I personally don't get it, and I'm glad because it doesn't seem too healthy. Give me plain old sea salt or himalaya salt any day!
It's the Swiss equivalent of Lawry's seasoning salt or Mrs. Dash in the USA, only it's yellow. There's also a liquid form of it. People tend to sprinkle it on everything.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health...892098,00.html
According to this article the UK has an obesity rate of 23%. Switzerlands is below 10%
I was quite suprised by this after seeing all the cheese, chocolate and fried stuff the Swiss eat!
Aromat is a seasoning mix based on yeast,used instead of salt and THE ingredient many SWISS expats miss when moving abroad.
Other names for the same product are Mirador ( Migros brand ) and Fondor (Nestlé)
If you use this seasoning or not is a bit like the Love or Hate Marmite/vegemite debate
The Maggi liquid on the other hand is NOT THE SAME,it's a liquid seasoning and was invented end of 19th century by the swiss Julius Maggi, who was inspired on a trip to Asia by the soysauce used there and wanted to create a cheap vegetabile replacement to 'fleischextract' ( liquid stockcubes sp?)
it's mainly based on wheat,yeast and soy amongst other things.
Funnily enough we Swiss call the herb Liebstöckel /levisticum officinale (Lovage, Love Parsley, Garden lovage, Bladder seed)
Maggikraut, because the liquid has a distinct smell of this herb, tho' is NOT included as ingredient
Hope this helps
cheers
EE
It is made by Knorr and used as an all-purpose seasoning.
This herb is so delicious! IMHO, it deserves all of its loving names! Nothing will ever beat the real thing, ganz frisch from the garden!
I reckon like most countries what you get in restaraunts here isn't always what people eat at home. IMHO the biggest culprit for putting on weight in a new country is the change in personal diet and lifestyle. I dont see why raw produce here should be more fattening than raw produce else- where.
If roshti is cooked properly it's not a greasy dish, too many places use frozen roshti, layer it too thinly and then ladle on too much fat to add taste. I dont see any difference nutritionaly in the egg and chips of my childhood or the roshti and egg of a swiss family's meal.
Nicky not many Swiss that i know would call potatoes a veg, it's a carb along with pasta, rice and grain products including corn. I've always had veg or salad with my meals here maybe the swiss you know are too lazy to cook.
the swiss dont eat fondue raclette or cheese fondue on a daily basis, these are winter foods often ate with company for some social occasion. As for the pickles, before freezers and supermarkets this was one way a housewife could preserve foods so it's no wonder that they became a staple part of raclette and other cheesey delights.
The first time i tried raclette at a friends house i spent most of my time on the balcony. The smell made me sooo ill. I'm used to it now
Knorr Aromat Seasoning All Purpose contains MSG and the rest of the indredients listed on the following page don't make me want to use it.
Is it just the canteen I eat in or do the Swiss think that cooked rice should have the consistency of rice pudding? In my canteen they sometimes even make a depression into the rice and pour in the gravy or sauce and blow me if it doesn't all stay there.
It's Switzerland or Swiss - not "ch" or "ch"
Roland - I assume your canteen is in Switzerland and you class rice as food, right?
Primarily MSG, and I don't mean the Michael Schenker Group.
dave
You'll find a "bio" section in most grocery stores, but from what I understand they're not as bio as one would like. There are a lot of small markets in towns, so you can ask the seller about what's used on the veg - they may or may not know.
Vegetarian is a foreign concept here, although it is improving at a slow rate. A lot of people, when hearing I am vegetarian, ask if I want the chicken or fish instead of beef. Unless it is a pure vegetarian restaurant, you can't always be assured that the item is free from animal broths, etc.
That reminds me of he first time my Mum came to visit us here. She ordered a veggie pizza and it arrived with ham on it. When we complained that it wasn't what she ordered their solution was to take the ham off! My Mum went home rather hungry.
I've moved the GM Foods discussion to its own thread in the Off Topic section. Please make any GM related posts to that thread.
You mean they use it as a sort of culinary modelling clay here? What a neat idea!
The link to the GM thread: Genetically Modified Foods
Nah, the Swiss aren't bad cooks - They just happen to be even better in marketing than at cooking, so they chose to cheaply distribute the "ménageries" with Maggi and Aromat
Food tends to be on the mild side because many Swiss are capsaicinophobes, myself included, but that's what the ménageries and asia restaurants are for.
I must admit though that I was shocked when I saw glasses of pure monosodium glutamate in the spice section of a Migros for the first time!
Like I've written in the "beer beer beer" thread, regrettably most tap beer is blonde. But beneath the surface you can find many good microbreweries.
Fondue Chinois is an Asian import, the cheese fondue is more traditional.
I've noticed that some restaurants tend to serve Swiss food in untraditional ways. For example a restaurant in Luzern (which in my opinion is the most touristy city in Switzerland anyway) offered Cheese Fondue with a fried sausage. I've seen a YouTube video of tourists in Zürich (Swiss Chuchi Adler), they ate fondue as a starter and countinued with Röschti as main dish. I wonder if their desert was mashed potatoes?
More traditional Swiss food is served in the Crazy Cow in the Kanton Zürich. The menu card is written in Swiss German though, so you may require assistance. The Marche at Zürich Main Station offers cheap röschti with fried eggs. In Zug I've had a delicious fondue at the lake but I've forgotten the name of the restaurant.
They are a matter of taste. But speaking of preserved veggies, it's a good thing that oil-preserved antipasti are much better available than in the nineties! I like this stuff...
Why don't you mention vegetables and salad? Are these not percieved to be part of the Swiss cuisine, or rarely eaten by expats? Every restaurant has at least a green salad and a tomato salad/mixed salad on the menu.
Raclette is traditionally eaten near an open fire. The cheese is put near the fire and when it begins to melt, you scratch the molten part off. But alas, the industrialisation didn't spare this national dish!
Bad, bad idea! A wine is more appropriate. Also, some people dip the bread pieces in a glass of kirsch or williams (or lemon juice) before putting it in the caquelon.
My favorite cheese is Greyerzer/Gruyère. It's an easy task to find non-bland cheese in a Swiss shop...
The term "bio" is not protected, however there are some strict requirements for some bio labels (the "Knospe" among them), and even the not so severe labels publish their guidelines.
The Swiss like good coffee. Recently elvetino, the gastro company serving in trains, switched from instant coffee to freshly brewed coffee, and the coffee sale figures went up 20% On the other hand, the Starbuck shops do well, so I won't say this too loud.
Also the local bakeries often have regional specialty and might be worth some tests...
At the Knabenschiessen in Zürich, there are many food stands that offer more than just sausages, it's always a good occasion to eat some garlic bread, fried corncob or spring rolls... And don't forget the sweet stuff: Magenbrot, Rahmtäfeli (caramel bricks), gebrannte Mandeln (sugar coated almonds) etc... I'm sure other festivals with a similar variety of food stands!
As a Swiss abroad, I do have Aromat in my larder. It's gives a boost to a supermarket salad (that or a bit of that maggi sauce) and it's quite nice on a boiled egg...
As transplanted Californians, we tend to like spicy foods...mexican or asian top the list. I bring supplies back from the States every chance I get, as we can't find too much "hot sauce" at Migros! We have found a mexican and an asian market in Zurch near the Hauptbahnhof. So Tacos and Thai curries figure into our menu choices every week.
We do love the Zurich geschnetzeltes and cook that during the winter. Also bought a raclette set up that we use when guests come from outside CH.
Only thing we miss is the produce from California. Quite a variety there. And where can we get Italian tomotoes? I thought there would be amazing tomotoes this close to Italy...
fduvall
I love Swiss breads and meats such as salamis etc, yum yum yum!
The Italians, too, harvest their best tomatoes during summer - The stuff now sold at Migros etc. isn't very tasty...