ON FRONT of packages.

In America they have to teach kids what real food looks like before it’s processed and put into plastic packages!

Food magazines turn to “leftover” and recycled recipes and articles due to shortage in professional journalist staff.

Skiing, snow, lifestyle

How to ski cheaply and have money left over for beer in Verbier; one Briton’s good advice.

Lots of fresh snow on the way in ski stations near Zurich.

This is SO cool! Horse racing on a snow-covered lake in St. Moritz!

Businesses can’t compete in the global economy without a workforce that can afford to live near them.

Farming is a lifestyle under strain everywhere in Switzerland, but perhaps nowhere more so than in the mountains.

The price of eggs in Switzerland can vary from one to four times more expensive, according to how they are raised.

SO much snow near Zurich, 240 cm in Andermatt!

The Swiss are now sugaring their roads instead of salting them!

Ice skating in Lausanne this week!

SO much snow in the resorts near Geneva!

Walking: A simple focus for the Smart Growth movement.

Swatch sales going up, even during the recession! WOW.

Did you know that the city of Lausanne subsidizes WiFi so that it is accessible all over the city?

At least 58 ski resorts near Basel expect fresh snow within 48 hours.

At least 39 ski resorts near Bern expect fresh snow within 48 hours.

Come to “Outpost Cup” Sunday, February 14 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Join us for a great race…skiers & snowboarders…

John Murtha dies at 77; Pennsylvania Democrat forcefully opposed Iraq war in US Congress.

Shackleton‘s 100 year old whisky has finally been broken out of the Antarctic ice. That’s the spirit!

GenevaLunch: Oracle vs Alinghi (Chappatte cartoon).

Swiss Airlines adds Geneva add non-stop Zurich-San Francisco flight.

NEW TO GENEVA? ME TOO Weekend family and solo activities in Geneva: St Cergue in the snow.

Great site for finding Ayurvedic treatment and yoga retreats with Indian-trained staff.

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Geneva cybercafés.

Check out this site for what’s going on in neighboring Haute-Savoie.

Wow, Geneva Tourism site is also in Spanish now!

Scary. Is Switzerland’s luxury watch industry in trouble?

It’s carnival time in the Catholic cantons of Switzerland!

British Cheese Centre of Switzerland: online shopping

The British Cheese Centre of Switzerland offers many of their products online, including Christmas tasting packages.

Delivery all over Switzerland

They have a regular stall at the Zürich HB market on Wednesday, but deliver all over Switzerland, via priority post. Even if you’re in the most remote corner of Switzerland, it’s still not too late to get your Stilton for Christmas!

Very Easy Kitchen's beautiful photo of pear rissoles.

The nearly extinct Marlioz pear saved by Geneva woman

You don’t just use any old pear to make rissoles. You use a variety specific to the region: the Marlioz pear, which was saved by none other than Eliane Pottu, says La Tribune de Genéve. Jérôme Estèbe wrote a delightful feature, in French, on the fortunate revival of this dish. Traditionally, every family in canton Geneva and the Savoy had a couple of Marlioz pear trees in the garden, but this tradition has slowly dwindled away.

A few years ago, says Estèbe, Pottu and other growers in the Geneva region took some grafts from the Lullier horticultural center, which was trying to keep the variety alive. Today, they are giving plentiful fruit, and she and her husband have just planted two more.

Another reason the dish was going out of fashion is because one has to cook the pears for at least 3 hours, until they turn red and are caramelized, before they are ready to be put into the pastry and baked. You need the better part of a day to make them, from start to finish.

Pottu uses her grandmother’s recipe, according to the Tribune article. She starts by cooking the pears in a pressure cooker. She then beats them with a wire whip, and flavors them to taste with sugar, cinnamon, orange, candied lemons, and raisins. After that, she lets them braise slowly on top of the stove, stirring them often so they don’t stick.

Recipes vary, but long slow cooking needed

Recipes differ from one family to another, but you can also add cloves, vanilla, ginger, and various other spices. Some people even add wine or kirsch.

The Chronique des Jardins Familiaux de Bernex, an association which is trying to protect the tradition of family gardens in canton Geneva, gives an interesting recipe using brown cane sugar (cassonnade or sucre de canne roux), quince marmelade and red wine. They recommend cooking it from 4 to 6 hours. I would definitely use brown cane sugar and cook it for as long as possible to get as caramel-like a consistency as possible. Adding the alcohol of your choice will also help it caramelize.

Once cooked, you use the pear mixture to make small turnovers using the pastry of your choice. You can also store the pear mixture for later use, just like jam. The pastries are best eaten hot.

Marie Flo gives a wonderful, illustrated, step-by-step recipe in French. Very Easy Kitchen uses short pastry, and Tonka vanilla beans and ginger to spice up the filling (recipe in French), and extra-ripe Abate pears, probably for lack of Marlioz. Abate pears are another local variety, absolutely delicious when eaten raw; I think they’re too fine to cook.

Pears: local fruit from in the midst of winter!

Growers and vendors often make their own pear filling at this time of year, so be on the lookout in farmers markets. Patrimoine Culinaire says for lack of Marlioz, the Loup and Livre varieties are also suitable, as are the Blesson, Martin Sec and Sans Grappe Rouge varieties. Farmers will often simply mark pears that are appropriate for this use as “poires à rissoler,” meaning pears for sautéeing or cooking pears.

According to Office de Promotion des Produits Agricoles de Genève, the office for promoting Geneva agricultural products, Marlioz pears and the other cooking pears mentioned above are too hard to eat raw, and should always be cooked.

The rissoles you find in local bakeries often use a filling they buy pre-made from the German part of Switzerland, simply because of the scarcity of the real thing.

Marlioz pears and filling can be purchased at:

• Madame Pottu’s farm, route de Malval 36, +41 022 754 12 64
• the Ferme Courtois in Versoix, route de la Bravaude 11, +41 033 Branvaude 11, tel. +41 022 755 43 16
• Claude Métrez’s farm and Corinne Ménétrez’s grocery, Le Pommier Garni, route de Gy 31 bis, Meinier, tel. +41 022 772 09 03

Now is the season, from November to January. You can actually eat local fruit in the midst of winter!

Related link: Tribune de Genève

Figgys Puddings makes high-quality Christmas puddings using only the best ingredients. They come in lovely ceramic bowls.

They ship overseas, but do not list the date for last order. In any case, it would be wise to order as soon as possible.

Figgys Christmas puddings use only top quality natural ingredients.

Harrods offers luxury Christmas puddings and brandy butter, with a delivery time of 5 to 7 days to Switzerland.

Fortnum and Mason in Picadilly in London also offers a wide variety of Christmas puddings and cakes, including chocolate-flavored ones, as well as mince pies. The puddings come in lovely ceramic bowls you’ll want to keep.

Rum and cognac butters are also available. For Switzerland, orders must be in by midday, Monday December 14.

This reliable bistro is a real gem in the midst of the vieille ville, which is in dire need of more good but affordable restaurants.

It is beautifully decorated, the servers are pleasant, fast and efficient, and the food is reliably good. They offer a daily lunch special for CHF 20 or a 2-course daily menu for CHF 32.

After our conference on the history of Geneva today at the Société de Lecture, we hopped down the street and had a plat du jour, which consisted of a thick, perfectly cooked slab of salmon trout, steamed potatoes cooked to perfection, and steamed spinach.

They also have great baguette, which is another thing that is hard to find in local restaurants. Definitely an address to save in your telephone memory.

Opening hours: Monday through Friday, 12:00 to 14:00 and from 18:30 to 22:30. Tel. +41 022 810 29 29. Site. (Please note that the hours listed on the site are not correct.)

L’Office, rue Richer 3, 75009 Paris

Refined, modern, light cuisine for around 30 euros a head for a 3-course meal. Red bell pepper velouté with foie gras, duo of sea bass and scallops with a frothy, light cream sauce, and a to-die-for chocolate moelleux. Can purchase foie gras, onion jam, and other homemade goodies to take home with you. Short but sweet wine list.

Opening hours: closed Sundays and Mondays. Open for lunch on Thursday and Friday from mid-day – 2.30pm. Open for dinner from Tuesday – Saturday from 8 – 10.30pm. Tel. +33 01 47 70 67 31.  Metro Cadet (line 7) or Bonne Nouvelle (lines 8 & 9).

Le Soupçon, place du Bourg-de-Four 8, 1204 Geneva

Modern, light cuisine. Best steak tartare and homemade shoe-string French fries/chips in Geneva. Of late, the chef has been more inventive than ever, but his creative tricks are not always a success. Wide selection of wines by the glass, rather in the style of a wine bar.

Opening hours: closed Sundays. Open for lunch Monday through Saturday 12:00 PM to 14:00 PM and for dinner 19:00 H to 22:00 PM. Tel. +41 022 318 37 37. Parking St Antoine, tram/bus stop Rive (lines 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 12, 16, 17, 20, 33, 36, A, E and G). Site.

Counterpoint: Suggested to two friends that we have lunch there today, and they both immediately said that it was a victim of its own success and flatly refused to go.

La Famiglia, rue du Faubourg Poissonnière 71, 75009 Paris

The pizza crust is reliably good. Steer clearly away from meat dishes, which are heavy and old fashioned. We ordered the antipasti, which didn’t have much to do with true Italian antipasti, apart from the oil-laden, over-salted eggplant/aubergines. The owner strongly recommended the daily special, spaghetti alle vongole, and practically forced us to order it. The 8 or 10 clams were fresh enough and edible, but the pasta was so salty that we just left it. Good place for a pizza, but don’t venture any farther afield. The owner is a friendly, pleasant guy, but nice is just not enough when it comes to what’s on my plate.

Opening hours: closed Sundays. Open for lunch Monday through Saturday 12:00 PM to 14:00 PM and for dinner 19:00 H to 22:00/22:30 PM. Tel. +33 022 318 37 37. Métro Poissonière.

The luncheon starts with a cocktail and wine party, offered by the club. The menu includes pumpkin soup with cheese straws, turkey stuffed with chestnuts, cranberry sauce, sweet potato gratin, French green beans, and apple tart with pecans and ice cream.

The price is CHF 60 for members, and CHF 70 for non-members.

You must register IMMEDIATELY, by e-mailing: registration@aiwc-lausanne.org.

Students from the International School of Lausanne will perform during this annual event, and the Community Services Committee will be holding a supply drive for the benefit of the Terres des Hommes federation to support children in need.

Map.

The menu includes pumpkin soup with pumpkin seed oil, apple and walnut salad with cranberry vinaigrette, roast turkey and giblet sauce with fig stuffing, mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream for CHF 55, not including drinks.

The Thanksgiving meal will be served from 12:00 to 14:30 and from 19:00 to 21:30 on Thursday only.

Reservations are recommended.

Photo courtesy of Steve Lupton/Corbis.

I’ve gathered some ideas that allow you to plan your own personalized Thanksgiving, right here in the Lake Geneva region, without having to have someone send you the ingredients from back home.

Thanksgiving planner

Epicurious has devised quite a clever Thanksgiving menu planner that should help everyone have a successful, stress-free Thanksgiving. You fill in a form, answering questions about what why type of dinner you want, and they propose a customized menu.

A gourmet Thanksgiving

I filled it in, with no holes barred, and this was what they suggested:

An easy Thanksgiving for four

Simpler menus are available, depending on how you answer the questions. This one is for four people who want to make a quick, traditional dinner.

There are endless possibilities, depending on how you answer the questions.

A vegan Thanksgiving

Veg Kitchen has a long list of clever ideas for a vegan Thanksgiving. What’s makes the recipes interesting is that they incorporate the traditional ingredients we associate with Thanksgiving, such as cranberries, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin, into mouthwatering recipes such as cranberry slaw, walnut-apple stuffing, and maple and tarragon sweet potatoes.

A vegetarian Thanksgiving

Photo courtesy of the site Chow.

Chow gives an interesting list of recipes quite in the spirit of Thanksgiving, such as roasted acorn squash with wild rice stuffing, mushroom and fennel bread pudding, and celery root and squash gratin with walnut-thyme streusel, and using seasonal ingredients.

What the Pilgrims really ate

Hanna Raskin thinks that today’s classic Thanksgiving meal is quite different from the Pilgrims’ and Wampanoags’ feast. She says they  probably “supped on seal, swan and extravagantly large crustaceans,” considering their proximity to the sea, along with staple harvest dishes such as corn porridges, turnips and grapes.

Finding the ingredients for Thanksgiving in Switzerland

Of course, in Europe, the difficulty is finding the right ingredients. Thanks to the large international population in the Lake Geneva region, we have more options than in most parts of Europe.

Any large Coop, Migros and in particular Manor, supermarket stocks fresh cranberries, sweet potatoes, maple syrup, and molasses. Pumpkin is staple winter food in Switzerland. The farmers markets are always well stocked with pumpkin as well.

The American Market sells vacuum-packed, peeled sweet potatoes, as well as corn meal, canned whole and jellied cranberry sauce, canned puréed pumpkin, pumpkin pie mix, turkey stuffing mix, gingerbread mix, eggnog, pumpkin bread mix, canned sweet potatoes, and canned turkey gravy. They have addresses in both Geneva and Nyon, and you can also order online.

Complete, freshly made Thanksgiving dinners, ready to heat up, can be ordered from the Grande Boucherie du Moulard in Geneva. They also sell fresh free-range turkeys.

Otherwise, it is possible to order turkeys ahead of time from large supermarkets that have butchers and from local butchers. The price may be steep, because they will usually be free-range turkeys from Bresse, but the quality is invariably good. Some of the large Migros have frozen turkeys. In any case, it is a good idea to make arrangements for your turkey well ahead of the Big Day.