Daily Prompt: 1984

You’re locked in a room with your greatest fear. Describe what’s in the room.

My greatest fear:

No daily prompt? But that never happens, they might be late, might be forgotten but like a bad penny they turn up daily, usually something we got a couple of years ago, so is the life of a blogger.

I no longer have greatest fears, so I decided to see what fears were in wait for me today when I awoke from my golden oldie lunchtime sleep. Lately Mr. Swiss and I have acquired the daily habit of taking a snack when we return to the normal daily awake life and today there was nothing in the cupboard or fridge. Yesterday we had a piece of cake, with cream and meringue. I was not really hungry, but there must be something. It was like being locked in a room with nothing to eat. I then remembered a suspicious box in the refrigerator that appeared some time yesterday between dusk and dawn. 

It was a box of something known as After Eight, chocolate covered creams, usually the peppermint variety, bit this time I noticed they were orange flavoured. I am quite partial to orange flavours.

“Mr. Swiss do we have some sort of speciality to eat?”

“No, not today.”

“What about those After Eights?”

“Ah yes, then have some.”

I do not need a invitation, I was already on my way, opening the fridge door, my fingers clutching, no embracing the box. It was then that I met the first obstruction.

It was a special Christmas edition, orange flavoured. I noticed it was packed in plastic, but that was the first obstacle to overcome.The box was not only packed in plastic, but there was a second cover over the plastic. There we had it - a locked box. Now the fun began. I really did not want to destroy the package, but I was hungry, my yearn for an orange flavoured chocolate covered After Eight knew no bounds.

“How am I suppose to open this?” I asked, not wanting to spoil the cardboard cover.”

“Use the scissors.”

Arn’t men clever, they are so logical with their ideas.

I began to cut through the cardboard (see photo of cut cardboard) and now I had reached the core of the surprise. A box of After eight still incarcerated in plastic.This was not 1984, this was a step beyond: pure torture. I cast a quick glance at the walls and recesses of the kitchen. Was there a camera? Was Big Brother watching me? No, just my cat wondering why humans have to be so complicated.

I knew my target was now within reach. My taste buds were already in preparation. It was just a matter of removing the plastic which usually has a sort of red stripy thing to pull, facilitating matters of removal. This seemed to be an exception to the rule, there was nothing to pull and my fingers were slipping and sliding until with a ruthless grip, and a small profanity (words always help) I tugged at the plastic where I noticed it was stuck together. The plastic was torn apart quite brutally, in 2 or was it 3 pieces, floating to the ground. I bent to remove it from the floor - the most difficult part of the operation.

I was nearly there. I opened the box and found it full of packed orange flavoured After Eights. After the work involved, I decided that just one piece was not worth the investment, so I took two and now I am writing my daily prompt. My greatest fear was not the locked room, but the locked box of After Eights.

WordPress Daily Prompt: Unlikely Pairing

Bacon and chocolate, caramel and cheddar… Is there an unorthodox food pairing you really enjoy? Share with us the weirdest combo you’re willing to admit that you like — and how you discovered it.

What I might find unlikely does not mean that others find it so. Our colonists in the States discovered how to make some sort of paste from peanuts, and they called it peanut butter. It was even exported to their mother country, Great Britain, and the British found it good. It is today still sold in supermarkets, but I have to yet meet a British person that just loves to coat their peanut butter with a thick layer of jam/jelly. The Chinese probably invented sweet and sour which is almost their daily food, but peanut butter is not sour, just savoury, and I do not know who had this brainy idea. Perhaps it was Doctor Pepper, but I have never drank this liquid and up to now I do not believe that it is a great export hit to Switzerland, who knows? Forest Gump seemed to drink it with every meal.

I remember when I left behind the English way to cook and arrived in Switzerland. It did not take long for me to discover that the English way of food was not the be all and end all of the culinary way of life. One of the many remarks I had to accept was “Oh yes, the English pour vinegar on their chips/French fries”. It was how I grew up. Mum cooked fish and chips and to accompany this English way of eating, we had salt, pepper and a bottle of vinegar on the table and would flavour and drench our chips in this acid for taste perfection. It was not just vinegar. There were two sorts. Either you had malt vineagar, or non-brewed. Mum always bought non-brewed. What that was I never discovered, but it was printed on the bottle.

I was now living in Switzerland and discovered that although the Swiss looked down upon the English for smothering their chips/French fries in vinegar, they found it quite decent to serve fish with a portion of mayonnaise. I like mayonnaise, so this was no problem. A Swiss would think twice before serving fish with French fries/chips. They find it a crime to mix two items bathed in oil and so I gradually found that boiled potatoes (with a coating of parsley) were the suitable accompaniment to fish. I have now been married to Mr. Swiss for 46 years and yes, with a woman’s persuasion (he did not have a great choice) he now eats his fish fingers, salmon, cod etc. etc. with chips/French fries. He did not have a choice, although now and again I humour him with boiled potatoes.

I have eaten many foreign dishes and have no great problem. When I know it is genuine I will eat it. I am glad when I know what I am actually eating, whether it is animal, vegetable or mineral. There is a fish dish known as calamares, which is actually squid. It arrives on the plate in rings, deeply fried in a coating, or perhaps not and pure in a salad. I do not really care how it looks. I have tried it and whilst everyone else finds it fantastic, good, great, I wonder what is so perfect in chewing something that reminds me of a tyre on a car. OK, perhaps I get it all wrong, but I am not convinced.

I quite like pineapple with ham or in a coleslaw salad. It is harmless, and complements the meat flavour. I ate pigeon pie in Marrakesh, which is their delicacy. I was reminded of a tomb where you lift the lid and find a collection of bones beneath and some fragments of meat. It tasted OK, and why not eat a pigeon, there are enough flying around. I discovered in Internet it is known as Pastilla. I would not serve it at home, however. Some people might be annoyed to eat such a sweet little bird.

On my first holiday in England after leaving, I was still single and had not yet met Mr. Swiss: I decided to introduce mum and dad to the secrets of the Swiss kitchen. This was a mistake. I really thought they would fall in love with Sauerkraut, having been brought up on cabbage with most meals, but Sauerkraut is not = cabbage. It was not the English taste and so I decided to forget it.

The Swiss invented chocolate; at least they think they did. It comes in all shapes and sizes and flavours. Probably the turnover was decreasing or the powers that be in the Swiss chocolate world had a dream and all sorts of strange mixtures were appearing in the supermarket. I did not realise this as chocolate is chocolate and the packing looks mostly the same. It was a fateful day when I opened a new bar of chocolate at home and found my mouth began to burn with the first bite.

How can you mix chocolate with chilli powder, it does not work. I do not know what bright spark decided to invent this chocolate. It is a crime against the unsuspecting chocolate eaters of this world.

I now rest my case. Oh, it is also a strange mixture to bring a daily prompt at midnight, but all sorts of strange things happen in the WordPress t-shirt world.

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The Secret Weapon of Switzerland

Yes we have one, seen being sold in a supermarket, where? In a supermarket, Switzerland's latest development in combat against the enemy, Army chocolate and UTZ certified (meaning that the cocoa beans or whatever were in an environmentally kind concept grown - or something like that).

Thinking back to the days when my son was a Swiss soldier, I know that his supplies on manoevres contained a portion of Swiss Army chocolate. Not so nicely packed as this one, more in a rough aluminium, but it helped him to battle his way through forests infected with squirrels, grass snakes and even mice. He fought his way over streams holding his rifle in the air to prevent it getting damp, but the Swiss soldier always had a bar of Swiss army chocolate in his rücksack to sustain him when things really got tough.

Now it seems the food industry has discovered this healthy food and is selling it to all in supermarkets. I was a bit unsettled knowing that this was reserved for our soldiers. We don't have a navy, no sea available. We do have an airforce, but at the moment they are busy buying new planes from Sweden. The planes have not actually been seen yet, as the Swedes still have them on the drawing board, but our military are convinced they will be the solution to any air battles that we might have.

In the meanwhile back to the vitamine enhanced fortifying chocolate rations, now available to all. This of course means that our working people from other countries can now also buy supplies in the local supermarket, but do not fear. The Italians are too busy buying their San Marzano pear shaped tomatoes for the spaghetti sauce, and those from the Balkan countries spices for their cevapcici or other such firey dishes.

Our Swiss chocolate remains reserved for our land fighting forces and the Swiss population. By the way it is quite good I must admit. Mr. Swiss did wonder why I actually bought this, but when I told him for a photo, he just shook his head (again).

Another Day in Switzerland

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I just had to share this one. I arrived at work as usual this morning around 07.10 a.m. and this lorry was parked outside our stock room. It was picking up some publicity material we had ready to be dispatched in the world. This lorry was a cheerful picture so early. What could be more Swiss than a giant-sized advertisement for Toblerone, one of our internationally known Swiss chocolates. I suppose the lorries travel all over Europe and a bit of advertising is always worth while. When the chauffeur saw that I was taking photos he said that would cost, but it was just a joke. He didn't really look like a Brad Pitt lookalike, but he seemed to have his lorry under control.

I don't really eat that much chocolate and when I do it is usually very dark as that has least carbohydrate which I should avoid because of diabetes. I must also confess, that although I have been living in Switzerland for more than forty years, I still actually prefer English chocolate to the Swiss. You cannot beat a bar of Cadbury's fruit and nut and Cadbury's milk flakes. I even liked Aero, the one with the chocolate bubbles in it. We have something similar in Switzerland known as Rayon, but it is not the same. The bubbles are smaller and they are sort of caramelised. Toblerone is ok, it always reminds me of flying to England as all you get these days for a meal in the plane is a mini toblerone. For my taste the Swiss chocolate just has too much cream and sugar. Mr. Swiss always complains because I keep the chocolate in the refrigerator. As a Swiss he says it doesn't develop the flavour properly. These Swiss seem to think they invented chocolate.

It was a quiet morning at work. At the moment we have business visitors from the English speaking countries. My Russian was also there - he speaks better english than I do Russian. It seems his technician was not allowed to leave the country with him as he used to work for the aerospace industry in Russia and he knows to much to let him out. I suppose other countries other customs.

I had my usual after lunch nap today, but unfortunately it became more than a nap and I slept from 01.30 p.m. until 04.30 p.m. which I was not so happy about. I am spending the evening on my Todd (cockney= Todd Jones = alone) as my other half has a rehearsal with his jazz group. The cats have had their tuna fish evening as usual on Wednesday and are now laying around somewhere digesting it. Temperatures have dropped here in Switzerland and this morning when I went to work it was only 3°C. During the day it warmed up a bit to 13°C, but slowly Winter is arriving. Even the cats stay indoors more now during the night and they have a fur coat.

This evening they all seemed to be waiting for something

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