chile dinner. and stupid weather. and being under it.

Know what I love? Being sick, again. I just cannot seem to shake this lame, persistent sinus infection-cold-allergy thing I've had going on for around 8 or 10 weeks now. I keep feeling like I'm getting better, and then wait for it...wait for it...BAM, it comes back again. No worries, Mom: I'm off to the doctor on Tuesday. Our friend Nanda managed to find me one who speaks English, so that will at least alleviate some of the stress that usually comes with going to any kind of professional office in this part of the world...!

Anyway. Enough of my troubles. Since I am sick, lazy, and hugely, hugely behind on keeping all of my loyal readers up-to-date on the latest excitement this side of the pond, I'm going to try to keep this particular entry short. Back at the end of September, we were fortunate enough to attend a chile-themed dinner, which is a bit of a rarity in this part of the bland-food-eating world. (Look, I know Italy has some fantastic spicy foods, but the rest of our neighboring countries really seem to like cream-based things and sausages, which tend NOT to be spicy, and which is also tough for us New Mexican expats to deal with. So this was truly exciting.) It was, of course, brought to you by our esteemed acquaintances at the Heuberger wine and chile shop, which you may remember from such posts as this one.

Our story begins with roughly seven of us shuttling down south to the Marina Lachen Steakhouse (which is considerably smaller than its website photo makes it look). We all started with a glass of prosecco out on their terrace, next to the marina, where we were treated to a very foggy, but very pink, sunset over the lake. Quite dramatic. As for the food, I was a bit skeptical, as I tend not to like steak or its associated houses, but my skepticism proved to be unfounded (thankfully...). Before I launch into the food, a disclaimer: as there was no published menu, and the dinner was hosted only in Swiss German, I actually have no idea what types of peppers we ate, or even, really, what was in every dish. Nor did I get photos of every course, and the ones I did take were with my phone. Oh well. Still a darn fine meal.

On the table, as we sat down, were complimentary glasses of champagne, accompanied by baskets of bread and three small dishes containing chopped hot peppers, some sort of red pepper salt, and a pepper butter that was REALLY good. Next was the amuse bouche: a fig with some fresh soft cheese, topped with sweet Swiss chili and mint. Super yummy, not terribly spicy.

First course:

Believe it or not: a sweet-and-salty creme brulee with some sort of pork layered in the middle, with a nice mixed salad and some pureed variety of a Spanish chile. The creme brulee was weird, but interesting, and all else delicious.

Course number two: scallops with a whole red chile atop a green pea and wasabi puree. (Really pretty colors, and nice flavors, although I'm not a huge fan of scallops. But the sweetness of the peas was nice with the wasabi.) Sorry, no photo, as the presentation of the food on the plate was something slightly less than poetic, shall we say.

Course three, palate cleanser, I'm assuming:

Green apple and lemon sorbet with chile chocolate. By far the most surprising, interesting course of the night, and shockingly delicious. There is no way I would have imagined liking this dish, had you described it to me, but YUM. And probably the spiciest dish of the night...go figure.

Course four:

Beef with chili ratatouille, orange chili sauce, and fried potatoes topped with bacon and habanero salt. Ratatouille: ok. Beef: pretty good. Potatoes: outstanding. 

Course five:

Apricot tart with rosemary and very subtle chili sauce. Really tasty. I'm a big fan of the apricot/rosemary combination these days, thanks to Mövenpick and their innovative ice creams...but this little dessert was nice, too!

All in all, a really nice, interesting dinner with some good friends in a lovely setting. Good times.  :)

What I'm reading: finished The Republic of Pirates--what a read. Really compelling, well written, with excellent overviews of the major pirates operating during the Golden Age. Loved it. Read it. Now onto The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. I feel like maybe this was required reading at some point in my education, and maybe I just missed that day or two of school...? It's the (partial) autobiography of a man who was kidnapped, as a child, from his home in Africa, and shipped to the West Indies after being sold into slavery. What a powerful narrative. It never ceases to amaze me, the horrors that people can inflict on each other, and the ability of this man to survive at all, much less accomplish what he did (I won't spoil it for you!), is truly incredible. Read this one, also.

Next up: Innsbruck, Austria. Probably the final bike trip of the season, what with this nasty, cold weather setting in. Boooo, winter. Boooo.

gross negligence.

One other sign of impending fall that I completely and utterly neglected to mention: the return of Karaoke from Hell. Sigh. I didn't quite realize how much I missed it until I was standing in a crowd of (unusually, even for karaoke...!) smelly Europeans and expats, jumping around and screaming for this ponytailed guy who sang an incredible version of 'Back in Black.' And the band is now up to 130 songs...! So I guess fall/winter has this going for it, too. The pertinent question now becomes, what (and when) to sing next? (Updated song list here... :)

Heh, heh...it's die October 4th. Can't get away from German entirely...

the end is near.

The end of summer, that is. The air is crisp, the leaves are turning, the days are way shorter, and, naturally, the Oktoberfest tents are set up in the train station and along the river. We just heard our first oompah band, down the street at the tiny restaurant on the corner. (Sadly, I was unable to get any vide o of it, 'cause around the time I found my phone and got out on the balcony, they stopped. Booo.) All of this to say that FALL. IS. HERE. Which I love and hate at the same time, because fall means that 1) the weather is just about perfect, all the time, but 2) WINTER IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER. Bah, humbug. I detest winter. But back to fall. As a salute to this lovely season, and a sad, sad farewell tribute to summer, here's a selection of what I'm calling Summertime in Zürich's Greatest Hits. (Ok, so they're not that great...it's just stuff I found interesting, or thoroughly enjoyed. And now, that you can enjoy, from the comfort of your own home.)

Here's a rather creepy shot of Mike holding a teensy banana. Turns out these things come in actual teensy bunches and are sold under the creative name "Baby Bananen." I love them.

7-foot-tall flowers at the botanic gardens. WOW.

 

Ahhh, delphiniums. SO BLUE.

Marmot-beaver hybrids (?) at the St. Gotthard gift shop. I really like their teeth. Sadly, we saw none of these in the actual wild.

 NEAT CLOUDS at the lake.

 

Temporary giant spider sculpture at Bürkliplatz. Apparently, copies of this thing have been making appearances in various points all over the world. Kinda neat, but not very subtle.

My new favorite summertime place in Zürich: the Letten. Officially a swimming club, it consists of a couple of (unlicensed, heh heh) snack bars on either side of the river, with bunches of seating on decks and patios, in and out of the shade, with diving areas, ladders into the river, and locker rooms for swimmers, a skateboard area, and several sand volleyball courts. It's got slight hipster and meat-market vibes, but it's also just a really relaxed place to meet up with people, have a snack, and drink a prosecco in the late afternoon sun. This is what it looks like at night.

You, too, can rent this Alphorn. If only I knew how to play one, I would have. And then harassed my neighbors to no end, playing it on my balcony.

Stewie helping with my homework. This is a very regular occurrence.

Sunset at Lake Zürich.

Picnic at the lake on a hot September Saturday. Our group was the only one fully clothed. Still, a lovely picnic, replete with goat cheese, Appenzell ham, truffle salami, and homemade samosas. Among other delicacies.

Another evening at the lake, post-picnic. I love picnics. I've been on more of them since we moved here than probably in the rest of my life combined.

This one's for my sister Joy: this thing reminds me of Audrey 2, just like your crazy mountain thistley thing.

You can find good coffee in Zürich. Cafe Noir...mmmm...

Post-it art. Heh heh.

I think the carousel is a fall thing, too. At least, I vaguely remember it being here in October when we were scoping the place out...

Last but not least, a video of fireworks that all went off at the same time, all around us, on a perfectly regular, non-holiday evening by the lake. Who even knows what was going on.

As is obvious, one thing I really like about this city is how it just came alive during the summer. As soon as the weather was even the slightest bit warm and sunny, the sidewalk cafes opened up, there were bicycles everywhere, and the line at Mövenpick was a block long. The Swiss really like their summery outdoor activities, and who can blame them? Aside from the rainy, cool month of June (and, to be fair, part of July), it really is a fantastic time of year. I will miss it in a month, when all is cold and gray and the sun is gone and the days are like 4 hours long. Stupid winter.

What I'm reading: finished the Blackbeard book...MEH. Skip it. I like me a good nonfiction pirate read, but this particular author spent more time describing what he didn't know about Blackbeard, and less time delivering the story. Laaaaame. I am now onto The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down, by Colin Woodard. I was terribly uninterested in this book at first, because as much as I love pirates, how could I possibly want to learn of their respective demises? (More importantly, is "demises" a word...?) HOWEVER. This man can apparently make drying paint interesting, and not only does he have a fantastic storytelling style, but he presents a really thorough, yet juicy and fascinating, historical portrait of the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy--pirates, governors, ships, maroons, et al., included. I'm having a hard time putting this one down, in case you can't tell. 

Next up: 25 chiles in 5 courses at the Lachen marina steakhouse. Yaaaay for spicy food and for our friends here who like it!

ALSO...I apologize for all font weirdness herein, as somehow I created for myself some weird highlighting, and then I couldn't get it to go away, and then I had to change the font color/size/type, and it all went downhill from there. I am the worst blogger ever. But it's all for you, my friends. All for you.