Cooking

My mom is an excellent cook... but I must admit I am no longer used to her cooking. She makes some excellent dishes, and her sauces are excellent. But I am not used to the amount of salt she uses in her cooking. Also, her vegetables are too overcooked for my taste. She uses a pressure cooker for virtually everything. According to her, the pressure cooker cuts down on the cooking time, plus preserves the vitamins in the vegetables. But she does make some excellent dishes:
This is a fillet in a pastry wrap. She added a bit of a stew into the wrap. It is excellent.

This is how the plate looked when the fillet in the wrap is served. It came with noodles and a warmed peach with whipped cream on top of the peach. I know it looks and sounds kind of strange, but it fits very well.

The chef and her creation:

Of course, one day we had Fondue... This is different then what we are used to. Mom buys a a mixture of two cheeses, and then makes the fondue from scratch. It is better than what we buy. It is much creamier.

Of course, fondue comes with white wine and some schnapps. By the way, adding broccoli or mushrooms to the fondue is a no no in our family :)

This is one of my favorite dishes. Schwarz Wurzeln, direct translation would be Black Roots. That's what they look like, like black roots.

Preparing the roots is very similar to preparing carrots, they need to be peeled. It is advised to peel them with rubber cloves on because the juice of the root stains the skin really badly and it cannot be washed off easily.
My mother cleans them in a mixture of water and vinegar to prevent the root from turning black.

This is the final dish:

This is what the served plate looks like. We ate a lot of meat. There was only one day, the day we had fondue, that we did not eat meat. But keep in mind, fish is very expensive in Switzerland. I would say about twice as expensive as what we are use to.

 Mom and Dad in the kitchen. It is not common to see Dad in the kitchen. He avoids the kitchen the best he can, but sometimes he does help out.

Each meal came with a desert, except when we had fondue. This is chocolate pear. Essentially a chocolate pudding with pears.

Now this is the famous Wine Pear. It is really delicious, and can only be made by special request, and some gifts have to be offered to the gods (the chef)  to ensure a successful creation.

Mom and Dad enjoying the desert...

This was also an excellent dish. Cabbage with Marroni and a "Brat Wurst" or Sausage. It is excellent. It is cooked in wine and there are some small peaces of bacon that are added flavor (and calories).

Oh, there was one day we had fish, trout fillet, of course on Friday. Traditionally we don't eat meat on Friday.

the trout was served on a bed of rice and "Fenkel". Also an excellent dish.

 This concludes the culinary tour of my mom's kitchen. Here is my dad doing what he does best in the kitchen. Serve the wine and taste moms cooking.

Shopping

Went shopping with mom. Interesting experience shopping for groceries here in Switzerland. I am surprised how much of the food is pre-packaged. See for yourself:

Check out our shopping care.... all pre-packed...

My mom, always looking for a deal...

So  much is pre-packaged, I guess it is the same as with our groceries store, but it seemed there was less open fruit and vegetables available than what I am used to.

Of course there are open vegetables and fruit... but to me it seem much less than what we are use to.

Another view at the shopping area. In general, the grocery stores are much small than what we use to. They appear crammed.

Of course, there is the wine selections. Very similar to our price range. By the way if you are looking at the price labels, US - Swissi is about 1:1.

This was a surprise to me... dogs in the grocery store. I did not see them in the actual shopping area, I think that is a no no, but they could wait outside. The Swiss are definitely more dog friendly... meaning they are more accepted at restaurants and so on.

. In general, I think the prices in Switzerland are higher than what we pay in our stores. The quality is good, the fruit looked fresh, so did the vegetables. The stores are in general way busier than our stores, but this might be because there is no such thing as 24 hour grocery store.

Bern

Today we went to Bern, I love that city, it is so alive it's just amazing. What is interesting is that the city has changed a lot over the years, but has not changed at all. How can I explain that. All the buildings are made out of sandstone, and they are old. the city was founded in 1191, so we are looking at a city that is now over 800 years old. The shell of the houses, are unchanged and have been the same for hundreds of years, but the inside of the houses and businesses have changed. They are up to date with the latest technology, just like any modern city. The same with the streets and the public transportation. The streets are made of cobblestone, and look agent, but the trolly's that use to be pulled by horses are now up to date with the most modern and luxurious transportation you can imagine. There are electronic signs on each bus or trolley stop that tell you exactly when the next bus will arrive. Traffic in the downtown area is severely regulated. Most of it is a access by foot traffic only, and it is busy. I forgot how busy that city is, see for yourself:

Access to the downtown area is best by public transport. In the outskirt of the city are park houses with efficient and very modern articulated buses to transport the public into the city. In addition to the buses, people use the bike. Every where you go there is a place to park a bike.

This is Bern, the main street of the City. There are fountains every few hundred feet, in the old days, that's where the water for every day use came from

And this is what makes Bern so different about any other city anywhere. The sidewalk are built in a way that they are part of the houses and are covered. The "Berner" calls them "Laube", it's very unique, and as far as I know there is no other city that has a similar architecture.

And it's busy... The city was completely filled with people, and this was just an ordinary weekday. This is the "Chafic Turm", or the prison tower. This area of the city we refer to as "D' Front". It's an area with outdoor cafes in the summer, temporary shops and fairs. In the old days, the farmers use to come here and sell their produce.

Another look at the main street of the city. You can see the arches that lead to the sidewalk or "D'Loube".

The facade of the houses are covered with ornaments, sandstone carvings. In the entire city of Bern there is not one house that does not have something unique, something special. Here is such an example:

This is a strange fountain... "Dr Chindli Frasser Brunne", the children eating fountain. There is a story with that fountain, but I forgot what it is.

I went to school in the third building down the street. It was a drafting class.

This is "Zytglogge", I am not sure how to translate this, a tower with the time on it or something like this.

On top of the tower is a mechanical man that swings a hammer against a bell on the hour.

This is the other side of the tower. The clock work in the tower is huge, when I was a kid my father took me inside the tower. I remember being in there, but just in bits and peaces.
This is the other side of the tower.

There is an interesting story about this tower and Albert Einstein, but this story is not part of this blog. If you are interested you will have to go to my Sky blog.
It is not easy to see, but in that channel flows the old brook that flowed from the top of the city down the center of the main street all the way down before emptying in to the River Aare that forms a loop in which the city of Bern was built.

There are a ton of those fountains, in all of Bern most likely several dozens, but each fountain has a special meaning, there is always a carving or a statute or something associated with each fountain.

I have no idea what this figure is all about...

This is another look how the city's sidewalks are built under the houses.

Mom and Dad talking to a watchmaker:

This is the City Council:

As you can see, the sides street are a bit quieter, not as much foot traffic as along the main street with all the shops.

This is the famous "Baren Graben", or less flattering, the bear pit. The story goes that in 1100 something some thing a noble man, I believe Von Zaringen, hunted in this area, and shot a bear, and he decided to built a town in this river loop and decided to call the city Bern in reference to the killed Bear. At lowest part of the city, the apex of the river loop is where the city always kept live bears.
This is the old Bear pit, which is an improvement over what it use to be

Fortunately, the city decided to upgrade the bear pit and built a better environment for them. I am not a supporter of keeping life bears locked up in a pit, but this at least is a bit of an improvement over the old pit.

This is the apex of the river Aare loop, looking up the way we just walked down. The tower in the distance is the main church in Bern, "Ts Munster".

This is the place my mother use to work, it use to be the income tax office.

This is a side street we are walking on, heading back up towards "Ts Munster".

An her is this famous Church. I remember coming here and looking at the main portal. Above the portal is a carving representing the final judgment day. On the left is heaven, and on the right is hell.

A close up of hell shows some disturbing representations, to me it looks like some of the torture technique that was used in those days. For a closer look and a history about this amazing church check out Wiki.

And here of course is heaven...

Bern is a very interesting City, because the city was built in the loop of the river Aare, the old city was separated from the growth of the rest of the city. In many ways, the old city Bern was able to maintain a charm that is very unique. This last picture gives a better impression of what the overall look of  the city is like.
By the way, the building on the right is the federal government building. When we got there it was too dark to take any pictures.