Hi, I'm Andie.
I live near the Swiss Alps, in Bern, and I love not only melting cheese, but all kinds of Swiss cooking.
During the late 1800s absinthe was the drink of choice for bohemians and artists alike. Although now it's thought that much of its psychoactive properties were exaggerated, tales of hallucinations and mania led to the drink being vilified and banned in the early 20th century.
Imagine my surprise to discover that all, yes ALL, Toblerone bars are produced in Bern.
A mix-in-milk powder made from malt, egg, and milk, and flavoured with cocoa, developed in Bern in 1904.
In Switzerland, Fasnacht is celebrated in the typical way—big street parties, loud music, parades, dressing-up, many traditional fried delicacies, and plenty of drinking.
One of the most famous sanatoriums of the early 20th century belonged to Dr. Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, the creator of Birchermüesli.
At four in the morning the festivities begin. Onions, as far as the eye can see. Braided onions, onion figurines, onion pie, onion sausages, and onion soup.
And confetti.
The wines of the Valais (Wallis in German) are some of Switzerland's best.
Perhaps the strangest of Swiss traditions, the Gansabhauet involves masked and blindfolded participants trying to win a dead goose by severing its neck with a blunt sword.
My father-in-law knows most of the cows at the Entlebuch Alpabzug personally, and he's probably helped to birth more than a few of them.
The most polarising contribution to Switzerland's cheese canon.
The Abbey of St Gallen is named for St Gall, an Irish disciple loved by bears, born in the year 550.
It's easy to first be skeptical of this tomato, especially in the supermarket, as she often looks paler and almost pink, even underripe, in comparison to her scarlet neighbours. However, her tender, delicate skin holds tart, meaty innards, bursting with flavour.
Switzerland's favourite sausage is a heady mix of beef, pork and pork rind, bacon and seasonings, stuffed with ice (to help binding) into oxen intestines, smoked and then boiled.
Who cares what's in it, it's delicious!
Sam warned me that the Coupe Hohgant (named after a nearby mountain) was big, really big, but I didn't believe him until I saw the waiter struggling under its weight.
