Food and Groceries

Now that we've been here 2 weeks, I am getting a better sense of what is available at the markets. We live close to several grocery store chains, many are small with just the basics, one is large and is the Swiss equivalent of Walmart, and another is a specialty grocer similar to Dean and Deluca. Between the small size of our fridge, and the small size of the milk containers, I've had to stop by the market every day. We drink a 1L container of milk each night at dinner (the largest size they sell is 1.5L)! The bread is mainly available as fresh baked, so that has to be bought regularly also. You can see why they invented fondue to use up the stale and dry, crusty bread. From what I've read, the Swiss have a few national dishes such as Fondue, Raclette (melted cheese on potatoes), and then a meat stew, potato stew, and a potato tart/galette. They sell alot of Italian food in the stores also- lots of pastas, charcuterie (sausage/pancetta/smoked ham), polenta, rice, and frozen pizzas. They usually have a small Mexican and Asian food section, but I decided against making tortillas when I saw they were 5 chf (just under $5) for a pack of 6. If we really get a craving for them, we can make the tortillas ourselves. The food in general is much more expensive than in the US. From what I can tell, most of it is produced right here in Switzerland though.

Quick ready-made foods have definitely made it to Europe. The frozen section is packed with microwave and oven pre-made meals! A couple of the things I can't find anywhere are brown sugar, chocolate chips, and canned stock. I had to use a bouillon cube for stock in a risotto- I guess if I'm going to be particular I will have to make my own stock. But then I have nowhere to store it because the freezer is big enough for a container of ice cream and a pack of peas! The lack of brown sugar caused my chocolate "chip" cookies to taste more like sugar cookies with chocolate in them. I found some molasses and will try that as a substitution. I did have really good results with Elisabet's birthday cupcakes last night. The recipe was fairly easy to convert (oz- grams of butter, etc) and I had brought along some silicone cupcake forms. I might have to buy a scale for future baking endeavors since my conversions are not very exact. As I lug the grocery bags home in my cart, I'm glad that it is not possible to buy flour or sugar in a package bigger than 1kg!

Today we had several heavy rain showers, one as Elisabet, Hanna and I were walking home from the Co-op. At first they were arguing about who would hold the umbrella, but when I took it over, they got distracted over splashing in the puddles and didn't even walk beneath it.