Journey Through Switzerland
When I was home for the holidays I bought this book for John Turner. It’s called Journey trough Switzerland. Unfortunately it was wrapped when I bought it, so I couldn’t really have a proper look at it. As soon as John unwrapped it I had a look at it... Now, I learned some interesting things just by reading the first 2 pages - I wanna share that with you!
I loved the title by the way: Switzerland - Heaven on Earth.
The people of Switzerland are widely considered to be industrious, reliable and honest, good natured (John might not quite agree after yesterday), peaceful (ooops, well, must be the bad Brazilian influence) and friendly. What they occasionally lack is a healthy dose of political correctness: there are Swiss men, Schweizer, but the female form, which would be Schweizerin, doesn’t exist. (Now that is the biggest whole lot of pure and utter rubbish I ever heard in my life, sadly enough I have to admit that this book was written by Swiss people, but I promise you, the word Schweizerin (Swiss woman) does exist, I cant honestly think of why they say that...must be that they have been living abroad for too long).
As we know, clichés die hard. Not only have we just pigeonholed the Swiss themselves: when Switzerland the country is mentioned - cross your heart now - who doesn’t immediately think of the Matterhorn or St. Moritz? (For those of you who don’t immediately think of the Matterhorn, it’s the mountain which is pictured on Toblerone Chocolate). Of a land of mountains where an alphorn blowing, yodelling race of goatherds lives in peaceful neutrality? Of Emmentaler and Appenzeller cheese and of chocolate which melts in your mouth? Or of those legendary Swiss bank accounts which in the most direct of all democracies are inviolable, even sacrosanct (dude, how many years ago was this written?) In short, who would doubt that it is pretty much heaven on earth? (This is the where you nod and make a jealous face for not having been born Swiss. Well done, now smile and continue reading).
The Swiss have grown up in Switzerland deeply rooted in the belief that it’s something very special (Are you implying that that’s wrong?). They take full credit for the unique beauty of their countryside - the snow capped mountains, the majestic glaciers, the striking lakes and river valleys and the range of rolling hills - and are proud of it (Course!).
Next comes a very political part about military and wars and I have noticed that the English and Swiss mentalities as far as war is concerned don’t quite go together, that’s why I’m gonna leave that out... It’s also terribly boring :-)
The Swiss have their national myth and their "William Tell" from none other than Friedrich Schiller. Once upon a time, the original three cantons (counties) of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden formed a secret alliance, swearing to fight for independence from the Habsburgs (basically the Germans... just to make it well clear that Swiss German and German is NOT the same! Hallo liebe deutsche Freunde von John, nicht persönlich nehmen #grins#). In order to test the loyalty of his peasant underlings (never heard that word before), the local Habsburg governor, Gessler, had a hat placed on a pole on the market place in Altdorf to which all who passed should bow in respect. When William Tell refused to do so, he was arrested and in punishment made to shoot an apple off his son’s head with a bow and arrow. Against all odds, he succeeded. Yet for being in possession of a second arrow Tell had intended for his tormentor, should his son have been injured, the rebellious marksman was to be thrown into the dungeons near Kuessnacht on the other side of Lake Lucerne. On his way there a föhn wind blew upon the lake. Tell, who had been handed the rudder, steered the boat towards the shore and suddenly leapt to safety on a rock, pushing the boat back into the churning waves. The next day he lay in wait for Gessler near Kuessnacht. When his second arrow finally struck its target, it did so with the same Swiss precision as the first (As you can see, we Swiss are all very good with a bow and arrow...If you want I’ll prove it - who wants to be the first one with the apple on his head?).
And now to the most important bit. Food. While I was home my aunt made a Swiss dish (I didn’t eat much, I spent my time taking the pics). The dish is called raclette and it’s the best ever in the whole wide world... even if you don’t like that taste of it, just the preparation in itself is fun.
What it is: You have a small oven you can place in the centre of your table:
One oven serves usually to up to 8 people. You get a black little thingy that best could be described as a deformed very big spoon: 
On that "spoon" you lay a slice of cheese (there is special cheese for raclette, one that melts easily and that is square, so it goes on the spoon... good, innit?) Then you place the spoon thingy in the oven: 
and wait till the cheese melts (a couple of minutes) and then... enjoy!
Usually you eat it with boiled potatoes, gherkins, silver onions and different spices, but really, you can have whatever takes your fancy. I love it because it’s a real family dish, no-one has to prepare for hours and hours in the kitchen, the main task is to boil potatoes and put everything on the table and because you prepare at the table, you can talk to everybody... It’s the real eating together!Anna has her own blog here.
1 comment:
I am feeling so hungry now.
I mean, I was feeling hungry anyway, but that raclette looks like it might just taste great.
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