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PASSPORTPASSPORTTRAVEL • CULTURE • STYLE • ADVENTURE • ROMANCE
MARCH 2014
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DREAMSCAP
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WORLD EAT
SWITZERLAND
INSIDER’S GUID
VIEQUESISLAND
WHAT’S NEW I
BERLIN
DREAMSCAP
FRANCE
WORLD EAT
SWITZERLAND
INSIDER’S GUID
VIEQUESISLAND
WHAT’S NEW IN
BERLIN
UNIQUE BOUTIQUES
SAN FRANCISCO
GLOBETROTTING
ANTWERP
ROAD TRIP
ANDALUCIA GAY AMERICAN
EXPATS
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GLOBETROTTING
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THE SWIMWEAR ISSUETHE SWIMWEAR ISSUE
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68 PASSPORT i MARCH 2014
(Château St. Germain. Tel: +41-26-921-
2200. www.hrgigermuseum.com ) created
by Academy Award–winning HR Giger
( Alien ), that features his collection of bio-mechanical art and sculpture.
After lunch at La Fleur de Lys Gruyères
(rue du Bourg 14. Tel: +41-26-921-8282),
where I enjoyed a massive bowl of alpine
soup (a Swiss version of everything-but-the-
kitchen-sink concoction that overflows with
potatoes, macaroni, greens, heavy cream,
and, of course, garnished with cheese and
croutons), I make my way to Maison Cailler
(rue Jules Bellet 7. Tel: +41-26-921-5960.
www.cailler.ch ), the famous Swiss choco-
late dating back to 1819. The factory is over-
run with children, but it’s worth weatheringthe Willy Wonka madness and multimedia
installation to get to the end prize: an all-
you-can-eat feast of Cailler. This is not a
place for restraint, and the one stop on my
expedition where Swiss civility falls by the
wayside in lieu of cocoa nirvana.
In spite of cheese-and-chocolate over-
load, my travel companions and I muster
the strength to dine at one of Fribourg’s
most popular restaurants, Café du Midi
(rue de Romont 25. Tel: +41-26-322-3133.
worldeatsCulinary road Trip in SwiTzerland
by MaTThew wexler
making process. The factory produces 48
wheels per day, and you’re bound to see
décailage (the process of cutting the curds
into grains). If you’re a cheese diehard,contact La Gruyère Tourism ( www.la-
gruyere.ch ), and you can arrange a tour of
a smaller producer in the hills, where the
process is performed over a wood-burning
copper kettle. Be sure to allow time to walk
through the medieval town of Gruyères
itself, home to the splendid castle
Château de Gruyères (rue du Château 8.
Tel: +41-26-921-2102. www.chateau-
gruyeres.ch ), quaint local shops, and a
captivatingly bizarre HR Giger Museum
Iarrive at Zürich International Airport and
quickly activate my Swiss Rail Pass( www.swiss-pass.ch ), which is my
one-stop shop for getting around the
country. At only 216 miles wide and 137
miles from north to south, Switzerland is a
relatively small footprint to cover, but,
because of its neighbors, it offers a portal to
a diverse range of culinary influences best
experienced by rail tripping. My first stop:
Fribourg ( www.fribourgregion.ch ).
One of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, Fribourg
lies in the western region and the city of the
same name features The Université de
Fribourg ( www.unifr.ch ), one of the fewbilingual universities in all of Europe. The city
has a youthful pulse due, in no small part, to
Cardinal beer, the local brew created in 1788
that flows at nearly every pub. While the city
proper showcases farmers’ markets and the
Gothic-style Cathedral of Saint Nicholas
(rue des Chanoines 3. www.stnicolas.ch ),
I’ve got my eye on a particular café, but not
before heading out of town to conquer my
first Swiss delicacy: Gruyère cheese.
A short ride from Fribourg’s city center, the
town of Gruyères is home to the raw cow’s
milk cheese that has been in existence since1115. It takes more than 100 gallons of local
milk to produce a single 77-lb. wheel. Like
the great wines of the world, true Gruyère
cheese receives AOC ( appelation d’orgigine
contrôlée ) designation that guarantees the
cheese’s authenticity.
A tour of La Maison Du Gruyère (Place
de la Gare 3. Tel: +41-26-921-84-00.
www.lamaisondugruyere.ch ), the local
demonstration cheese-dairy, offers a
somewhat touristy snapshot of the cheese-
Fribourg
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MARCH 2014 I PASSPORT 69
www.lemidi.ch ). I am slammed with the
ripe smell of cheese, old wood, and flowing
wine as we weave our way through the
packed room to our table. While Maison
Cailler was a children’s playground, the
café is a hearty, vibrant backdrop for
grown-up fun. Fondue is the specialty of
the house, and we order several massive
enameled pots of the bubbling cheeseand accouterments. Fondue forks pierce
through the air. Bread is torn and impaled.
Platters of air-dried beef are passed above
our heads, and the living traditions of
Switzerland have never tasted so good.
The next day I head north toward the
French border to discover the hills,
valleys, and gorges of Jura and the
Three Lakes ( www.biel-seeland.ch ). Jura
peaks at an elevation of 3,200 feet and, on a
clear day, the sunlight basks towns like La
Chaux-dé-Fond that’s world famous for itshistory of watchmaking. I decide what better
way to acquaint myself with the region than
an afternoon of wine tasting?
Vinothek Viniterra (Im Moos 4. Tel: 41-
32-315-7747. www.vinothek-viniterra.ch ),
just a short walk from Lake Biel, offers tastes
and insights about this small wine-growing
region. I chat with grower Regina Hadoran
who pours and talks…and pours some
more. The region is known for Switzerland’s
most planted white variety: Chasselas. Used
to make “church wine,” this unaged white
wine is typically harvested in October andready to drink by February. Think of it as the
Swiss version of Beaujolais nouveau.
Hadoran says, “It’s the most important
thing for wine growers to have relationships
with their customers.”
Considering that the majority of the wine
stays within the canton, those relationships
can last a lifetime, but Hadoran warns that
due to global warming, the Chasselas’ fate
may be in danger as the variety relies on
cooler weather for ideal growing conditions.
While I can’t cellar my own stash for future
consumption as it’s meant to be consumedyoung, I do pick up a few bottles to share
with my oenophile friends stateside.
While the Swiss wine tasting leaves me
with a greater appreciation for the local
producers, there is another spirit known in
the region, one with a sordid past that
beckons me: absinthe. In the district of
Val-de-Travers lies Absintherie du Père
François (rue de l'Arnel 1. Tel: +32-861-
2318. www.absintherie.ch ), which is both
a museum of collectibles as well as an
worldeats
operating distillery. Considered by some to
be an elixir for good health and others to
be a hallucinogenic drug, the anise-fla-
vored spirit was banned in Switzerland
from 1910 until 2005. The vintage apothe-
cary bottles, equipment, and illustrations
offer insight into absinthe’s role in Swiss
culture, but it is only by consumption that I
understand its effects. The myth becomesreality after several glasses, and I’m tempt-
ed to pursue the Route de L’Absinthe, a
mapped collection of 26 distilleries, muse-
ums, confectionary houses, and drying
barns that trace the impact of this most
intoxicating elixir.
It would be unfair for the region to let
neighboring Gruyères have all the glory
when Tête de Moine (AOC) is like its deli-
cate sister, waiting for its turn in the spot-
light. Used as a form of payment by the
Bellelay monks in the 12th century, the
silky semi-hard cheese is aged for three
months on pine boards then shaved into
rosettes using a special device called a girolle. Of course, a knife works, too. (It is
rumored that the hungry monks would
sneak into the cellar late at night, shave off
a piece from the top, then rewrap the
wheel as if it had been untouched.) I could
spend the afternoon shaving cheese, but
“Fork” by Jean-Pierre Zaug in Lake Geneva
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70 PASSPORT I MARCH 2014
worldeats
there is one more expedition to conquer
and that requires traveling east.
Crossing back past Zürich and
toward Switzerland’s northeast
corner, the canton of Appenzell is
home to culinary traditions that draw inspi-
ration from nearby Germany and Austria.
Its namesake town is an idyllic Swiss vil-lage, and if I squint hard enough I envision
Heidi (originally penned by Swiss author
Johanna Spyri and later embodied on film
by Shirley Temple) skipping through the
narrow streets, a basket of baked goods
dangling from her arm.
The bread throughout Switzerland has
been remarkably delicious, but it is
Appenzell’s pastries that take the cake.
Tarts and turnovers spill over the counters
at the local bakeries. Beer and sausage are
also commonplace, and I indulge in both
for lunch at a local café. Two hefty links of siedwurst (a beef sausage seasoned with
caraway and garlic), are accompanied by
potato salad and all washed down with the
local brew, Appenzeller Bier. Swiss-culti-
vated hops and barley combined with
Alpstein massif spring water produce
lagers and stouts with pronounced charac-
teristics ranging from sweet and malty to
aromatic and nutty.
For my final foray into Swiss food culture,
I hop on an e-bike for a gastronomic tour
through the region. The morning begins
with pastries and coffee at LandgasthausNeues Bild (Dorfstrasse 1. Tel: +41-717-
871303. www.neuesbild.ch ), a guesthouse
and restaurant tucked away amid the
rolling hills. Onward to Hotel Bären
(3823 Wengen. Tel: +41-33-855-1419.
www.baeren-wengen.ch ) for hearty
braised meat, freshly baked bread, and deli-
cious wine. Perched atop a vista with the
local church steeple in the distance,
unleashed dogs wander across the road as
if to say, “Where are the scraps for me?” We
finally arrive at the Appenzeller Cheese
Show Dairy (Appenzeller Schaukäserei,Dorf 711. Tel: +41-71-368-5070 www.
schaukaeserei.ch ), and I find that my
Swiss culinary road trip has come full circle.
I am ending where I began…with cheese.
My culinary journey reveals that
Switzerland’s cuisine is more than cheese,
beer, chocolate (and intoxicating shots of
absinthe in the back woods). It is the sum
of various cultures and traditions that
blend together in a delightful way that tin-
gle all of the senses.
Gruyères
P h o t o s : S w i t z e r l a n d T o u r i s m