Passport Magazine: World Eats, Switzerland

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PASSPORTPASSPORTTRAVEL • CULTURE • STYLE • ADVENTURE • ROMANCE

MARCH 2014

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WORLD EAT

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WHAT’S NEW I

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THE SWIMWEAR ISSUETHE SWIMWEAR ISSUE



68 PASSPORT i MARCH 2014

(Château St. Germain. Tel: +41-26-921-

2200. www.hrgigermuseum.com ) created

by Academy Award–winning HR Giger

( Alien ), that features his collection of bio-mechanical art and sculpture.

After lunch at La Fleur de Lys Gruyères

(rue du Bourg 14. Tel: +41-26-921-8282),

where I enjoyed a massive bowl of alpine

soup (a Swiss version of everything-but-the-

kitchen-sink concoction that overflows with

potatoes, macaroni, greens, heavy cream,

and, of course, garnished with cheese and

croutons), I make my way to Maison Cailler

(rue Jules Bellet 7. Tel: +41-26-921-5960.

www.cailler.ch ), the famous Swiss choco-

late dating back to 1819. The factory is over-

run with children, but it’s worth weatheringthe Willy Wonka madness and multimedia

installation to get to the end prize: an all-

you-can-eat feast of Cailler. This is not a

place for restraint, and the one stop on my

expedition where Swiss civility falls by the

wayside in lieu of cocoa nirvana.

In spite of cheese-and-chocolate over-

load, my travel companions and I muster

the strength to dine at one of Fribourg’s

most popular restaurants, Café du Midi

(rue de Romont 25. Tel: +41-26-322-3133.

worldeatsCulinary road Trip in SwiTzerland

by MaTThew wexler

making process. The factory produces 48

wheels per day, and you’re bound to see

décailage (the process of cutting the curds

into grains). If you’re a cheese diehard,contact La Gruyère Tourism ( www.la-

gruyere.ch ), and you can arrange a tour of

a smaller producer in the hills, where the

process is performed over a wood-burning

copper kettle. Be sure to allow time to walk

through the medieval town of Gruyères

itself, home to the splendid castle

Château de Gruyères (rue du Château 8.

Tel: +41-26-921-2102. www.chateau-

gruyeres.ch ), quaint local shops, and a

captivatingly bizarre HR Giger Museum

Iarrive at Zürich International Airport and

quickly activate my Swiss Rail Pass( www.swiss-pass.ch ), which is my

one-stop shop for getting around the

country. At only 216 miles wide and 137

miles from north to south, Switzerland is a

relatively small footprint to cover, but,

because of its neighbors, it offers a portal to

a diverse range of culinary influences best

experienced by rail tripping. My first stop:

Fribourg ( www.fribourgregion.ch ).

One of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, Fribourg

lies in the western region and the city of the

same name features The Université de

Fribourg ( www.unifr.ch ), one of the fewbilingual universities in all of Europe. The city

has a youthful pulse due, in no small part, to

Cardinal beer, the local brew created in 1788

that flows at nearly every pub. While the city

proper showcases farmers’ markets and the

Gothic-style Cathedral of Saint Nicholas

(rue des Chanoines 3. www.stnicolas.ch ),

I’ve got my eye on a particular café, but not

before heading out of town to conquer my

first Swiss delicacy: Gruyère cheese.

A short ride from Fribourg’s city center, the

town of Gruyères is home to the raw cow’s

milk cheese that has been in existence since1115. It takes more than 100 gallons of local

milk to produce a single 77-lb. wheel. Like

the great wines of the world, true Gruyère

cheese receives AOC ( appelation d’orgigine

contrôlée ) designation that guarantees the

cheese’s authenticity.

A tour of La Maison Du Gruyère (Place

de la Gare 3. Tel: +41-26-921-84-00.

www.lamaisondugruyere.ch ), the local

demonstration cheese-dairy, offers a

somewhat touristy snapshot of the cheese-

Fribourg

P h o t o s : M a t t h e w W e x l e r



MARCH 2014 I PASSPORT 69

www.lemidi.ch ). I am slammed with the

ripe smell of cheese, old wood, and flowing

wine as we weave our way through the

packed room to our table. While Maison

Cailler was a children’s playground, the

café is a hearty, vibrant backdrop for

grown-up fun. Fondue is the specialty of

the house, and we order several massive

enameled pots of the bubbling cheeseand accouterments. Fondue forks pierce

through the air. Bread is torn and impaled.

Platters of air-dried beef are passed above

our heads, and the living traditions of

Switzerland have never tasted so good.

The next day I head north toward the

French border to discover the hills,

valleys, and gorges of Jura and the

Three Lakes ( www.biel-seeland.ch ). Jura

peaks at an elevation of 3,200 feet and, on a

clear day, the sunlight basks towns like La

Chaux-dé-Fond that’s world famous for itshistory of watchmaking. I decide what better

way to acquaint myself with the region than

an afternoon of wine tasting?

Vinothek Viniterra (Im Moos 4. Tel: 41-

32-315-7747. www.vinothek-viniterra.ch ),

just a short walk from Lake Biel, offers tastes

and insights about this small wine-growing

region. I chat with grower Regina Hadoran

who pours and talks…and pours some

more. The region is known for Switzerland’s

most planted white variety: Chasselas. Used

to make “church wine,” this unaged white

wine is typically harvested in October andready to drink by February. Think of it as the

Swiss version of Beaujolais nouveau.

Hadoran says, “It’s the most important

thing for wine growers to have relationships

with their customers.”

Considering that the majority of the wine

stays within the canton, those relationships

can last a lifetime, but Hadoran warns that

due to global warming, the Chasselas’ fate

may be in danger as the variety relies on

cooler weather for ideal growing conditions.

While I can’t cellar my own stash for future

consumption as it’s meant to be consumedyoung, I do pick up a few bottles to share

with my oenophile friends stateside.

While the Swiss wine tasting leaves me

with a greater appreciation for the local

producers, there is another spirit known in

the region, one with a sordid past that

beckons me: absinthe. In the district of

Val-de-Travers lies Absintherie du Père

François (rue de l'Arnel 1. Tel: +32-861-

2318. www.absintherie.ch ), which is both

a museum of collectibles as well as an

worldeats

operating distillery. Considered by some to

be an elixir for good health and others to

be a hallucinogenic drug, the anise-fla-

vored spirit was banned in Switzerland

from 1910 until 2005. The vintage apothe-

cary bottles, equipment, and illustrations

offer insight into absinthe’s role in Swiss

culture, but it is only by consumption that I

understand its effects. The myth becomesreality after several glasses, and I’m tempt-

ed to pursue the Route de L’Absinthe, a

mapped collection of 26 distilleries, muse-

ums, confectionary houses, and drying

barns that trace the impact of this most

intoxicating elixir.

It would be unfair for the region to let

neighboring Gruyères have all the glory

when Tête de Moine (AOC) is like its deli-

cate sister, waiting for its turn in the spot-

light. Used as a form of payment by the

Bellelay monks in the 12th century, the

silky semi-hard cheese is aged for three

months on pine boards then shaved into

rosettes using a special device called a girolle. Of course, a knife works, too. (It is

rumored that the hungry monks would

sneak into the cellar late at night, shave off

a piece from the top, then rewrap the

wheel as if it had been untouched.) I could

spend the afternoon shaving cheese, but

“Fork” by Jean-Pierre Zaug in Lake Geneva



70 PASSPORT I MARCH 2014

worldeats

there is one more expedition to conquer

and that requires traveling east.

Crossing back past Zürich and

toward Switzerland’s northeast

corner, the canton of Appenzell is

home to culinary traditions that draw inspi-

ration from nearby Germany and Austria.

Its namesake town is an idyllic Swiss vil-lage, and if I squint hard enough I envision

Heidi (originally penned by Swiss author

Johanna Spyri and later embodied on film

by Shirley Temple) skipping through the

narrow streets, a basket of baked goods

dangling from her arm.

The bread throughout Switzerland has

been remarkably delicious, but it is

Appenzell’s pastries that take the cake.

Tarts and turnovers spill over the counters

at the local bakeries. Beer and sausage are

also commonplace, and I indulge in both

for lunch at a local café. Two hefty links of siedwurst (a beef sausage seasoned with

caraway and garlic), are accompanied by

potato salad and all washed down with the

local brew, Appenzeller Bier. Swiss-culti-

vated hops and barley combined with

Alpstein massif spring water produce

lagers and stouts with pronounced charac-

teristics ranging from sweet and malty to

aromatic and nutty.

For my final foray into Swiss food culture,

I hop on an e-bike for a gastronomic tour

through the region. The morning begins

with pastries and coffee at LandgasthausNeues Bild (Dorfstrasse 1. Tel: +41-717-

871303. www.neuesbild.ch ), a guesthouse

and restaurant tucked away amid the

rolling hills. Onward to Hotel Bären

(3823 Wengen. Tel: +41-33-855-1419.

www.baeren-wengen.ch ) for hearty

braised meat, freshly baked bread, and deli-

cious wine. Perched atop a vista with the

local church steeple in the distance,

unleashed dogs wander across the road as

if to say, “Where are the scraps for me?” We

finally arrive at the Appenzeller Cheese

Show Dairy (Appenzeller Schaukäserei,Dorf 711. Tel: +41-71-368-5070 www.

schaukaeserei.ch ), and I find that my

Swiss culinary road trip has come full circle.

I am ending where I began…with cheese.

My culinary journey reveals that

Switzerland’s cuisine is more than cheese,

beer, chocolate (and intoxicating shots of

absinthe in the back woods). It is the sum

of various cultures and traditions that

blend together in a delightful way that tin-

gle all of the senses.

Gruyères

P h o t o s : S w i t z e r l a n d T o u r i s m

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Passport Magazine: World Eats, Switzerland