All posts tagged: Food & Drink

Switzerland’s Loveliest Cafés and Tea Rooms, Swiss Heritage 2nd edition

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  If coffee or tea and architecture are amongst your passions, then search out the best spots in the country to enjoy them using as your guide the revised, 2nd edition of the Swiss Heritage booklet “The most beautiful cafés and tea rooms in Switzerland”. While the country cannot boast a coffee culture as rich as that of Vienna, Budapest or Buenos Aires, there’s still a surprising number and variety of spots where you can indulge yourself. This booklet introduces you to 50 of the best locales nation-wide.

Eat the best of fresh, seasonal and local during Geneva’s Veggie Week 2018

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With gardens blooming and taste buds ready for a change after the heavy fare of winter menus, Veggie Week is returning to Geneva, with the city’s top hotel-restaurant chefs whipping up some stunning new dishes to impress your palate. Aimed at vegetarians, vegans and yes, meat eaters, too, this two-week event runs from the 4th — 17th of June and serves up a feast for the eyes and the stomach by means of the freshest produce available from local kitchen gardens.  

tartare de fera

Tartare of Lake Leman “féra” with chilli by Chef Olivier Martin of the Auberge de Bogis-Bossey

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For those in the know, the Auberge de Bogis-Bossey is a little hidden treasure, nestled in a pocket of tranquility just off a busy street in the neighborhood after which it’s named. A charming facade and bell tower hint at the pleasures on offer in its gourmet restaurant and its laid back café (the Auberge, as its name suggests, also offers lodgings). In the summer months, lunch or dinner on its patio offers shade and relaxation as patrons enjoy items from an excellent à la carte menu or a menu du jour that’s comparable in price to those of other auberges but a distinct cut above in the quality and variety of ingredients, and in flavor, imagination and presentation.

ElSalad-food-truck-in-Geneva

Food Trucks — Geneva’s all-year-round moveable feast

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When I first moved to Switzerland almost 30 years ago, eating in the streets — other than a Bratwurst at festival time or an ice cream in summer — was not the done thing. Takeouts for the lunchtime crowd offered uninspiring sandwiches usually comprised of two huge slabs of bread with a thin slice each of meat and cheese atop chunks of butter and a thin wash of mustard. Foodstuffs considered exotic, such as Mexican, Thai, Chinese and even everyday North American fare could only be found at specialty shops, one-of-a-kind restaurants and possibly on Globus’s gourmet shelves for an astronomical price. Grab a takeout & head for the park How times have changed. Many “foreign” ingredients are now widely available, locally produced and much more affordable. And as far as takeout options go, things have never looked quite so good. That’s because in addition to the proliferation of good-quality sandwich, salad and sushi shops, in September 2014 the City of Geneva allocated six outdoor spots in the city center to food trucks. As of last March that number jumped to ten trucks offering a tempting array of cuisines — from Thai to BBQ, from New York deli to fresh salads and wraps, …

Mafalda brings the authentic flavours of Sicilian home cooking to Geneva

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When Mafalda Tavola Calda opened its welcoming doors at 7 rue des Etuves, between Manor and Bel Air on the city’s West Bank, a refreshing breeze of Mediterranean warmth and hospitality as well as the delicious scents of Southern Italian specialities epitomizing the best of Sicilian home cooking blew through Geneva. From its conical-shaped arancini to its deep and delicious coffee from Bannafranca, a city in the Sicilian province of Enna, as well as everything in between — handmade pizza, grilled vegetables, cured meats, delicate biscuits, scented pastries and creamy ricotta-based cheesecake, everything about Mafalda is authentically Sicilian, which is why its a favorite haunt of in-the-know Italian customers and a growing number of Swiss (and expat) ones, too. Fast food in service terms only Although Mafalda labels itself a ‘fast food’ restaurant (arancini are a favourite takeout item in Calabria) that description speaks more of the courteous haste with which food is served as opposed to its obvious quality and the care with which it is prepared. Mafalda has been a labor of love as well as no small amount of moxie from the very beginning when its proprietor, Fabrizio …