This week’s foodie overview

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.

Read more…

Final countdown to Valentine’s Day: take your pick!

For the last week or so, I’ve had Valentine’s on the brain. I’ve been posting restaurants offering special Valentine’s meals, chocolate shops making all sorts of beautiful Valentine’s chocolates, as well as hotels offering Valentine’s packages on the Swiss Foodies Twitter account.

Photo courtesy of Salvatore Vuono.

I’ve been trying to get you in the spirit, but now it’s time for the final countdown, because time is running short. To make things easier, I’ve gathered all the Valentine tweets here so you can start making plans for the weekend!

This list is by no means exhaustive and I may well add to it during the week, so keep in touch either here on The Rambling Epicure, or by following the Swiss Foodies tweets. Every time I stumble on something interesting, I’ll make sure and tweet it.

Valentine’s specials: something to suit everyone’s budget and schedule

1. On Sunday, 14 February 2010, the CGN is sponsoring Valentine’s lunch cruises on all their major routes.
2. List of restaurants all over Switzerland with Valentine’s specials; just click on your canton!  Please note that I haven’t tested these restaurants, but they should include something appropriate for everyone’s taste, location and budget.
3. Valentine’s package at L’Auberge in Baulmes for CHF105, including gourmet dinner, champagne, wine and room. They adhere to the Slow Food philosophy.
4. Restaurant de Bois Genoud Le Castel in Crissier. See our post of 1 February 2010. Elegant setting, organic, biodynamic food grown on the property, and real gourmet dining.
5. Valentine’s events in La Gruyère.
6. Valentine’s package at Bernard Ravet’s splendid L’Hermitage in Vufflens-le-Château, CHF500, including hotel, champagne, 9-course dinner, and breakfast. The package goes for CHF500 per person per night. Price justified by the restaurant’s 19 out of 20 rating in GaultMillau, the setting, that it belongs to Relais & Châteaux, and the presence of Nathalie Ravet, named best Swiss sommelier in 2007.
7. Commercial listing of Geneva restaurants serving special Valentine’s dinner. Please note that I haven’t tested these restaurants, but they should include something appropriate for everyone’s taste, location and budget.
8. Spa, chocolate bath, and GaultMillau 13-rated restaurant at Ferian Art in Saas-Fee in a drop-dead beautiful setting and exquisite decor.
9. Hôtel des Armures in Geneva: special Valentine’s package including room, champagne, breakfast and chocolate, for CHF860 for two nights. Located in the very heart of Geneva’s old town.
10. Ramada Park Hotel Geneva offering Valentine’s Day brunch as well as candlelit dinner. CHF75 for Sunday brunch, and CHF79 for candlelit dinner.
    
11. How to make a chocolate heart for your sweetie, but please substitute Swiss chocolate!
12. From chocolate lollipop to cup of organic dark hot chocolate, dip into hot milk and stir for few moments. For those who really don’t have much time but want to make a gesture!
    
13. Exquisite Italian food for romantic Valentine’s dinner at San Marino in Lausanne.
14. My Switzerland also lists a number of romantic Valentine’s getaways, mostly in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
15. A real deal, but in high style: The Mövenpick in Prague is offering the best Valentine’s package I’ve found. €114 for a couple for one night, with a real spread.
    
16. All local chocolate makers will be competing with all the others to create the most beautiful, original Valentine chocolates possible. See our Easter post about chocolate shops in Geneva.
17. In our initial countdown to Valentine’s, we also listed Durig in Lausanne for its organic, fair-trade chocolate hearts that you can order online.
18. For those who don’t count pennies but love fine food, the Richemond in Geneva is offering an all-out spa, champagne, gourmet Italian dinner (the chef is none other than Fulvio Pierangelini, Italy’s top chef 2009), full breakfast and room for CHF1025 for two.
19. For those who love antique cars and have the time and money to hop over to the French Riviera, this is a real find. The Hôtel Beau Rivage in Nice has a Valentine’s package that includes a jaunt in the countryside around Nice in an antique Lotus for a whole day. The package includes two nights in the hotel, the car for one day, breakfast in the room and one dinner at the restaurant of your choice (they offer two) for €530 for two people.
20. It’s Monday, so I can’t get hold of L’Esquisse in Lausanne. I don’t know whether they have a Valentine’s menu. All I know is that they have a refined menu and the setting is beautiful. I vote on it being romantic, no matter what the occasion.

La Terrazza

I discovered this almost hidden Swiss-style café-restaurant many years ago on my treks back and forth to the Beaulieu clinique.

Mr. Borella started as waiter at the Lion d’Or during its golden age. He later set out on his own and has been in this same location for about 25 years. Mrs. Borella cooks and Mr. Borella serves. They are from the Dolomites, so they cook hardy, traditional dishes, as well as some well turned-out Swiss classics.

The price is about as right as you can get, and they buy all their ingredients from local producers. The tomatoes taste like tomatoes and the salads, well they come straight from Chapuis.

Nologo Restaurant

This is Japanese food like you eat in Japan, not adapted for Western tastes. Wonderful mixtures of unusual flavors and ingredients like you’d never find in your regular, standardized-menu sushi bars.

Don’t count on them being friendly, just think about what’s on your plate. Tiny space so reserve well ahead.

Quirinale

I’ve only had the truffle pizza, which is the house specialty, but I have been dreaming of it ever since.

Emmanuel de Savoie is part owner I hear.

Great central location, chic and full of jetsetters, and a little pricey if you eat a 3-course meal with wine. They do have lunch specials however, and that truffle pizza . . .

Cottage Café

When you have to meet someone near the quai du Mont-Blanc or in the Pâquis neighborhood, this is a great stopoff if you don’t have the pocketbook for the more upscale Richemond and Beau-Rivage venues right behind it. Plus, it is in a beautiful setting, right smack in the middle of the Brunswick gardens.

It’s nice in both summer and winter. The terrace is spectacular, of course, and you even get glimpses of jet d’eau from time time. Inside, it’s cozy and funky.

Breakfast includes birchermuësli, homemade jams and freshly squeezed juices. They have a daily lunch menu, serve pastries in the afternoon, and tapas starting at 18h00.

There is a selection of good quality local wines by the glass or bottle, along with some wines from other places.

Genevan Jean-François Schlemmer turns run-down, forgotten sites into chic, trendy places.

Would you prefer a table near the skeleton or the bar?

After the success of the Palais Mascotte, a tired Geneva institution and cabaret started in 1833 that he brought back to life, he has now converted an old warehouse next to MAMCO, the modern art museum, into an exciting café and restaurant, Curiositas. Curiositas is almost a museum in and of itself, with its display cases full of “curious” collections of seashells, butterflies and surprising knick-knacks.

The menu is more classic than one might expect, but also offers some original variations on classics, such as the duck parmentier with turnips and red currants, or foie gras with oxtail. French chef Sergio Schoener delights in turning out color combinations not common in the world of food. Pastry chef Lionel Gérard comes to Curiositas with the label Ducasse on his CV.

A 3-course daily lunch menu goes for CHF 48 and a daily special for CHF 23. Breakfast is served, as well as light afternoon food.

Schlemmer has resuscitated several dying venues into “must” night life stopoffs, including the Petit Casino, the Restaurant l’Horizon and Psycho. As he says in Le Temps of 14 January 2010, outsiders just think that Geneva is a sleepy town. If they only knew all the fun that goes on behind those Calvinist façades!

Curiositas, rue des Vieux Genadiers 8-10, 1205 Geneva, +41 022 321 30 37, next to MAMCO modern art museum. Map. Open from 08:30 to 22:00.

Links: Le Temps

Photo courtesy of Fiveprime

Genève Tourisme has published a list of the hotels and restaurants in Geneva that are offering special Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s meal packages. Some are at lunchtime, others in the evening.

The list includes restaurants in all price ranges, as well as details about dates, times, set menus, and locations.

It can be found in pdf format, under Christmas Dinners and New Year’s Dinners. Just click on “Download the document” on the Genève Tourisme site.

The P’tit Bonheur in Chambésy will be serving Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, 26 November 2009.

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.

Guide to luxury London on a budget

My husband Peter is a wonder when it comes to finding luxury bargains as he hops around the globe.

This weekend, London was our destination, and there’s no better place to spend Halloween. The recession is still going strong in Britain, so it is also a good time to take advantage of the multitude of deals to be had.

Hotel

Photo courtesy of MyHotel.

We usually prefer classic English-style hotels, because the English really do know how to let you feel part of what is the best in the British lifestyle, but this time, Peter selected a boutique hotel, MyHotel Bloomsbury on Bayley Street just off Bedford Square.

MyHotel is entirely Feng Shui, minimalist and has a wonderful fitness center. The rooms are quiet and impeccably clean, the staff is pleasant and efficient and they speak very good English (which one cannot count on in London), it does indeed have a good feel about it, and the location is remarkably central.

Unfortunately, the hotel is the victim of British regulations regarding fire doors, so despite all the effort they had made to make it Feng Shui and calming, the fire doors ruined it all. Even the bathroom door slammed loudly. The clientele was extremely civilized, despite the fact that it was Halloween weekend, and the management was so conscious of maintaining the calm atmosphere, that they closed the bar on Halloween night.

Restaurants

In the UK, Top Table is an excellent site for booking fine restaurants at a nice price. With the credit crunch still alive and kicking, there is an abundance of choices, many offering forty and fifty percent off menu prices. Please note that the discounts do not usually apply to wine, supplements and service charge, and are sometimes limited to a limited number of people, but it can still significantly reduce the price of a meal.

Dining room of The Landau, photo courtesy of Top Table.

Read more…

It is difficult to find an authentic Asian restaurant in Geneva. Geneva’s Asian population is sparse compared to cities like London, Paris, or San Francisco.

But where there is a will there is a way, and Asians always manage to find the authentic restaurants. I’ve jotted down just a few addresses Asians have recommended to me below. I’ve checked them out and they are well worth trying.

Please note these are not fancy restaurants, but because they are frequented for their authenticity, it is advisable to reserve.

Lai Thai

Northern Thai food, which is quite hot and spicy. Set menus go for 55, 65 and 78 CHF and the servings are generous. Located in what was formerly a Geneva institution, the Café Gothard.

Hashimoto

Unpretentious. A traditional Swiss café, with all the wooden benches and bistro chairs still in place and a few Japanese decorations added here and there. The Japanese come here for the sushi. Great miso soup and seaweed salad. Numerous set menus at a nice price. You can easily eat and drink for 50 CHF.

Nagomi

Excellent quality, extremely small. A little pricier than the others, but this not just a sushi bar; it is a real restaurant with Japanese dishes you just can’t find anywhere else in Geneva. Reservation absolutely necessary.

Le Thé

This may be a real hole in the wall, but you’ll feel like you’re really in Asia, even though you just stepped off the TPG tram. Incredibly affordable food like you’d eat in the street eateries in Asia. You’ll find some dishes that are rare in Europe, such as xiaolongbao, dainty little pork and cabbage ravioli. Allow plenty of time because the service can be slow. 30 CHF and your belly will be full.