Photographers, artists, poets: show us TEMPTATION.
This is a Bernese Platte, smoked sausage,
bacon and potato on a bed of vegetable. In this case green beans, but cooked
red cabbage is also appropriate. A Swiss dish, but under other names available
in most countries and I cooked it myself.
I very rarely turn down anything that goes
under the name of food. Not that I would try a grasshopper, a locust or mealworms,
everything has its limits, although it seems they are rich in protein. Of
course if my country was suffering from famine as a result of drought or war,
then I would probably even cook grass if I was hungry. It would then not come
into the question to turn food down. However, in our country this is not the
fact. We are even guilty of throwing good food away because it might be two
days over the date of “eat before” and it is no longer qualified to be sold.
In this connection there is nothing I could simply not turn down. I have my preferences, but we all have our preferences. Mum was not exactly a cordon bleu cook. She cooked as her mother cooked and at the beginning of the twentieth century in a working class environment you could be glad to have meat on the table: One of the reasons why mum always ensured that we had meat on the table, a sign of decency probably. Mum did not know what garlic was, she never bought it and never used it. Actually the only spices she really used were salt and pepper and if French fries were on the menu then you had vinegar to shake over them as well – an English tradition. How often have I heard from my Swiss friends when talking about the English cooking “the English cannot cook and they put vinegar on their chips”. There are a few well known English cooks that can cook and very well. Times change and so does food. My mother had never tasted smoked salmon, that was for the posh. Today smoked salmon is often on the menu at home, generally served on toast with perhaps a horse radish sauce.
Of course I have my likes but I have a funny thing about food. Unless I know how it is prepared and where it comes from I try to avoid it. You do not make me happy if you invite me to a meal in a restaurant. It might look good, taste fine, but how did they cook it, what did they use and where did they get the ingredients from? Oh I am fussy. There are times when I am stressed and cooking a meal for a family can be annoying, but on the other hand at least I know what I am eating. When I was a young mother with four children (2 step) and a husband to feed it was similar to feeding an army. Every day meat, vegetable and pasta, potato or rice, but at least we knew what we were eating. It comes to my mind the big horrific scare the English suffered when it was discovered that horsemeat was contained in their frozen lasagne. Personally I like horse meat, do not eat it every day, once in a blue moon, but why not. In Switzerland the sale of horse meat is controlled. We eat beef, lamb or pork and no carnivore person would bat an eyelid.
Then I ask myself, why frozen lasagne. It is not magic to make it yourself, might take a little more time than just heating it up in the oven, but at least you know what it contains.
An important aspect of eating served food is the ambiance. Some restaurants have it and some do not. A busy overstressed waitress can spoil the meal with her impatient actions. After a meal in a restaurant, no matter how good it was, you feel tired, drink your coffee and go home. If I serve the meal at home, we clear away the dishes, drink our coffee or tea and take it easy: perhaps a sojourn on the settee or even a golden oldie midday sleep – what restaurant offers such a service. This is really only available at hotel Mama.
So what is my favourite? As said I eat it all, am not fussy. I quite like lamb, a shoulder, a leg or just a piece of meat. I like an Indian curry, lived with an Indian family for two years and it was the daily meal, be it a curry, biryani or pakora and the various breads. In Switzerland we are surrounded by France, Italy and Germany and this shows in the diversity of food available: Switzerland itself has a good choice according to where you live.
So you can all enjoy your chocolate cakes spiced with cherries and covered in cream, I can do that as well and do not need a restaurant to serve it.
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In this connection there is nothing I could simply not turn down. I have my preferences, but we all have our preferences. Mum was not exactly a cordon bleu cook. She cooked as her mother cooked and at the beginning of the twentieth century in a working class environment you could be glad to have meat on the table: One of the reasons why mum always ensured that we had meat on the table, a sign of decency probably. Mum did not know what garlic was, she never bought it and never used it. Actually the only spices she really used were salt and pepper and if French fries were on the menu then you had vinegar to shake over them as well – an English tradition. How often have I heard from my Swiss friends when talking about the English cooking “the English cannot cook and they put vinegar on their chips”. There are a few well known English cooks that can cook and very well. Times change and so does food. My mother had never tasted smoked salmon, that was for the posh. Today smoked salmon is often on the menu at home, generally served on toast with perhaps a horse radish sauce.
Of course I have my likes but I have a funny thing about food. Unless I know how it is prepared and where it comes from I try to avoid it. You do not make me happy if you invite me to a meal in a restaurant. It might look good, taste fine, but how did they cook it, what did they use and where did they get the ingredients from? Oh I am fussy. There are times when I am stressed and cooking a meal for a family can be annoying, but on the other hand at least I know what I am eating. When I was a young mother with four children (2 step) and a husband to feed it was similar to feeding an army. Every day meat, vegetable and pasta, potato or rice, but at least we knew what we were eating. It comes to my mind the big horrific scare the English suffered when it was discovered that horsemeat was contained in their frozen lasagne. Personally I like horse meat, do not eat it every day, once in a blue moon, but why not. In Switzerland the sale of horse meat is controlled. We eat beef, lamb or pork and no carnivore person would bat an eyelid.
Then I ask myself, why frozen lasagne. It is not magic to make it yourself, might take a little more time than just heating it up in the oven, but at least you know what it contains.
An important aspect of eating served food is the ambiance. Some restaurants have it and some do not. A busy overstressed waitress can spoil the meal with her impatient actions. After a meal in a restaurant, no matter how good it was, you feel tired, drink your coffee and go home. If I serve the meal at home, we clear away the dishes, drink our coffee or tea and take it easy: perhaps a sojourn on the settee or even a golden oldie midday sleep – what restaurant offers such a service. This is really only available at hotel Mama.
So what is my favourite? As said I eat it all, am not fussy. I quite like lamb, a shoulder, a leg or just a piece of meat. I like an Indian curry, lived with an Indian family for two years and it was the daily meal, be it a curry, biryani or pakora and the various breads. In Switzerland we are surrounded by France, Italy and Germany and this shows in the diversity of food available: Switzerland itself has a good choice according to where you live.
So you can all enjoy your chocolate cakes spiced with cherries and covered in cream, I can do that as well and do not need a restaurant to serve it.
I like many many different kinds of food, it would be impossible to narrow it down to a particular dish, or even ethnic type. Although I can cook quite well (I taught myself in my early twenties), I rarely cook these days. My job is quite stressful and all I want to do when I get home is relax. I can't be bothered standing around in the kitchen, so I generally live out of the microwave. Tesco do a very acceptable range of 'ready meals' that take 5 minutes to heat up. I love to eat out, but rarely get the chance here, but when I go over to the US to see Joanne, we eat out a LOT!!!!
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