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FOOD AND DRINK |
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Food and drink can inflict a fairly massive hole in your budget if
you're not careful. Prices are high across the board, although by
combining a judicious choice of eateries with forays into picnicking and
self-catering you can manage fine on a tight budget without any
compromise on nutrition.
Food
Dairy products - cheese, milk, cream, butter and/or yoghurt - find their
way into most Swiss dishes. All but a handful of places offer vegetarian
set menus, but veggies should be aware that most restaurants default
onto standard meat-based dishes: fresh salads may come layered with cold
meats. Co-operative-run diners, many located in squats in the major
cities, offer budget vegetarian and vegan meals as standard.
Burgers, pizza slices, kebabs and falafels are universal snack standbys.
You'll also find various different kinds of sausage ( Wurst , saucisse ,
salsiccia ) served as chargrilled fast food; the most popular are pork
Bratwürste . Cheese fondue - a pot of fragrant wine-laced molten cheese
into which you dip cubes of bread or potato - is the national dish. It's
usually priced as a two-person (or more) deal, or as an all-you-can-eat
deal, dubbed à discrétion or à gogo . Another speciality is raclette ,
where piquant molten cheese is spread on a plate and scooped up with
bread or potato. Lakeside resorts nationwide offer fresh trout and perch.
A Swiss-German staple is Rösti , grated potatoes fried to a golden-brown
hash and often topped with cheese, chopped ham or a fried egg. Älpler
Magrone is macaroni cheese with extra onion, bacon, potatoes and cream.
Käseschnitten is toasted cheese. In and around Bern, you'll find
Bernerteller or Bernerplatte , a hefty pile of cold and hot meats with
sauerkraut; Zurich has Gschnetzlets , diced veal in a creamy mushroom
sauce; Luzern has Chögalipaschtetli , a large puff-pastry shell also
filled with creamy diced veal. Ticinese eateries specialize in home made
gnocchi, risotto and polenta.
The line between a café and a restaurant is blurred: either can do you a
meal, although usually at set times (mostly noon-2pm & 6-10pm), with
only snacks available in between. The key to avoiding expense in these
places is to make lunch your main meal, and always to plump for the dish
of the day ( Tagesmenu , Tagesteller , Tageshit ; plat/assiette du jour
; piatto del giorno ) - often substantial, quality nosh for Sfr15 or
less. The same meal in the evening, or choosing à la carte anytime, can
cost double, although beerhalls in the German-speaking cities often
serve hearty inexpensive evening meals, and pizza-pasta joints and
simple diners can fill your stomach for Sfr15-20. Chain department
stores in town centres nationwide invariably have surprisingly good self-service
diners attached, where pick-and-choose meals can amount to just Sfr13;
Manora (aka Placette or Inova) is usually best, followed by Migros, EPA
and Coop. Most of these places let you pay Sfr6/10 for a small/large
plate, with no limit on the quantity of fresh salad or hot daily special
you can pile onto it, and some offer a twenty-percent discount to
students. Migros is also the biggest chain of supermarkets , while
Aperto are small deli-style outlets with long opening hours located at
main train stations. Watch out for sinalco or alkohol-frei restaurants,
as well as the widespread lack of smoking restrictions.
Drink
Cafés are open from breakfast until about midnight/1am and often sell
alcohol; bars and pubs tend to open their doors for late-afternoon and
evening business only. Daytime places for tea and cakes are dubbed
tearooms . Other than pubs, drinking venues vary according to region. A
cosy Bierstube or Stübli - replete with wood-beams and Swiss kitsch
decor - is the evening meeting-place of choice throughout German-speaking
Switzerland, while in Romandie and Ticino pavement cafés are more common.
Table service is ubiquitous, except at the English or Irish pubs gracing
most towns. Local beers vary between regions and are invariably
excellent, costing Sfr3-4 for a third of a litre. A beer-lemonade shandy
is a panaché . Even the simplest bars and restaurants have wine , most
affordably as Offene Wein , vin ouvert , vino aperto , a handful of
house reds and whites chalked up on a board and sold by the decilitre (small
glass Sfr3-5). Premier Swiss wines are the Valais whites (Fendant) and
reds (Dôle). Also look out for local spirits/liquors ( Schnapps , eau-de-vie
, aquavite ), including cherry Kirsch , aromatic pear Williamine , and
excellent Ticinese grappa .
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