Hi again, food lovers!

Thanks for joining me for another one of my food blogs.

Today we are traveling to a country that is known for its luxurious watches, beautiful scenery, and amazing chocolate😋 (Switzerland actually invented milk chocolate!) As I was doing a bit of research about Switzerland, I found out something interesting: Switzerland and Vatican City (which is actually a country) are the only two countries to have square-shaped flags! All other nations (except Nepal which has a two-triangle shaped flag) have rectangular-shaped flags. Pretty cool! Now that we learned a bit about Switzerland, let’s get into the tastier part- FOOD 🙂

1. Tartiflette

This delicious dish was actually first created and sold near the French-Swiss border in order to promote the sales of Reblochon, a French cheese. Their effort worked- tartiflette became a staple dish in Switzerland, especially in ski resorts and during the winter season. It is made up of thinly sliced potatoes, lots of creamy reblochon cheese, smoky bits of lardon (strip or cube of pork fat), and carmelized onions. Some also like to add a bit of white wine to it. It is thought that the name ‘tartiflette’ is derived from the word for “potato” from some European language.

2. Älplermagronen

Älplermagronen, more commonly known as herdsman’s macaroni, is a traditional Swiss dish invented in the 1930s that is very similar to our mac & cheese. The main ingredients of this dish are macaroni pasta (typically hörnli- a small, tubular shaped pasta), cheese, cream, onions, and potatoes. These are all baked in the oven. Once ready, it is usually served with onion rings, apple sauce, and bacon. This dish is known as herdsman’s macaroni because these are the ingredients that were available to herdsmen who were keeping an eye on their cows on the Alpine pastures🐄

3. Fondue

Fondue is Switzerland’s national dish. It’s a melting pot of many different flavors, just like the country itself is kind of a melting pot of people and different cultures. The key ingredient in fondue is cheese that is melted over a fire. However, many flavors are added to this, such as cherry brandy, white wine, and nutmeg. This dish was invented because just like with the Älplermagronen, Alpine locals and herders only had cheese, wine, and bread available to them during the winter months. As it became colder and colder and the cheese from the summer dried out and the bread became stale, locals began to melt cheese, add wine, and dip their stale bread into it to enjoy what they had as much as possible. The pieces of bread are placed on long fondue forks that are used for swirling the bread in the melted cheese. According to local customs, if a person loses a piece of bread in the pot, they have to buy a round of drinks for everyone eating with them. Cheers!

4. Tirggel

Tirggel are traditional Swiss Christmas cookies that are very thin and hard and have images “printed” on their top. The images are typically associated with the Zürich Canton (a part of Switzerland), romance, and biblical stories. The cookies are made from flour, honey, and sugar. The name ‘triggel’ is believed to be derived from the word ‘torggeln’, which refers to stirring a thick dough. Tirggel cookies first appeared in around the 15th century, in which they were considered luxury food, and before 1840 only city bakers had the rights to bake them. After 1840, however, all bakers could bake and sell them, and thus they gained immense popularity since then. Personally, I think tirggel are really beautiful!

Thanks for reading today’s food blog, hope you enjoyed it! Let me know in the comments which food you liked the most and what you found most interesting.

Bis zum nächsten Mal! (‘See you next time!’ in German)

Oren 🙂