Delicious Food From The Grand Europe Expedition

From the beginning we had decided to make this trip count so we started by trying somewhere in the airport that we’d been eyeing for ages: Cafe Vue. There’s actually one of these close to our place but it’s very pricey so we’ve never been. It was still pricey at the airport but we felt like while we were on holidays we would just justify it XD

I had a chocolate crackle which to be honest was terrible. Very little flavour  and tasted a bit stale. James had a burger which I didn’t get a photo of and he said it was the best thing he’d had in his mouth for months. Insert joke here.

I bought the lunch box which that month was themed around famous musicians. I ate everything other than the bagel which I saved for the plane and it was SO good. The tofu and bean salad was amazing.

Our first leg was Singapore Air and they fed us so much that I didn’t even get to eat my bagel! They were making everyone “Singapore Sling” drinks, James enjoyed his a lot. I asked for a non-alcoholic version (not realising it was a premix), the attendant didn’t hear properly and just smiled, nodded and made me a regular one. I got a nice big mouthful of alcohol XD

In case anyone was interested in the kind of airline food we had here’s a compilation! It’s definitely improved since I used to fly regularly as a kid XD Most of the time James and I tried to order one of each option so if one sucked we could switch and share. I also stashed anything sealed in my bag for snack times later… because I’m like that.

The highlight of the airline food was being given actual real ice cream on Singapore Airlines.

Our first taste of Swiss food was at our hotel the B2 Boutique. The breakfast buffet was included in the room price and it was AWESOME. An array of breads and pastries, fruits, dried fruits, spreads etc was all fairly standard but the cheeses and cured meat section was so good! My average breakfast there was a croissant with cottage cheese and dried cranberries, a latte and one of their custom made scrambled eggs with a side of bacon (for James). I’ve never had scrambled eggs that good before. I need to work out what the secret ingredient was!!

We often had dinner at the hotel as well because we were so tired at night and everything we tried was yummy. Something I saw a lot of there were restaurants which had a particular meal special each day of the week. Our hotel was the same so the first night I had the vegetarian option (creamy mix of vegetable with potato bowls) and James had the the spaghetti bolognese. Both were delicious!

The bottom photos in this set are of my morning omelette and latte. Lattes in Switzerland and Germany were so much more creamy and smooth than they generally are in Aus. I think it might be a difference in the kind of milk they use but whatever it was, it was yummy!

Having such a nice filling breakfast really made a change in my energy levels because at home I usually just have a piece of toast!

Not particularly Swiss… but how yummy does this cream from Starbucks look? I’m kind of obsessed with using the new macro attachment on my camera!

Of course there were chocolate shops eeeeeeverywhere.

But I was more interested in the cheese. We went to a supermarket to get some cheeses to try at home and they were SO CHEAP! There was a brand called “Budget” which was like Homebrand and they had huge 250g wedges of brie for under $2. I tried it while we were there and it was sooooo good. It was like butter. So much better than the expensive ones I’ve tried here. The cheapest brie here is $3 for Coles brand and it’s terrible. I mean it’s not inedible but I had some after trying Budget brie and it was like licking dirt in comparison. I refused to get any of the really high quality cheese from Switzerland in case it ruined me forever.

Anyway… I managed to bring back a few wedges for myself… which I’ve almost finished… so now I need to work out how I can get it here ;_;

We learned that most Swiss people buy groceries only for the day or for a few meals at a time so they can have fresh ingredients.

The selection of fresh food was a much bigger ratio than at home and lots of things came in individual portions. I thought these little berry parcels were cute and very well priced.

So onwards to Germany!

German lattes were equally good and had a much better view!

A snapshot of our dishes, the portions here were HUGE. And everyone kept poking fun of us for not being able to finish!

Seriously, this was from the archery hotel and it was bigger than me. It was venison (caught in the forest behind the hotel!), potato croquettes, pear and cabbage salad. It doesn’t look huge here but also part of it was another plate of the red cabbage salad and another 10 croquettes. I could only eat like half of what was on my plate let alone the rest *_*

Breakfast at the Alemannenhof was similar to Switzerland but with many more types of local smoked meat, fish and cheese.

When we explored the local town there were bakeries everywhere with huuuuge loaves of bread. I wish I’d put something here for size reference but it was like 50cm across.

Of course, being in the Black Forest we had to try Black Forest Cake aka Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. I actually hate cherries but it was pretty good. James loved it!

Also, this shop is called “Happy Cheese” and is highly misleading if you’re looking for cheese because it sells none. Also finding still water as opposed to sparkling is surprisingly difficult for some reason.

Omg I tried this potato dish from one of the local vendors and it was SO good. It was called “Bratkartoffeln mit hausgemachtem Krauterquark” or fried potato with home made sour cream and it was AWESOME. I want to try making my own sour cream because holy crap it’s the best thing ever!

Update: Limejuice and Karian have let me know that “quark” actually translates to curds in English. I think it must have been mislabelled because it definitely tasted like sour cream and it was labeled as sour cream in English as well as the German name. Something lost in translation but now I’ll have to try some curds too because whatever it was was delicious ;_;

A special mention goes to James’ favorite dish of the trip: Cheese Spätzle. Basically it’s a cheesy noodley thing with lots and lots of cheese and fried onion strings. Winner! It was so rich that I could only have a few mouthfuls! We ordered one to share and the room service waiter was like “Are you guys sure this will be enough?” … we didn’t even finish the one plate.

The first photo in this set is the last one from Germany. The thing that looks like some kind of delicious mashed potato next to the croissant isn’t. Don’t be fooled or else you’ll get a whole lump of it and regret it as I did. Seriously I thought it was mashed potato! It was fat… for using like butter… so so so so wrong when I had a mouthful of it…

On the other side of the spectrum the blue cheese gnocci from the B2 Boutique restaurant next to it was so freaking delicious. I was so full that I could only eat like half but I did contemplate scraping the rest into my handbag it was that good.

Below that is the salad we had at the hotel spa. After you do the spa part there’s a relaxation cafe zone up the top which has some yummy healthy food. The salad was great. It made me want to put more effort into my salads at home. James is on another health kick so apparently we’re going to be eating healthy again soon so I might as well give it a try!

This was the B2 Restaurant. I loved being surrounded by books.

Something you’ve probably been waiting for: fondue!

We went to this place on the recommendation of our driver as James really wanted to do traditional fondue before we left. We weren’t really very hungry so we’d been planning on sharing but they had a one dish per person limit so we ended up ordering fondue and also raclette which we had thought was a type of cheese but turned out to be a type of cheese and a cooking method of eating cheese where you’re given a mini grill to cook cheese, ham and various bits and pieces before you pour the cheese over it and eat it all. It came with baby potatoes that James didn’t eat but I thought were delicious!

So as much of a cheese fan as I am… turns out I don’t like fondue. I know, I’m disappointed in myself too. Honestly though, it didn’t taste like cheese, it tasted like white wine… like eating solid white wine. I can’t stand the taste of alcohol so I ended up only eating a little of the cheese and eating the potatoes and bread. Most expensive prison style meal ever XD

It was really fun to watch though! And I think if I could make it at home I would enjoy it a lot more because I could control the level of alcohol going in and not feel like I was getting drunk just off the fumes XD

Macarons are clearly still a popular choice as they were in windows everywhere.

I tried roasted chestnuts for the first time ever and fell in love with them too! I got so annoyed trying to shell them between eating though that I sat on the chairs outside our hotel and made James help me do them all at once with me. Convenience for the win!

While we were waiting at the airport James wanted to get rid of all of our coins so he went to the duty free shop and asked what he could buy with 3 francs. The lady was so nice (also probably at the end of her shift that late at night!) that she found these new chocolate bars which were 3.50 and insisted we take them for 3. She was so lovely! She made James promise that next time he was in Switzerland he’d bring her the extra 0.50. Hopefully that won’t be too far away… but  to be honest I really don’t want to sit through another 24hr flight, they are murder.

Lastly on this food adventure I give you a mochi donut I bought at Singapore airport on the way home. It was chewy, weird and not something I would buy again… but looked pretty!

I’m so hungry looking at al of this food again, I think I’m going to go finish off the last of my budget brie >_>