Chocolate fountains are the rage these days. You see them at dinner parties, weddings, all sorts of celebrations. This article gives you all the in’s and out’s, from mini fountains to giant ones.

Most Swiss chocolate makers make a special chocolate to be used in fountains. I would advise asking their opinion before attempting this, because it can be tricky and even dangerous. Last winter, I heard a story about a naked teenager falling into an oversized chocolate fountain in a party in Cologny and then running through the cold streets of Cologny before ending up in the hospital (escorted by the police).

This guest blog is by Edwin Hall, owner of the Chocolate Fountain Directory in Devon in the U.K.

What is a chocolate fountain?

A chocolate fountain is a device for serving chocolate fondue. It comes in many different sizes: mini, medium, large and extra large, depending on the number of guests you wish to cater for.

The fountain has multiple tiers over a heated basin at the bottom. The chocolate is melted in the basin and then pulled up through the augur and continuously flows over the tiers. When it flows over the tiers, guests are able to select a condiment they would like to dip into the fountain, using a skewer. They then select a dip of their choice and coat their item in delicious, warm melted chocolate….heaven!

Essentially, a chocolate fountain is composed of two parts. The base is the motor and a heater. The heater is designed to transpose heat through the base to keep the chocolate in liquid form.  The motor drives the screw in the upper part of the fountain.

This is an Archimedes screw, weren’t they clever! This is thought to have originated around 600 BC, but I bet they never thought of a chocolate fountain then. The screw lies in a tight cylinder in a vertical fashion with several holes at the bottom of the screw. The screw lifts the chocolate to the top of the cylinder from where it flows over several plates and down the fountain to be recycled again. This is the basic premise of a chocolate fountain, because the chocolate is thick, there is no need for a pump as the screw is a better means for lifting the chocolate up.

Why have a chocolate fountain?

Chocolate fountains are a new and impressive form of entertainment. They create a fantastic focal point at any major event and provide your guest with a unique and interactive way of treating themselves to luxurious fondue chocolate.

Chocolate fountains are a great solution for weddings; they are a wonderful dessert or can be used for an evening buffet. Some people choose to have a chocolate fountain rather than a wedding cake,  because chocolate fountains are interactive and people can help themselves to as much as they like when they like.

What should you consider when booking a chocolate fountain?

We recommend you consider booking you chocolate fountain at least 12 months in advance. They are very popular. You need to provide the following details to get an accurate quote:

1. 1. 1. Number of guests the chocolate fountain is to cater for.
      2. Location of event.
      3. Date of event (if it’s a midweek event you often get a good discount).
      4. Duration of event.

Most people book their chocolate fountain for the evening and, on average, chocolate fountain companies hire their fountain for a period of 3 hours in the U.K. However, every wedding/event is different, if you require your fountain during the day or for a longer period of time etc, please discuss this with the chocolate fountain company you have chosen

Home chocolate fountains

Home chocolate fountains are mini versions of the commercial ones used for weddings and events. Unfortunately there is a lot of rubbish out there and we get calls regularly from people saying that their mini fountain doesn’t work.

Here are a couple of things that will help. Only use a quality chocolate that is made specifically for chocolate fountains. This tends to be more expensive but it is the key to success.  Chocolate purchased from your local supermarket doesn’t work unless you put oil in it, a good quality fondue chocolate doesn’t require oil.

The poorer the quality chocolate, the more oil you require. This is in fact a contradiction because standard chocolate bars typically contain around 20% vegetable fat anyway, but you will still have to add more oil because of the high level of impurities. If this doesn’t work, take the fountain back to the point of purchase and tell them that it is rubbish, maybe some of the high street chains will think again about selling consumers junk!

How do you get the most out of your home fountain?

Ensure that you have a variety of dips available. The best to use are strawberries, grapes and other fruits, such as pineapple and melon, but most any fruit works really well with chocolate.

Ensure that you have skewers and enough for your guest. These are readily available at a variety of shops, especially hardware shops that sell barbecues. Also ensure that you have some large napkins as you wouldn’t want chocolate dripping all over your floor.

Finally, presentation is key. Make sure that your skewers are kept together and that you present your home fountain as clean and attractive on a surface that is easy to wipe to ensure that drips don’t spoil your display.

Cleanup time!

Finally, after your event has finished, don’t turn the fountain off and go to bed. Start by disposing of the chocolate while it is still in liquid form, as this makes cleaning so much easier.

Disassemble your fountain and put everything except the motor assembly into a dishwasher or a sink full of hot and soapy water. It should then be easy to clean.

Before packing your fountain away, make sure that it is completely clean and dry to prevent any contamination.

Links: Ultimate Chocolate Experience (photos).

Whey cheese is produced when the curds are separated from the whey to make cheese. Ricotta is also a whey cheese, but unlike Sérac, it is often made with sheep’s milk. As a result, you can use your local cheesemonger’s Sérac in most recipes that call for ricotta.

Photo courtesy of Fribourg Region tourist office.

Sérac is made in most regions of Switzerland, and each region has its own version. Some regions smoke it; others flavor it with herbs, spices or pepper.

Sérac cheese is soft and creamy in texture, so it is easy to spread it on bread to make a healthy sandwich or snack, but Sérac is not only a snack cheese. It can also be used to make healthy, quick meals, such as the recipe below. In the summertime, I often use it like mozzarella, with tomatoes and basil or other Italian-inspired recipes.

It is a great way of teaching your children to eat healthy snacks. Top it with fresh fruit to make a healthy, low-fat dessert, or use it for between-meal snacks on chunky whole-grain bread.

Since it is a fresh milk cheese, it does not keep, and should be eaten shortly after purchasing. Because it is made from fresh milk whey, it is also naturally low in fat. In Switzerland, it would have about a 3.8% fat content, the same as milk.

Easy fresh whey cheese and potato salad recipe: Swiss mountain food!

100 g slice of Sérac per person
Finely chopped shallots
Sherry or Balsamic vinegar
Raclette potatoes

Cooking instructions

Cook raclette potatoes until tender. Set aside and keep warm.

Melt butter in frying pan on medium heat. Carefully put slices of Sérac in frying pan. Add shallots and fry until golden brown on both sides.

CAREFUL: Sérac is quite fragile and falls apart when handled, so use a wide spatula to handle and turn it to prevent it from falling to pieces. Try to only turn it once in the frying pan.

Deglaze with a trickle of vinegar.

Serve Sérac with warm potatoes or even with a green salad.

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.

As a result, before publishing my own Mindful Eating Manifesto–a practical approach to my favorite subject of food–I only thought it fair to publish the somewhat more philosophical article by Buddhist thinker and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh.

Traditional Buddhist and Hindu teachings urge us to be mindful about every act, at every moment, every day of our lives. The word “mindful” is not a trademark. It is a way of being. Mindfulness gives meaning to every action, and creates a sharper awareness and a greater understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things.

What does mindfulness have to do with the way I eat?

This may not seem to have anything to do with how you eat, but indeed it does. It’s the current food trend in the developed world, and I feel confident that it will spread at a rapid pace. Eating is not just about filling your belly.

Mindful Eating is about love and care from A to Z in the eating process, from the ingredients you buy, and how they were grown and processed, and whether you prepare them with TLC, to filling your belly and providing your body with the nutrients they need. To eat mindfully, you have to be aware of every step in the process, which by definition connects you, either directly or indirectly, with everyone involved: the butcher, the baker, the farmer, the fertilizer manufacturer, the seed seller, the cook, the chocolate maker (I do live in Switzerland, after all), etc.

The Mindful Eating post below appears on Chet Day’s site Health and Beyond, which is full of information about healthy eating. He’s been writing about natural food and recipes since 1993, so he is not new to this real food movement that has only recently taken on momentum. He offers a long list of newsletters you can subscribe to, on subjects anywhere from vegetarian recipes to daily health tips and EarthRain meditation.

Mindful Eating

Unified Buddhist Church

Mindful eating is very pleasant. We sit beautifully. We are aware of the people that are sitting around us. We are aware of the food on our plates. This is a deep practice. Each morsel of food is an ambassador from the cosmos. When we pick up a piece of a vegetable, we look at it for half a second. We look mindfully to really recognize the piece of food, the piece of carrot or string bean. We should know that this is a piece of carrot or a string bean. We identify it with our mindfulness: “I know this is a piece of carrot. This is a piece of string bean.” It only takes a fraction of a second.

When we are mindful, we recognize what we are picking up. When we put it into our mouth, we know what we are putting into our mouth. When we chew it, we know what we are chewing. It’s very simple.

Some of us, while looking at a piece of carrot, can see the whole cosmos in it, can see the sunshine in it, can see the earth in it. It has come from the whole cosmos for our nourishment.

You may like to smile to it before you put it in your mouth. When you chew it, you are aware that you are chewing a piece of carrot. Don’t put anything else into your mouth, like your projects, your worries, your fear, just put the carrot in.

And when you chew, chew only the carrot, not your projects or your ideas. You are capable of living in the present moment, in the here and the now. It is simple, but you need some training to just enjoy the piece of carrot. This is a miracle.

I often teach “orange meditation” to my students. We spend time sitting together, each enjoying an orange. Placing the orange on the palm of our hand, we look at it while breathing in and out, so that the orange becomes a reality. If we are not here, totally present, the orange isn’t here either.

There are some people who eat an orange but don’t really eat it. They eat their sorrow, fear, anger, past, and future. They are not really present, with body and mind united.

When you practice mindful breathing, you become truly present. If you are here, life is also here. The orange is the ambassador of life. When you look at the orange, you discover that it is nothing less than fruit growing, turning yellow, becoming orange, the acid becoming sugar. The orange tree took time to create this masterpiece.

When you are truly here, contemplating the orange, breathing and smiling, the orange becomes a miracle. It is enough to bring you a lot of happiness. You peel the orange, smell it, take a section, and put it in your mouth mindfully, fully aware of the juice on your tongue. This is eating an orange in mindfulness. It makes the miracle of life possible. It makes joy possible.

Click here to read rest of article.

Papet vaudois, a Swiss sausage and leek specialty from canton Vaud.

Worry no more mushroom barley soup with crusty garlic toast at Spirit of Pistoulet.

Easy duck confit recipe at The Rambling Epicure.

Fat-free Swiss carrot cake at Swiss Foodies.

Moroccan-style chicken pie at Epicurious.

Cabbage, collard greens, red onion, and blood orange coleslaw at The Rambling Epicure.

Double-chocolate walnut biscotti at The Rambling Epicure.

Curried squash or pumpkin soup at Swiss Foodies and Simply Recipes.

Fennel recipes and ideas for combinations.

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, in Switzerland and around the world.

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.

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 wine . . . and this week, the Vancouver Winter Olympics and those cute wooly pigs you see in the photo.

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!

The list is long, so I’ll list the main topics, which are marked by headings in bold: Restaurants, Recipes, Swiss news, International news, Food trends, Nutrition, health, healthy lifestyle, Chocolate, Wine, Miscellaneous food and related info, Skiing, snow, lifestyle, and Nice quotes.

This week’s tweet list

Restaurants

Taste the latest in the food world, the wooly pig, 23 & 24 Feb. at du Chalet-des-Enfants in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne.

Tired of roestis and pasta in Verbier? Good classic French at La Grange, no surprises.

The Rambling Epicure: check out our restaurant listings.

The Bernerhof hotel in Gstaad has a restaurant for everyone’s taste: pasta, Chinese, traditional.

Tired of roestis in Zermatt? Check out authentic Japanese cuisine and sushi at Myoko, Seiler Hotel.

The food at King’s restaurant Verbier is a delightful mix of English, French, and world influences.

The Walserhof in Klosters is a perfect place to celebrate special occasions, and the food is top notch.

Everything you need to know about eating in Zermatt.

Check out the divine rolled truffle pizza at Quirinale in Geneva.

The Cottage Café in Jardins de Brunswick in Geneva is a great place to meet for afternoon meeting.

Site that lists restaurants in Switzerland that do home delivery.

Gildo’s and La Fromagerie restaurant in Gstaad offers fondues with or without truffles.

Try perfect foie gras poêlé at La Table d’Adrien in Verbier. Chic hip place to go as well. Reservations required.

Hostellerie du Pas-de-L’Ours. Great restaurant, old-fashioned winter veg, great variations on classics. Crans-Montana.

Chez Heini: the place to go for good lamb, great wine list.

Curiositas is as much a museum experience as a restaurant experience. Table by the skeleton or the shrunken head?

Restaurant: Vertig’O in Geneva: elegant business lunch with WiFi.

Brasserie Lipp in Geneva: the ultimate brasserie.

London: The VaBene Brewer Street – you have to try it for lunch, quality food great price and quick turnaround.

Recipes

Recipes and flavor combinations for fennel, when you get tired of eating all those root vegetables!

Recipe: Creamed parsnips with roasted winter vegetables and walnuts recipe.

Vinegar sauces both tasty & healthy. Vinegar helps lower blood sugar & lose weight says one study.

Photo courtesy of Five Prime.

Recipe: How about a new twist on roesti: apple roesti.

Recipes for dessert lovers, especially good chocolate recipes, by pastry chef Pierre Hermé.

Kids in the Kitchen: chocolate and orange mousse recipe, a good Wednesday afternoon family activity.

Recipe: Sautéed Whiting With Lemon Cream Sauce.

The Rambling Epicure: Recipe: lazy man’s breakfast: cappuccino oats.

Recipe: pulled pork and updated coleslaw. Great on a winter’s day.

Winter recipe: Pork Stew with Hard Cider, Pearl Onions, and Potatoes.

Seasonal recipe: Seville orange and almond cake, adapted to European kitchens.

Gordon Ramsay’s 10 easy Indian recipes.

The great cardoon, Geneva’s AOC vegetable.

Winter recipe: cream of parsnip soup with aged Mimolette cheese.

Recipe: cheese tart washed down with good beer is the Basel tradition.

MyKugelhopf hoi zürchers: best fondue in Zurich: http://bit.ly/canAIx & best cheese shops to make your own: http://bit.ly/9eMKGX (in German from züritipp)

THE RAMBLING EPICURE Recipe: Geneva specialty, white wine potatoes, to be eaten with sausage.

How to make your own citrus extracts at home! And it’s dead easy.

All about roesti and recipe!

Simple recipe for oven-baked “carrot fries”.

Soup and sausage on a cold winter’s day: RECIPE.

Recipe: cranberry and orange relish. Great with game dishes of all kinds.

Swiss and international food news: loads of links for restaurants, recipes, etc.

Recipe: kohlrabi and dill stew. Perfect for a winter’s day.

ChocolateCheese cake & Sablé au chocolat in one #cuisine, Eclair à la pomme, caramel au beurre salé in another…must I really taste all?

Recipe: make your own delicious chocolate macarons with bergamot buttercream filling.

The Minimalist: A Dinner Date With India and Spain.

Great site for interesting and unusual combinations to make easy healthy salads.

New Zealand’s quirky breakfasts, recipes included.

Great recipe for a cold winter’s day: Mulligatawny Soup.

Swiss news

The Swiss have a food pyramid too!

Find the farmers market closest to you in Geneva.

Latest food fad: the wooly pig. Try it 23 & 24 Feb. in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne.

Statistics on tourist accommodation in December 2009 and year 2009 – 2009 marked by a decline in overnight stays.

Challenging but surprisingly stable Swiss Tourism.

Adapting to a thrifty new world of tourism.

Prodigy Melodie Zhan celebrates Chopin’s 200th birthday at Victoria Hall in Geneva.

Swiss businessman leaves Libya.

Migros supermarkets to offer sound with food labels, for sight-impaired.

GenevaLunch Nestlé pleased with its 2009 results.

Keep up with the Swiss Foodies Swiss and world foodie news by clicking here.

Beer makers face squeeze in demand.

Swiss Diamond frying pans: the safe non-stick frying pan.

Salt war in Switzerland has started as cantons go abroad.

The big Basel carnival bash! Lots of good food on the agenda!

Site that lists restaurants in Switzerland that do home delivery.

Whistler Olympic Park designer Paul Mathews started in Switzerland!

How fresh are your eggs? New website in Switzerland lets you use number on egg to check its freshness.

The Basel carnival, one of the biggest in Europe, started yesterday. Watch this cool video.

Tartare, the all-time Geneva favorite. L’Illustré tells you about tartare in all its forms.

Where to buy food straight from the farm in Switzerland. Just click on your canton.

Lecture/luncheon in Geneva: the state of Britain today.

Opera: Otello in Lausanne.

Combating the Food Crisis is the primary Objective: At the Annual Media Conference held in Bern.

The Rambling Epicure’s Mindful Eating Manifesto 2010, my New Year’s Resolution, foodie news.

The Ecole-Club Migros now gives some of its cooking classes in English.

Rachid Hamdani’s first statements.

International  news

UK science professor specializes in science of cooking: molecular and post-molecular cuisine.

How to Order a Beer in 50 Languages! http://su.pr/2y4LwM

(image credit:PHOTO: Ben Nilsson/Big Ben Productions. ARTIST: Sakai Hiroyoshi)

The first chain restaurant in the US was opened by a Briton in the 19th century. Fancy that!

France’s most feared restaurant critic François Simon likes to control what he eats and not let the chef decide.

Interesting: Melissa Clark says NYTimes does not pay for recipe testing for her articles. She has to bear the cost if she wants to. #rsfood

All about New Zealand’s quirky breakfasts, with recipes thrown in.

Top 10 list of food songs from Slash Food.

The real difference between restaurant food and food you make at home.

10 of the best English cheeses from the South – Times Online.

Bialetti Mikka Express cappuccino maker, morning’s best friend.

The new trend: nanobreweries, producing artisanal beers.

The UK’s Top 10 fish and chip shops 2010.

Post-molecular cuisine: 21st-century techno.

Martha Stewart is at it again, with an Everyday Food magazine and an iPhone application to boot.What’s a nanobrewery? A scaled-down microbrewery, often run by a solo entrepreneur.

French fast-food chain Quick causes uproar over its decision to serve only halal beefburgers.

Check out this mind-boggling ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi. Exquisitely beautiful!

In San Francisco, local food is sexy thanks to smart marketing and the fine of art of presentation.

Fascinating blindfold comparison between local & organic foods from Walmart and Whole Foods.

Enterprise Hotel Happy Hour “English Style” 4-03-2010 – Milano – Events.

Walmart’s Heritage Agriculture program encourages buying from farms within a day’s drive of one of its warehouses.

Ranting and raving about processed food.

The Omnivore Food Festival will be held in Deauville on Feb. 22 and 23. Read this interesting take.

Michelle Obama asks governors to help anti-obesity initiative.

An Iowa farmer explains the meaning of sustainable agriculture. Full of good info.

An Iowa Farmer explains the meaning of sustainability. Full of good info.

The Best Boutique Hotels & Luxury Hotels for jetset nomads.

A fascinating blindfold comparison between local and organic foods from Walmart and Whole Foods.

Food trends

All about the wooly pig, some of world’s most juicy and flavorful meat and fat, raised using special Austrian techniques.

Latest food fad: the wooly pig. Try tonight and tomorrow 23 & 24 Feb. in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne.

Interesting combination: dark chocolate, hot peppers and mango.

Food trends in Switzerland and the world.

Nutrition, health, healthy lifestyle

Find Out Your Carbon Footprint and How to Reduce It.

4-yr-olds who regularly eat dinner with family, get enough sleep & watch TV < 2 hrs a day 40% less likely to be obese.

The weight gain diet.

Vinegar sauces, both tasty & healthy & vinegar helps lower blood sugar & lose weight.

Something as simple as sitting down to dinner together as a family can go a long way in helping a child fend off obesity.

The Rambling Epicure: Eating healthy monosaturated fats. How to distinguish good fats from bad ones.

Are US supermarket sales dropping because people are flocking to farmers markets? 8:01 AM Feb 17th

Mindful eating: what The Rambling Epicure has on the agenda for 2010.

A new look at the surprising resilience and growth potential of the human brain – AARP Magazine.

Kids in the Kitchen Let’s Move Healthier choices, exercise = HEALTHIER KIDS. Michelle Obama’s campaign.

New seasonal vaccine to contain pandemic H1N1 strain.

The aquaponic garden, spotless and clean. The new rage.

Green leafy foods can be dangerous if not washed properly. Get the scoop here!

Latest news: the importance of getting back around the table.

Chocolate

The perfect marriage of chocolate and beer.

Recipes for dessert lovers, especially good chocolate recipes, by pastry chef Pierre Hermé.

Wine

Learning to love sweet wine.

Soil is not just soil. The Féchy winemakers in canton Vaud get serious!

AMONG THE VINES Swiss women helping build int’l wine group.

Miscellaneous food and related info

Migros supermarkets to offer sound with food labels, for sight-impaired.

Some of my favorite food blogs.

Get the full scoop on how to choose the right kitchen knives for you from a professional chef.

Chocolate show in Nice 5 to 7 March. Both Baboo and easyJet fly there, so it’s an easy leap!

Twitter war between New York chefs! Is Twitter gaining power in the world?

Did you know that the Paris Brest turned 100 in January?

Loads of links to follow food trends in Switzerland and abroad, plus restaurant listings.

What can you do with vanilla bean paste (and why use it instead of beans or extract)?

Exclusive: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web

Swiss Diamond frying pans: the safe non-stick frying pan.

Skiing, snow, lifestyle

Villars-sur-Ollon’s Fanny Smith will be skiing in the Skier X Women’s Final at 13:35 today. Don’t miss it!

Overview of snow conditions in Swiss ski resorts.

The Vancouver Winter Olympics are first sustainable games; the Olympic Museum in Lausanne has a special exhibit about it.

Beautiful video showing the history of the Winter Olympics.

Best snow sliding in Switzerland!

Achy muscles from all the skiing? Try out exquisite spa packages at Lecrans hotel spa in Crans.

Budget ski deals in European hostels.

Switzerland gets its 5th gold medal!

At least 10 ski stations near Zurich expect 10 cm of new snow overnight!

Klosters ski report: 130 cm snow of very good quality.

Great powdery snow conditions around Sion, 240 cm in Anzère and 210 in Saas-Fee.

Villars-Gryon snow conditions.

Europe’s top ski festivals. Go for it!

Check out this mind-boggling ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi. Exquisitely beautiful!

GenevaLunch overview of Swiss skiing conditions this weekend.

Plan your driving carefully on Saturday. Lots of ski vacationers will be heading home.

Swiss women go for the gold in Vancouver.

Swiss curling team beats US in a close match.

Skiing conditions around Bern.

* * * Olympic sports, curling: Swiss men beat USA * *

Ski chalets and apartments for rent in Gstaad.

Engelberg got the biggest dump in Switzerland (again)- 25 cm this time. See you up there today! #freshpow

The Mégève snow forecast for this weekend.

Gstaad snow report and skiing conditions.

Skiing conditions in Verbier this weekend. 1 cm more snow expected.

RT @as3780: Tonight, jungle fever at the Chopard Party at the Palace Gstaad ! By invitation only. 7:51 PM Feb 20th

Ski conditions in 72 stations near Geneva.

Switzerland’s Martina Kocher No. 1 in luge final for the moment! 7:44 AM Feb 17th

Nice quotes

Life puts some things on our plate, and you have to slowly eat them, slowly digest them, even when they’re not to your gourmet liking.

cyitaiga Quotes – especially positive suggestions – are very strong medicine.

cyitaiga A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.–Bob Hope

cyitaiga The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor find much fun in life.–Charles Schwab

cyitaiga “Great and big things can happen when simple and small things come together.”–Author (Fahad)

cyitaiga A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.–Richard Branson

Rediscovering the beauty of what it means to eat together as a family. A beautiful video.

Get serious about what you put in your mouth.

Have you checked out The Rambling Epicure blog on genevalunch.com?

Photo courtesy of Pub Sub.

You can taste wooly pig tonight and tomorrow, 23 and 24 February, at the Chalet-des-Enfants in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne.

The complete menu, including dessert, goes for CHF 59. Reserve by calling +41 021 784 44 80 or +41 076 565 31 58.

Photo courtesy of Five Prime.

Fennel is a good way to add a bit of spice, while awaiting the wider variety of choice that comes with spring.

Fennel flavor combinations and recipe ideas

There are so many ways to cook fennel I can’t name them. It can be chopped finely and added to an ordinary Bolognese or other sauce, along with a few fennel seeds, to give the flavor an original edge.

Fennel goes beautifully with oranges. To make a simple, healthy and tasty sauce for white fish, chop the fennel finely, sauté a bit, then add orange segments and cook until you get the consistency you like.

You can also slice it thinly, grill it until it starts to brown, then drizzle it with olive oil and add a few orange segments. Another variation would be to sprinkle it with grated Parmesan when it is cooked, and put back under the grill until the Parmesan starts to brown.

You can make a salad by slicing it thinly, drizzling olive oil over it, and adding oranges and walnuts. You can throw in some fennel seeds or aniseed too if that’s to your liking.

One of my favorite ways of cooking fennel comes from The Silver Spoon. Simply cut and trim 1 kg / 2 1/4 lbs of fennel bulbs and combine in a saucepan with one clove of chopped garlic, 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and about 200 ml / 7 fluid oz. of white wine. Cover and cook until tender, about 20 or 25 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Vary these flavor combinations to make your own pasta or meat/fish sauces, salads or even main dishes and liven up the limited number of local vegetables available during these long winter months.

I’m a vinegar collector. I have orange vinegar, walnut vinegar, grapefruit vinegar, a long list of Balsamic vinegars of various origins and ages, and lots of other more common ones.

In Switzerland and France, there is such an impressive variety of artisanal vinegars (a well as oils) that it is easy to build up quite a collection and use it in creative ways to liven up winter vegetables, bland grilled meats, or salads. The beauty of it is that you can often use vinegar to add flavor, and thereby avoid the more traditional use of butter or meat bases, which contain fat. It is a good way to reduce fat in your general cooking habits.

Photo courtesy of FivePrime.

A tasty, good quality vinegar is an easy way to add flavor to an otherwise unappetizing vegetable or meat. After cooking meat or fish, I often deglaze the frying pan  with a nice vinegar, then pour the glaze over the beast in question, along with a drizzle of good quality olive oil. It makes for a much healthier sauce than cream or butter and adds flare to the dish.

With magret de canard, or duck breast, which can have quite a fatty taste, I pour off most of the fat, and then deglaze the drippings with Balsamic or sherry vinegar. Raspberry also works well with duck, and you can add a few crushed raspberries to the sauce as well. The vinegar helps cut the fatty film you often feel in your mouth after eating. Raspberry vinegar is also a perfect compliment to calves’ liver.

Chicken deglazed with Balsamic vinegar, photo courtesy of FivePrime.

I do the same with vegetables that are not so fresh, or to which I want to give a little more pizazz. For instance, I love apple cider vinegar on cauliflower.

One of my favorites is leeks. I sautée equal amounts of leeks (tops and bottoms) and diced potatoes in a bit of olive oil until they’re very, very soft. I then turn the heat up high and deglaze the pan with Balsamic vinegar and serve. It’s always a success and so dead easy.

Vinegar on salads is a given, of course. I drizzle a vinegar whose flavor goes well with vegetable in question, and then drizzle a bit of oil over it. For instance, with rampon, a kind of watercress we find here in Switzerland, I think a good quality apple cider oil and walnut oil go beautifully.

If you buy extra-fresh salads from the farm and good quality vinegars, you’ll find you can often even skip the oil altogether.

The virtues of vinegar: it can lower blood sugar of diabetics and encourage weight loss

Chinese vinegar jar, photo courtesy of FivePrime.

The exciting thing about this is that doctors have recently found that vinegar helps lower levels of sugar in blood in diabetics, so this offers a tasty and natural way of trying to keep blood sugar levels under control. Those who participated in the vinegar study not only had lower sugar levels, but they also lost weight.

The Rambling Epicure has lots of exciting eggs in her basket for the year 2010.

The Rambling Epicure on Facebook and Twitter

I’ve started two Facebook groups: The Rambling Epicure, for our worldwide followers, and Swiss Foodies, for those who are more focused on what goes on in the Swiss food world. These groups include the GenevaLunch posts, as well as reading suggestions for food- and restaurant-related articles from news sites and blogs, with a short introduction by The Rambling Epicure.

Both The Rambling Epicure and Swiss Foodies can also be followed on Twitter.

The addition of the Facebook and Twitter feeds lets you follow “breaking news” in the food world. I will from time to time gather the highlights of these one-line inroductions into a Foodie News letter, like the one last week, so you can get an overview of what’s going on the food and restaurant world in Switzerland and abroad.

Mindful Eating

I am American and I do read Michael Pollan, but I’ve been on this ecological, healthy eating, organic food kick since I was a child. I was raised on homegrown food and Wendell Berry, so all the things we’re reading these days just seem like common sense to me. I’m just a hillbilly in a red silk dress, after all.

This being said, I want to encourage the movement toward buying local products, cooking homemade food and general awareness of what and how we eat. The rising rate of obesity in children in the Western world makes me think it’s time we all take a look at exactly what we eat and how we teach our children to eat.

A lot of this information comes from studies and literature in the U.S., so it may seem overly American at times, but just be aware that this is because Switzerland is a small country with numerous languages so we just don’t have the means of having the wealth of literature they have in the U.S.

Buying local, buying Swiss

Since I live in Switzerland, local means Swiss, so you might feel I’m pushing Swiss products down your throat. I’m not.

Geneva red radishes and baby beets.

Buying local is not only healthier; it also creates a local economy. I encourage everyone, wherever they live, to do the same. We’ll not only eat healthier, but we’ll also support our local businesses and provide jobs.

It is also more ecological to buy products that were produced just down the road from your house: less pollution, less fuel consumption.

It means being mindful of what you buy and what you put in the your body. It means being mindful of the effect it has on the environment and on your health.

Restaurant recommendations

2009 was my first year of doing this blog, and I had a lot of ground to cover. This year I will devote more time to searching for restaurants for all budgets, restaurants that are in line with my Mindful Eating Manifesto (to be published soon here on GenevaLunch), and just interesting places to eat.

Every meal doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal. If your products are good quality, you don’t even have to do a lot to whip up a tasty meal. So restaurants that use good ingredients will have a place right alongside gourmet restaurants.