Food, adventure, musings on 2008
12-31-08
I love the leeks here. They are just leeks, but they are sold everywhere here. And they come cut and cleaned. Having ready to go leeks without mud works for me. Haven’t seen many green onions but the leeks work instead usually. And I have a chive plant on my balcony too.
The food here is wonderful. I had heard so much about how expensive it is, however I haven’t found it unmanageable. Like I have in the past, I shop at more than one store. Here for milk, there for produce, etc. (Marktplatz for the outdoor market daily is beautiful!) What I find though is that the food is so fresh, and there is a tremendous selection, especially of fruit and produce. That’s good as meat is pricey and we are finding ways to stretch it when we do buy it. We have learned from our friends who used to live in Geneva and France that duck is the meat of choice here. Cheaper, delicious, fresh, and fills that craving for red meat as it tastes much like steak. We shop sometimes in Germany at a big supermarket that is a 10 minute walk from our temporary apartment. However, I am leaning toward doing most of my shopping in Switzerland. Maybe because it is more convenient, or maybe because of the influence of my German teacher. She is Swiss and says she feels like she makes her money here and so wants to spend it here. Also she has convinced me that the food is fresher, safer, happier (cage free, hormone free, etc) here.
So, I have loved cooking here. Can’t wait till I get into our permanent apartment and I have my normal cooking pans, utensils, gadgets. Meanwhile we are doing just fine with what we have. Which is a great lesson in itself.
I had coffee with an American friend this morning. We were comparing notes and agreeing that one of the things we love about Switzerland is the efficiency. The homes aren’t huge, nor are the kitchens, however it works. They use their space well, through necessity and design. I was just reading about these “passive” houses that are heated without using a furnace that are being built in Germany.
“(This) new ‘passive house’ and others of this design get all the heat and hot water they need from the amount of energy that would be needed to run a hair dryer.”
How cool is that? And here, it costs only 5-7% more to build than regular housing (more in the States due to types of houses and sizes). Again, very efficient. Here is the link to the article in case you are interested.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/world/europe/27house.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=airtight%20housing&st=cse)
Let’s see, what other food adventures have I had? Well, there was the cumin incident. This happened within a couple of weeks of arriving. I was interested in buying a few spices that would last me till we move into our permanent apartment. One that I love is cumin, and I use it in lots of different recipes. I often shop in the nearby small store called Migros (pronounced Mee-gro) that is “downstairs.” The kids always give me a hard time because it isn’t really downstairs in the apartment building, but is is less than a block away so that is downstairs to me. Migros is one of the big chains here and they have three types of stores; M, MM, MMM. The one downstairs is a one M store – small. Sometimes I shop at the big MMM store downtown. Anyway, this time I was “downstairs,” buying cumin. Spices are inexpensive and the selection is large, even in this small store. There it was, Kümmel, Cumin, Cumino (German, French, Italian). Perfect. And so cheap I bought the big one. Got home and was making something that I wanted to have a Mexican flavor and so I pull out the cumin seed. I begin to chop it as I don’t have a mortar and pestle in the temporary place. Working quickly I picked it up with my knife and dropped it into the pan, when my nose got a whiff. Not cumin, caraway! Huh?
I couldn’t figure it out as I was sure that cumin in French and cumino in Italien were not the words for caraway. However when I looked up Kümmel online, I found it is a generic term, meaning caraway or cumin seeds. (Because they are so similar??? Arghhh!) Now I know that cumin specifically is Kreuzkümmel. FYI, Kümmel is also a liqueur, made of, yes, caraway and cumin seeds. I’ll have to try it sometime.
Meanwhile, a couple of weeks after this we found ourselves in Eguisheim, France at the mushroom festival. I saw a spice vendor and she must have wondered about the crazy American who had to sniff her sack of cumin before buying it. My cupboard is full of plenty of cumin and caraway now. Maybe I should try making the liqueur!
That trip to the mushroom festival was quite an experience also. We went to the train station on Saturday and asked about tickets to get to Eguisheim on Sunday. For about $25 we could all travel round trip by train to Colmar, then by bus or tram to Eguisheim. The tickets were good for all day to be used on train, bus or tram as much as needed. Sold. The next day we arrive thinking we are late and have missed the train we had wanted. Oh well. As we wander around Kali notices that all the clocks say 9 something, not 10 something. Time change happens here in Basel on October 26th. Now we know. So, we hadn’t missed our train at all and were in fact, quite early.
We got on the train and arrived in Colmar about an hour later. We got out and checked out the busses. We walked toward town to find the right one and look at the schedule. Whoops, the busses don’t run on Sunday. At all. Time for plan B.
So we walked, and walked and walked. Through the city, past the farms, along the road and in the vineyards. The grapes left on the vine made a wonderful snack. Some were beginning to dry up and were very sweet, others were plump and juicy and sweet. Not sure the vineyard owners would have approved, however as a mom I was happy to have some sustenance for the kids that both provided energy and distraction.
And we walked and walked. Finally arrived and Eguisheim was charming, friendly and mushroomy. Lots of mushroom balloons throughout the city (think the clown making mushrooms out of balloons) and a few tents with mushroom themed gifts and food. Not as big as we had imagined, but charming none the less. We had a lovely lunch and wandered a bit more – found the one winery that was open and met a lovely Brazilian woman who tried to help us find a taxi back to Colmar. No luck with that on a Sunday though. I guess no one needs to go anywhere in that area on Sundays! So, we walked back. It must have been twice as long getting back to the train station, judged by the moans and groans and “how much farther???” comments that were uttered. Ah, yes, all part of that thing called experience. And that train ride home was so sweet, just for the opportunity to sit for a while.
So, I find myself sitting in my kitchen on New Year’s Eve, cooking soup and writing this. We are back from a trip to the U.S. to finish our move which included friends and family and early Christmas celebrations. Our long trip home included a 2 day delay in Newark, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I called my niece and nephew, and with 2 hours notice we descended upon them for the weekend. They have 3 boys – perfect for Kali and Ian. It was a wonderful reunion and Kali and I were able to sneak off to NYC for an afternoon, which was an unexpected treat. Anyway, after long delays in Minneapolis and Newark, we were very glad to get home to Basel for a quiet Christmas. It was wonderful to see our friends and family in Minnesota, and I think we all are ready for this chapter of our lives and are happy to be home to get on with it.
That said, tonight some or all of us (Mom and Kali for sure) are going to watch fireworks over the Rhine River at midnight. As 2008 closes I am amazed and thankful for this adventure called life. I found a note I wrote back in February saying thank you for some things I wanted at the time, but didn’t have. It’s an exercise I do here and there, to write down how thankful I am for things that I want, as if they have already happened. I’ll tell you that all of it has happened, which to me is surprising, and not at the same time.
Anyway, here is one that I wrote, “I am grateful for the chance to live on a different spot on the planet, to gain different perspective on life and the many ways it is lived.” Pretty wild, as we found out about the possibility of Switzerland in April and nothing really happened till June, job accepted in August.
So, Happy Happy New Year. Thanks for your friendship and for sharing in our adventure! Come and visit soon, bitte!!!
Love,
Rylla
P.S. Quick update on the kids; they are doing great. They love their independence here as they can ride the trams on their own to school or wherever. Kali loves German and is eager to start learning French next year! (Huh??) Ian plays his violin in the plazas and is making plenty of spending money and loving it. Both are in a Swiss transition program learning German and getting ready for regular Swiss school, which they will start probably by April. And we will move to our permanent apartment February 1, so really, do come for a visit!
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