It was a weeklong adventure with my parents visiting us in Zürich from New York City, and we certainly covered a lot of ground – walking around Zürich and warming our bellies with Swiss fondue and hot chestnuts, experiencing Bern’s crazy confetti-filled Onion Festival even if in the rain and sleet, tasting kugelhopf in the colorful and charming Alsatian town of Colmar (which you’re sure to read about soon on the blog!) and even recreating an authentic Thanksgiving feast here in Switzerland.  Having had our fill of wursts, cheese, chocolate, snow, Swiss German and French, we went off on a search for sun, pasta and gelato! 

We hopped in the car and headed south from Zürich for “always sunny” Ticino, Switzerland’s Italian region.  Looking around at the architecture, the people and how they dress, hearing the sing song melodies of Italian, reading restaurant menus, and even observing people’s driving, you’d have a hard time believing that you weren’t actually in Italy.  After two hours in the car, we passed through a 17-mile tunnel and all imagined what would welcome us on the other side… we each had our own visions of blue skies and sun and beautiful Italian people walking around outside with large cones of gelato (despite it being the end of November).  What a shock when we emerged from the tunnel?.and found ourselves in the midst of a snow storm!

Seeing palm trees in Switzerland is already quite of a curious thing.  Looking up at tall, green palm trees, and then looking down at piles of white snow is yet another. Vegetation that seems better suited to Florida or Brazil made for quite a contrast with the Alps as a background.  Our base for a few days of this Italian winter exploring was in Locarno, ironically known to amass the most hours of sunshine of any other Swiss city – or so our guide book told us!  It is a beautiful old town full of Italian piazzas and arcades, subtropic gardens and churches, all sitting on Lake Maggiore.  The weather didn’t hold us back, and we enjoyed the Italian atmosphere, savored thin crusted pizzas, platters of mixed grilled fish, fresh pasta and big scoops of gelato.  In and out of pasticcerias, we even honed our Italian, ordering individual cream pastries and admired the tall panettone in the windows.

Below are two good spots for eating out in Locarno.  Next up on the blog: a fabulous find for where to stay in Locarno – which may just be the same place to get the city’s best cappuccino.

As an American, I should have one thing on my mind today: turkey.  However, I live in Switzerland, and they don’t exactly celebrate Thanksgiving here.  Besides, if I have one thing on my mind, it’s onions.

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Winter is officially here, and the temperature dropped a great deal this weekend.  We had our first snowfall since being here in Zürich.  And my parents arrived from New York to visit us.  All signs pointed to one thing… fondue!

For our very first fondue in Switzerland, we chose a charming restaurant in the old town of Zürich, boasting the cuisine of the French-speaking region in the Southwest, the Vaud.  Nestled among downtown’s old buildings and cobblestone streets, Le Dézaley sits in a little cul de sac off of the main road, where the (very) punctual and clean blue trams run day and night.  The dominating towers of Grossmünster Church soar above the restaurant, with its powerful bells ringing throughout the neighborhood.  But inside, you hear only the loud clamor of clinking glasses and boisterous laughter should anyone drop a piece of bread in the fondue pot, totally against the rules!

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I am not ready for Thanksgiving.  I have not read my pile of food magazines, all boasting special Turkey Day menu ideas and recipes.  I have not done my research and tracked down a 20 pound bird here in Switzerland.  I am still getting over having missed Halloween.  I was on the road, mostly in Paris, and aside from treating myself to a serious dose of excellent candy from Käramell (Paris’ Swedish candy shop), I didn’t celebrate Halloween as I usually enjoy doing.  I didn’t get to see any trick or treaters, with their fun, creative costumes and their big bags or baskets to fill, nor did I have the chance to bake spooky themed cookies or ghost shaped meringues.  But most especially, I missed out on making my annual pumpkin cake, which I normally do once we hit October.  So today, before I start thinking turkey,… I’m thinking pumpkin.

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When I had asked the ladies in Paris’ Pralus shop about their signature pink praline brioche – why pink? – they simply said that blue or green wouldn’t have been the most appetizing.  They do make a fine point.  That said, blue M&M’s seem totally normal to me.  As do purple frosting and bright green lollipops.  But I was still quite surprised to see a blue chocolate bar the other day, on the road somewhere between Zürich and Lyon.

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I suppose all of you who read the blog last week expected me to go to the market and buy a dozen carrots to make Rose Bakery’s carrot cake.  Well, I did go to the market. And I did buy those carrots.  And they were awfully good roasted as a side dish with my dinner this evening.  They didn’t make it to the dessert table after all.  Only because a beautiful selection of apples and pears did.  Long tables at the market with a dozen varieties of apples and pears distracted me, and had me thinking crumble, not carrot. Despite the absence of bright, ripe summer berries, there is still great fruit to be had at this time of year, and a crumble is a super fast and easy way to use it all.

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To wrap up the news on my most recent visit to Paris, I have to mention one more sweet spot.  In the past week or so on this site, you’ve seen that in Paris you can find it all – in addition to all of the French gourmandises, there’s Swedish candy, British carrot cake and sticky toffee pudding, and now… American style cupcakes and cheesecake too!  

Unfortunately, I left Paris too soon to take pictures of these colorful cupcakes.  I happened to walk by Berko pre-cupcakes, on the very day it opened, October 25th. Seeing a bright, modern looking shop, counters lined with tarts, a display reminding my French husband of New York’s City Bakery, how could I not go in and find out more?  It was early morning and Régis Clerc-Vincent was just setting up the tarts for the day.  He was lining up the savory tarts – salmon and spinach, goat cheese and leek, bacon and onion, 3 cheese and nuts and tomato mozzarella, to name just a few.  Individual tarts of a generous portion, they sell for 5 Euros each, yet are available in larger sizes, perfect to pick up for dinner after work.  I  inevitably drifted over to the other side where it was all about the sweet tarts!  Lemon meringue, pecan pie, chocolate ganache, coffee cream, fruit crumbles and what might become his signature – cheesecake.  The French go crazy over cheesecake! Régis was very proud to say that Berko’s is made with 100% Philadelphia cream cheese, apparently not the case at other patisseries.  And he knows his cheesecake.  The Berko shop may be new, but the company has been making tarts for 20 years, delivering to restaurants all over the city, including that cheesecake.  Now they are available at his shop right near the Centre Pompidou, with a special addition close to Régis’ heart… the cupcake! When I told him I was from New York, the next word out of his mouth was “Magnolia!”

Régis just sent me some photos of his shop, now filled with pastel frosted cupcakes, some of which are sitting on his cherished cupcake tree that he got off Ebay.  I even saw a picture of French actress Linh Dan Pham eating one.  (She’s best known for starring alongside Catherine Deneuve in Oscar-winning film Indochine in 1992.)  Of course I’ll be going back to Berko next time I am in Paris, if only to hold me off until my next visit to Magnolia Bakery in New York City.  

And how can I not go back to Berko, it’s just a few doors down from Pralus after all, and a mere block from Pain de Sucre.  Talk about a sweet destination in Paris.  Near the beginning of Rue Rambuteau, this one block between Rue Beaubourg and Rue du Temple is just overflowing with food shops.  Such a short distance with so much to offer: 2 fruit/vegetable shops, 2 butchers, a Greek caterer, Nicolas wine, 2 boulangeries, 2 small brasseries, a Franprix supermarket, a tiny organic restaurant, a new crêpe restaurant, an Auvergnat food shop, Asian takeout, fishmonger, plus Pralus and Berko… I could hardly believe it myself.  

Régis was more than happy to share a recipe with me for you all.  However, you can be sure it is not coming from the cheesecake file; that’s confidential!  Here’s a preview… it’s made with Carambars, the quintessential candy of French children… and adults alike! Stay tuned, I’ve got my bag of Carambars ready.  And if I can bring myself to part with them, I’ll be making that tart very soon.

Last week I wrote about my lunch at Rose Bakery in Paris, which unfortunately did not include their signature carrot cake, the ultimate reason for my visit.   I was forced to return to Zürich, carrot cake-less, ready to plot my next visit to Paris and the bakery, with a call first thing in the morning to reserve my portion. 

I still plan on doing so, even if I now have the possibility of tasting Rose’s cake without taking a train, or  leaving my apartment at all for that matter.  Well, besides the quick trip to the market to pick up a dozen carrots or so.  She does have a cookbook called Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, but I don’t have it… yet.  What I do have is this week’s Le Fooding newsletter that announced a video of Rose Carrarini making her mini carrot cakes on the site.  (Le Fooding has a fun, informative website in French, with a guide to restaurants in France, food news and events.)  I was quite surprised that Rose revealed her recipe for all the world to see online. But then again, I’m not complaining.  

Click here for a short video of Rose Carrarini making her very popular carrot cake.  She may be speaking French, but watching her every step requires no translation. 

Below is the recipe adapted to American measurements, followed by the original version in French:

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This past weekend was a short trip to Lyon – only 2 days, and relatively short in distance (about 4.5 hours by car from Zürich) – but what felt like a long trip back in time.  From last week’s visits to Paris’ pastry shops with colorful macarons and beautiful, precious pastries, we left the modern and refined for the traditional, more laid back cuisine of Lyon’s typical restaurants, called bouchons.  We saw heavier dishes like quenelles (fish dumplings), many varieties of offal and sausage, coq au vin, duck pâté, hearty salads with meat and platters of charcuterie.  True Lyonnaise cuisine is not for those watching their diets, and especially their cholesterol!  Following the obligatory cheese plate with Saint-Marcellin, dessert menus will almost always include: ile flottante, baba au rhum, tarte aux pralines, nougat glacé, profiteroles and bugnes de Lyon (small rounds of fried dough).  

My father-in-law was searching for a particular atmosphere for Sunday lunch.  He wanted to find a small, charming restaurant on the Saône, the tranquil river flowing through Lyon. He wasn’t looking for haute cuisine, but rather a convivial atmosphere and good traditional cooking.  With a name like La Guinguette, we could not have found a place more suited to his cravings. Reminiscent of the paintings of the Impressionists, guinguettes depicted scenes with food, drink and music.  Usually open-air restaurants with an area for dancing, guinguettes were popular with the urban working class who wanted to relax on a Sunday in a pastoral setting. Found along the banks of the Seine, in Paris suburbs or other cities throughout France, they were all about the simple pleasures of life at affordable prices.  In mid-November I have to admit that the ambience was a bit more subdued, but I could imagine all the restaurants lined up along the water just filled with people, eating outside and drinking wine late into the summer nights.

On a side note, a guinguette is a true subject of nostalgia in France, as not many survive today.  Many were closed down by the Germans during France’s Occupation, and the final decline came with the invention of television, and the ban on bathing in the rivers in 1960.  

Ordering a prix fixe menu (always the best option in France), we had the choice of a Salade Lyonnaise (poached egg, lardons, croutons), Salade Pêcheur (baby shrimp, crevettes, cooked salmon), Salade Landaise (smoked duck breast, croutons) or a plate of charcuterie (sausage, terrine, confit, pâté, rillettes, ham) as a starter.  Not one of us bothered to read the options for the main course however – it was Cuisses de Grenouilles à la provençale for us all – frog legs!  A large platter filled the center of our table, with small, fried frog legs swimming in the typical sauce of butter, garlic and parsley.  Forget a fork and knife, this is food you eat with your hands. 

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It was April 1, 2002 when I first laid eyes on those beautiful, bright pink brioches.  I didn’t quite know what they were, but I was awfully curious to find out.  I was standing outside of François Pralus’ eponymous shop in Roanne, France, which his father Auguste Pralus opened in 1955.  I was staring inside the pastry shop window, wondering why it had to be closed at that very moment.  I had taken 2 trains from Clermont-Ferrand (where I was living at the time), for a total of almost 3 hours to go to lunch at Restaurant Troisgros.  Crazy?  Yes, but totally worth it!  I not only remember every course of that 4 hour lunch, but also that moment outside of Pralus’ shop.  I had no clue then that I would eventually know all of Pralus’ products, and even have the chance to work with François himself at the Chocolate Show in New York.

Now I only need to take one train from Zürich, be it 4.5 hours, to get that same brioche.  With the opening of Pralus’ boutique in Paris, it won’t be too long before everyone is talking about the shop’s irresistible specialty, of which there are several in my freezer in Zürich.  

This is not your typical brioche with a few pink candied nuts sprinkled on top.  Oh, no. (more…)