It’s starting to get real exciting at the markets here in Zürich.  We’ve already had a few tastes of summer, and berries are making their first appearances, mostly coming from Spain and Italy.  Best of all, rhubarb is now in the spotlight !  I noticed the long, green-topped, ruby stalks at the Coop (local supermarket) a few weeks ago, but as they were grown in hot-houses (and who knows where), I waited ever so patiently for the local crop to show.  Swiss rhubarb is now at every stand at the markets and I can hardly resist buying some each time I go.  Those bright stalks stick out of my market bag like a French baguette, and I hurry home to turn them into a quick pot of jam, or chop them up and throw them into the oven hiding beneath a mountain of buttery crumble topping.

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I went to Rome.  And I visited the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Forum, Campidoglio and Campo dei Fiori.  But I know what you’ve all been asking.  What and where did I eat ?!

Even though my lists only had addresses for gelato, chocolate, torrone, pastries and breads, remember, I wasn’t alone on this trip.  So I did sort of have to eat some savory.  And hey, it’s Italy… land of pasta, pizza, prosciutto, mozzarella and more.  I was okay with that.

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What sunny, sweet days we have had !  March 20th was not only the first day of spring, but also the Jewish holiday of Purim and Macaron Day too (Jour du Macaron in France).  I enjoyed the obligatory sweets, meaning those 3-cornered cookies called hamantaschen for Purim, with mun (poppy seed), prune and apricot fillings… and I stopped by Ladurée here in Zürich‘s old town to mark the occasion with a salted butter caramel macaron.  (Or two.)

But the weekend saw lots of other sweets too, including more cookies. With a friend in town, I was even busier in the kitchen than usual, making a few batches of my favorite crunchy oat, seed and nut granola (with dark chocolate and sea salt).   Getting crumble topping ready to cover ramekins filled with frozen summer berries.  And preparing rolls of cookie dough to bake at a moment’s notice (chocolate chip pretzel cookies and Nutella oat cookies). You can only imagine my reaction when my friend showed up herself with an enormous box of bakery cookies from London’s Assal Patisserie, as well as Persian nougat (known as Gaz). It was NowRuz, the Persian New Year, she told me. And enjoying these sweets made with saffron, pistachios and rosewater was a must.  I was certainly not going to argue.

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“I would take the trolley car over the Brooklyn Bridge, get off at Essex Street and visit my grandmother on Eldridge Street.  She would put two pennies in a brown paper bag with a string on it, and drop it out of her window to me from the 3rd floor.   I’d take the bag and walk down the block to get a kasha knish.”

I love hearing stories told by my grandmother of her childhood in Brooklyn and on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  The streets during those years have certainly transformed since then, with the growth of trendy neighborhoods, apartment buildings,  stylish stores, restaurants and bars.  But thankfully a few of the original food shops remain, including two on East Houston Street – Russ & Daughters Appetizers and Yonah Schimmel’s Knishery.  The latter is where my grandmother’s two pennies were always well spent.

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The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, and so, holidays fall on different dates each year in the Julian (solar) calendar.  Chanukah, the “Festival of Lights,” tends to coincide with Christmas, but this year, it is even closer to Thanksgiving.  So it was in early November that we dusted off the menorah and took out our wooden dreidels and decorative lights.  I ran over to Books & Bagels in Zürich, my source for all things Jewish during the holidays, especially cards and candles.  Chanukah plates, decorations, stickers, games – you name it, they have it (but I don’t actually recommend the bagels, sorry.).  Gold sachets of chocolate coins (gelt) and presents arrived in a care package from New York.  All was ready for the first night (of eight) at sundown on December 1st.

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Growing up, there were quite a few things on my “don’t like” list, and several have been revealed here on the blog: lemon or lime, raw onions and anything spicy (the latter still holds true today).  Coconut was also on that list, yet is one of the ingredients that was omnipresent throughout my childhood.

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Candles were lit on the menorah and prayers were sung. Potato latkes were dipped in apple sauce and then devoured. Dreidels were spun and M&M’s won. Gold foil wrappers were peeled off  thin milk chocolate gelt (coins), the chocolate inevitably getting stuck under fingernails. Wrapping paper was torn, presents revealed. Friday night December 11th was the first night of Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, and we did each one of those things.  Best of all is that we get to do it 8 nights in a row!  You can get a fun, brief overview of  the holiday and those traditions here, where I realized that Chanukah is in fact very Swiss-friendly – Latke, meet Rösti! And hello milk chocolate, there’s plenty of that here too! Read the rest of this story >>

I hope you have all been able to catch some of the coverage on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, either from the links from the previous post or on television.  Certainly no shortage of the latter.

For those of you planning a trip to Berlin, if you like museums, you’re in luck.  There are almost 200 in Berlin, satisfying your interests in art, culture, history and/or religion, among other curiosities.  Below you’ll see just a few highlights from my short visit to the city, plus one museum that is a must, if only for the fact that you won’t find it anywhere else in the world other than Berlin.  Any guesses? Read the rest of this story >>

Friday night at sundown, September 18th, is the start to a new year on the Jewish (lunar) calendar.  It marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, meaning “Head of the Year.” It also means I’ll be dipping apples in honey, wishing my friends and family a sweet new year.  As I have shared here before, I am definitely one for traditions and simply love all holidays – annual get-togethers, celebratory atmosphere and tables filled with recipes that show up year after year.

But for the year 5770, I wanted to bake something a bit different, stray from the typical (even if delicious) honey cake and babka.  Yet I still wanted to keep the message the same.  A sweet new year.  I pictured our beautiful holiday table set year after year with a round challah, piles of sliced apples and honey and new seasonal fruits – pomegranates, persimmons and fresh figs.  And that’s when it clicked – I knew what I would make… a recipe I told my readers they would see here on the blog one day.  And this was the perfect occasion… nougat (or torrone)!  I would make a honey-based nougat and add dried figs as a second nod to the new year.  After all, is there anything sweeter than nougat?!

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A trip to New York City?  To me, that usually means City Bakery, William Greenberg, Billy’s Bakery and bagels, of course.  But not this time around.  That will have to wait for the next transatlantic trip when it’s not Passover, the Jewish holiday when we avoid all leavened foods.  Yet if there is but one reason to be in New York right now, it’s simple: my grandfather’s matzoh brei.

Matzoh, those dry, cracker-like squares we resort to instead of bread, get dressed up and disguised in all shapes and forms.  My favorite is matzoh buttercrunch and especially my latest creation, in ice cream sundaes.  My other favorite is soaked in eggs and fried like French toast or scrambled up like the eggs it’s mixed with.  That’s matzoh brei.  Some people like it savory, some sweet.  (You can all guess my preference, I am sure!) From one pan of matzoh brei, you can have a dozen different plates on the table.  My mother is of the salt and pepper camp.  My grandfather eats his with lox (smoked salmon).  My grandmother, plain.  When my sister and I were little, we would make big bowls of cinnamon and sugar and pour (more accurate than sprinkle) that on top. I have since upgraded to pure maple syrup, my father’s first choice as well.  A friend of mine just told me how she had it for breakfast this past weekend, first batch with salt, second with jam. There are no rules.  Just as long as it tastes good!

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