swiss

I have always meant to post about this but haven't gotten around to it. This is not an in-depth report with pictures and everything, but just a quick post, since Julie asked :) If you don't live in the Zürich area go ahead and skip to other posts...

The theme of the fourth round of Food Destinations, hosted by Paula of Mango and Lime, is My Favorite Gourmet Gift Shopping Spot.

Since it was reported a couple of weeks ago (erroneously, as it turns out) that Vegemite was a banned substance in the U.S., there's been renewed interest in the mysterious black spread from Australia, and its bitter rival in the yeast-extract world from the UK, Marmite.

[Update:] Now you can buy Sprüngli chocolates online to be shipped worldwide! See the Shop page for details.

This is my entry for Food Destinations #2: My Local Market.

There are several fresh food markets in Zürich. I was actually going to talk about another one, but someone else had covered it already (as you'll see in the roundup!), so I decided to head to the market at Helvetiaplatz.

• flickr photo of Swiss flag-shaped cookie by overthemoon
  Is it just the Swiss who are shaping their food into patriotic shapes for the World Cup? Now that they've lost I think these will be saved for Aug.1st..

I'd like to interrupt my long-winded Provence musing with a World Cup food moment. Here in Switzerland, people are going World Cup crazy (well, as crazy as the super-cool Swiss get). Most people are rooting for the Swiss team of course, especially since they are doing very well.

The stores have gotten into the act by offering all kinds of World Cup themed products. Migros, the largest supermarket chain in Switzerland, is selling boiled eggs dyed and decorated with stickers representing the World Cup participating nations. Yes, gold-colored boiled eggs.

I'm back home after spending an amazing two weeks in Provence, not to mention the three days before that in the Bourgogne (Burgundy). My sunburned skin feels a wee bit tender and is about the color of milk tea - brown with a decided reddish undertone. My head is bursting with ideas and thoughts and recipes, and I have more than 4,000 photos to sort through (not all of them of food, but a good amount are!) Chances are, you'll be reading a lot of these beautiful areas of France in the next few days around here.

Posted by Max

This is my entry for the Food Destinations event - a day late!