food, glorious food. (or, that time we ate the whole summer.)

Hello, my dears. I'd apologize for my absence as per usual, but it really has been that quiet around here since June. But man, oh man, have I got some food talk for you! And a few other items that may or may not be of interest...but mainly, foooood. So here's all the news that's fit to print in my little Zürich-food scene-obsessed world.

Starting with (a mere two years after its opening) my discovery in March of an actual decent Mexican restaurant in this city! I present to you the takeout containers from my first order from La Taqueria, whose smiley faces and the food inside (legit street tacos! tasty black beans with no curry powder in sight! delicious guacamole! an actual spicy pepper-tomato soup!) made me very, very, very happy.

Hee. (Wait...it only now occurred to me that this might mean I can get decent guacamole year-round...!)

Next up came an excellent brunch with our friends Yannick and Nina (and a ginormous bottle of pink champagne for Yannick's birthday) at the Tastelab, a nifty pop-up on the terrace of ETH, which had a fantastic view...

...and pretty darn good food. (Smoked salmon! asparagus! poached eggs! cheeses, breads, yogurts, fruits, coffee, juices! and other things I forgot! Man, is brunch great.)

And speaking of pop-ups, in June, there appeared the artsy little Ristorante Zampano about a 5-minute walk from our apartment, in yet another building that was, I think, about to be razed and/or converted into something else. Whatever the case, the pop-up people had cut a massive arch in the wall between two glass-front garages and made a temporary, art-filled restaurant for our enjoyment. Of which there was a great deal, especially since we went with a group of eight dear friends. Food's so much better shared!

The menu: that amuse bouche turned out to be tiny, perfectly salt-baked new potatoes with bergamot-butter sauce, hemp seeds, and chives. Next came (all at once, and family-style) roasted cabbage wedges with walnut sauce and apples; cucumber ribbons with local lake fish and sorrel dressing; chicken hearts and livers in a spinach salad with grilled onions, elder flowers, and savory (as in, the herb) dressing. The between-course was a risotto made of sunflower seeds (yummo!) with mountain cheese and larch (very piney); and then came thinly-sliced seared beef with cauliflower, basil, and parsnips (...I think...); and finally, pistachio mousse with frozen crumbled strawberries and these little salty cookie bits. Followed by a plate of tiny salted chocolate cookies and excellent espresso. Yum, yum, yum, and yum.

And then, my friends, it was July. I'm sure I've said this before, but it bears repeating that I love summer in this city. Everything and everyone moves outdoors, and every third year comes the mother of all parties: Züri Fäscht. It's three days long, and the entire city center is closed to traffic and filled with food, drink, music, and all manner of performances and games and festivities. (Air shows! A midway! Two giant ferris wheels! Aquatic cars! High diving! Slack-lining over the river! Dragon boat races and races for boats made of plastic bottles! Bands! Dances and dancers! A surfing contest and demonstration, I kid you not! And jillions of other things that I can't remember.) But most importantly, perhaps, if you can find it--this year, it was on the Lindenhof, which was a muddy swamp, but WORTH IT--there's some good eatin' to be had.

OH YEAH...and this year, there was a Swiss rap group up there, too. (I don't know why, but it's so hard for me to take this seriously.)

We could see most of the air shows--at least three per day--from our rooftop.

Helicopters in formation: not nearly as fast and flashy as the planes, but have you ever seen that before? I hadn't.

Fish 'n chips, starring Nemo. Hah!*

Spotted on the Cornish pasty wagon: "New, and here only! Tattoo enlargement via good eating." Heh. (We did eat here, though; shared a spicy beef-and-veg one. These people do good work.)

Excellent African curry with lamb, eggplant, peppers, onions, and coconut rice.

Sadly, we'd begun eating this plate of Ethiopian awesomeness before it occurred to me to photograph its glory. (Various curry-like items with cabbage, spinach, lentils, pumpkin, and some super savory beef, atop injera bread. Sooooooooo good!)**

Random glowy bar along the river.

Massive midway at Bellevueplatz.

This year, they had three different fireworks displays, the last of which was at 1:30 in the morning. (The noise! The horror! So very un-Swiss.) Each display was set to music, so there was one with movie tunes, one with pop songs, and that last one was the "rock" show. Which was hilarious, since they had to turn off half the speakers due to the lateness of the hour. So it wasn't terribly rockin' at all. They were, however, three excellent displays, and we all know how I love me some fireworks. (Sigh. Until 2019, Züri Fäscht!)

Very shortly thereafter (as in, two days...!) came our next pop-up with the glorious Wood Food people, who do all of their cooking with wood and fire and smoke, and/or include elements of trees and wood made edible. I know it sounds a little weird, but their food is astoundingly good, and the venues always fantastic.

This one was in the rather artistically-graffitied LangstrassenKultur building, which I kinda loved.

Look at the inside!

And ohhhh, that menu. The "Picknick" was grilled bread with Douglas fir butter, schmalz with spruce, pickled veggies, sausage with Swiss pine, and beef stomach with wood vinegar (that last kinda like a terrine, and way tastier than it sounds!), followed by the "fresh-from-the-region" grilled salad with smoked fish from Lake Zürich. The family-style tavolata included wild purslane salad with buffalo yogurt; tomatoes with peach, goat cheese, and pickled elderflowers; fermented potatoes; broad beans with herbs and kombu; flank steak with "forest salsa;" and wee little mushrooms with berries. For dessert (here, "barefoot in the forest," awww) there was fir ice cream with forest berry soup and quark (essentially, unsalted ricotta). I'll admit that bits and pieces of these menus always sound a little bizarre, but EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS SOOOOO GOOD. (Kinda wish they'd have another of these dinners, like, NOW.)

To top things off, we were seated next to a very sweet Swiss couple who were celebrating their anniversary, and invited us to drinks at a bar around the corner afterwards. The evening was gorgeous, the drinks tasty, and the company superb. (They didn't know us from random strangers on the street, but spent their anniversary evening with us of their own accord. So lovely.) 

Next up (again, two-ish days later!) was our annual BBQ for the rugby team, for which Mike always cooks insane amounts of meat. This year it was 4 kilos of pulled pork in the sous vide, 5 kilos of smoked chicken, and 7 kilos of smoked brisket. 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmeat... (Sadly, the pulled pork didn't photograph quite so tastily.)

And food-extravaganza July certainly was not finished with us yet. In other food-related miscellanea, I discovered that the American Food Avenue--previously an online-only store--had opened an actual brick-and-mortar storefront right down the street from my dentist. Oh, sure, there were plenty of amazing goodies like Reese's peanut butter chips and butterscotch chips for baking, and Frank's Hot Sauce, and Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix...

...BUT WOULD YOU TAKE A LOOK AT THAT WALL OF CHIPS?? So very, very many Cheetos, heretofore unavailable to us in Switzerland. God bless American Food Avenue.***

July also brought with it three weeks of Street Food Festival, each week of which had a different lineup of vendors. So, naturally, we went once each week. I mean really, what else should one be expected to do in that situation?

Our friend Jasmin tried out her French-Indian fusion booth for the first time, and fed us a killer veggie wrap, some delicious fried aubergine and potatoes, and our first-ever pani puri. Yummmmm.

Making a second appearance, MORE ETHIOPIAN FOOD. Yellow and green lentils, spicy red lentils, green chicken curry, SPICY beef curry, pickled veggie salad, and a legitimately spicy red sauce to top it all off. Can't get enough of this stuff.

A happy man with his bread-cone full of sausage, bacon, sauerkraut, and curry sauce. (Not pictured: the beef and pork street tacos and Japanese fried chicken we also shared that day.)

Not kidding about going back every week. This time, we met up with our friends Pascal and Sonia and got to share even more. The list: ceviche (gahhhhhhhh, so good!!); beef dumplings in both Afghan (with yogurt and lentils in tomato sauce) and Shanghai (dim sum) styles; an Argentinian ham and cheese empanada...

...Honolulu sweet/spicy hot dog with sriracha, mango sauce, shredded cabbage, and cashews...

...fresh-fried potato chips; Tibetan momos (more dumplings...); a steamed beef bun (fluffy, bread-like wrap-thing); a Salvadoran pupusa filled with beef, beans, and cheese; a sabich (at long last! I have slavered over these since the first time I read about them! it's fried flatbread filled with fried eggplant, boiled egg slices, hummus, and some variety of crunchy salad, and I even had them throw a little fresh cheese in there); and last, but not least, a vegetarian corn/zucchini taco and a chorizo taco on homemade blue-n-white tortillas. A grand, grand feast, my friends.

On week 3, we met up with Nanda and René for our final round. We tried out the lamb kottu rotti...

...dinner and a show! these guys are all choppy and clangy while they cook the kottu rotti, a Sri Lanka street food chopped meat-veggie-egg-combo that they serve with various sauces and bread...

...a delicious meatball-and-mashed potatoes thing, wrapped in a steamed cabbage leaf; a tequila beef taco with cucumbers; a Korean hot dog on a black bun, topped with kimchi, minced beef, crispy onions, and chopped peppers; a Honduran baleada (flat bread topped with guacamole, beans, corn, peppers salsa and cheese, kinda like a quesadilla but waaaay better); an Iranian wrap with eggplant/tomato puree, garlic/yogurt/parsley sauce and salad...

...another steamed bun, this time with pork...

...and finally, a wee bowl of Brazil's national dish, fejoada, with which I am totally obsessed. (Black beans, beef and pork, various veggies, served with rice, salad, and this one had these crunchy breadcrumb things for topping. UGH, SO GOOD!)

I feel like I should take the briefest of moments here, to mention the venue of this particular Street Food festival. It was basically a big dirt lot in a sorta-industrial part of town, on the site of a former train station. With all of the lights and colors and signage here, though, someone did a great job of making this particular big dirt lot feel very festive and welcoming.

And speaking of welcoming, next on the list was a Cuban pop-up called "Casa Havana." Holy crap, what a location--right on Weinplatz, overlooking Hotel Storchen and the river and the square! 

The inside was terribly adorable.

And while the menu wasn't anything too spectacular, it was solidly good. (And the mojitos, great.) At the bar they were serving these chicken skewers and homemade plantain chips with garlic, and then we moved to our tables. We started with ceviche and chips with salsa, and fill-your-own tacos with beef, excellent guacamole, and roasted peppers; then came the roasted beef with saffron veggie rice, aioli, and salsa; and then flan with fruit and wee little chocolates. (We opted to have our dessert sitting in a windowsill in the bar, since the indoor cigar-smoking had begun. Turned out to be an excellent choice, as we not only got the evening breeze, but chatted with the friendly bar staff as well.)

And finally, to close out our fantastically foodie month (and get in some more fireworks, because FIREWORKS!!!), we headed to Schaffhausen to catch their August 1 fireworks (but, you know, on July 31...) over Europe's largest waterfall. 

We'd heard that Schaffhausen is quite lovely. And now we know: it definitely is.

It's got a bunch of these ridiculously-fancily-painted-and-plastered buildings from the 16th and 17th centuries...

...thusly...

...and is rightly famed for its gorgeous oriels--those little bay-window-like boxes that stick out from the buildings. There are 171 of them in the city, which is astounding, considering that we walked around the entire old town of Schaffhausen in about 15 minutes.

There's also a hill in the middle of the city topped with the Munot, a 16th-century circular fortress. Its name probably derives from the German words for "no need," as the city was only besieged once, in 1799, and the fortress fell into ruin afterwards. Interestingly, it was saved by the efforts and private funding of one man, who also paid for its restoration in the 19th century.

The grounds around the fortress are lined with vineyards...

...and in its moat area, there's a herd of these little spotted deer. They were all napping when we got there.

Inside the base of the fortress are these amazing casemates.

And then you climb this nifty spiral staircase to get to the top...

...from which the view is not terrible. (Schaffhausen: really, really pretty.)

After a bit more exploration of that amazing little old town, we headed into Neuhausen am Rhein to find some dinner at the little festival there and to scope out the setting for the fireworks. We noshed on some Thai noodles with veggies, shrimp, and bamboo shoots, then tried out the extraordinarily fresh fried fish from the local fisheries collective. (Mmmmmm!) While we were eating, we stumbled across this magnificent cover band playing what sounded eerily like the playlist from a night at Karaoke from Hell. It was crazy-nostalgic, but also genuinely impressive: you've gotta have some guts, and no shortage of talent, to cover AC/DC (we heard 'TNT' and 'Highway to Hell'), White Snake, Black Sabbath ('Crazy Train'!), Brian Adams ('Summer of '69'), Bon Jovi ('Runaway'), and even Die Toten Hosen ('Hier Kommt Alex'). Uncannily like KFH. (Unfortunately, the video I took of 'TNT' was contaminated by a rather enthusiastic couple making out in the corner. Ew. No need to share that with the rest of you.)

And then we braved the already-massed crowds (a good 2 hours before the show began!) to find a spot with a decent view. Which we definitely had, although we had to stake our claim pretty fiercely. Ah well, at least the falls were huge and impressive, and the post-downpour sky was cooperating to give us a little pre-show of its own.

There were also these crazy people slack-lining over the falls! (There's one in a green shirt right in the middle, and the bright orange speck to the left on the island had just finished going across and back.)

Once it got fully dark, the show began, and holy wow, what a show. The fireworks themselves were great, and combined with the roaring of the falls, it was quite something. (They even shot off all the larger fountains from the island itself!) The only problem was the smoke...

...which got so thick that they actually paused the show for several minutes to let it dissipate. (It was at this point in time that we were hugely grateful we'd opted to stand on the flat ground in front of the falls. The poor suckers who stood on the path leading down from the town were directly in the trajectory of the smoke, which was not going anywhere quickly.)

You can hear Mike commenting on that at the beginning of this video. But mainly, LOOK HOW BIG THOSE FIREWORKS ARE. And also, MASSIVE WATERFALL. Yesssssssss.

At the end, they turned on all of the normal nighttime lights around the falls, but lit up one side with a bunch of red flares, and projected the Swiss flag onto the castle-like building on the other. Very dramatic.

After the show, we headed back into Neuhausen to find a few more snacks, which turned out to be arancini (fried, filled rice balls from Sicily) with beef Bolognese and pea filling; a helping of tomato risotto with truffle, roasted seeds, paprika, and dried chives; and popcorn from MY NEW FAVORITE THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD:

Popppy, the popcorn machine. Once you select salty or sweet, this thing not only pops your popcorn fresh and on-demand, but dispenses to you, in a flattened state, the little cardboard box into which said popcorn falls. You have about 10 seconds to open out the box and put it back into the machine before your popcorn starts coming out, and it's tremendously exciting and makes pretty good popcorn. (If you could just buy one of these things outright, I ALREADY WOULD HAVE. But it's all done through STUPID LICENSING. Boooooo.)

Well. Although I do have a lot more to write about--considering how whiny I've been this year about not traveling, that comes as a bit of a surprise to me--I'll wind this up here with a little What We're Watching/Reading/Eating, since that stuff has all fallen WAY away...

What We're Watching: um, pretty much anything that's not too crappy. 'Shameless' (the one with William H. Macy, on Showtime) is about a large, dysfunctional, but scrappy family with an absolutely worthless, but mostly entertaining, alcoholic father. It's hilarious and sad and heart-warming and infuriating and brilliant, but definitely not one for the kids. (not. at. all.) 'Brooklyn 99,' because Andy Samberg + Andre Braugher = most hilarious comedy duo ever. This show is always funny. And speaking of which, 'Modern Family' has yet to have a slow season. Also always hilarious. 'The Blacklist' has been around for a while, but we're just now catching on. If you like action/mystery/suspense, this one's pretty decent, and the smug/remorseless/wildly entertaining James Spader is great here. Awww, and one show that we've just now found, but which has--astoundingly! heartbreakingly!--only one season is 'The Grinder,' about a TV lawyer whose show has ended, and so he crashes in on his actual-lawyer-brother's life in order to transition to law in real life. Because, you know, he already has so much experience. (Seriously, this show is amazing and clever and hysterically funny. I cannot believe it didn't get picked back up!) And, of course, 'Stranger Things,' because everyone's seen it now. Totally creepy, of course, but those kids are some pretty good actors. (I even liked Winona in this.)

What I'm Reading: not going to kid you, I dabbled for a bit in fiction, and blazed through all the Sookie Stackhouse books in about a month. Somewhat silly, certainly violent, and not a little trashy, I actually adored those books. And was genuinely sad when I finished the series off. Before that, I, as usual, had both feet planted firmly in the realm of nonfiction, and somehow got into reading books about diving, a thing I'll never, ever do, seeing as how THE OCEAN IS FULL OF THINGS THAT ARE GOING TO TRY TO EAT YOU. (That's an obvious fact, people.) However. Reading about reefs and sharks and shipwrecks is pretty darn fascinating, so I read 'Lost Wife, Saw Barracuda,' and 'Sharks, Fights, and Motorbikes,' both by John Kean, and both about diving (and living) in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Entertaining stories, to be sure, but I'm not actually that second book was edited in any way. (Which seems to be a growing trend in e-books these days. Not a fan.)**** Preceding those were 'Shadow Divers,' by Robert Kurson, about a team of deep-wreck divers trying to identify a newly-discovered shipwreck, and 'Setting the Hook: A Diver's Return to Andrea Doria,' by Peter M. Hunt, about a diver revisiting a famous (and dangerous) deep shipwrecks twenty years after his first dive there. The book first I can recommend, the second not as much...but what's funny here is that I read these books in succession without realizing that the second was written by a rival of the author of the first. (As in, you get opposing viewpoints on a few of the same people and events in each book, and it's rather entertaining.) I also read 'Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship,' also by Kurson, about a team of divers searching for a real pirate ship that went down off the coast of the Dominican Republic in the 17th century. (And you know that kind of story is in my wheelhouse!) Can recommend that one as well.

What We're Eating: lots of veggies, people, since kale and pumpkin and squash and Brussels sprouts are now in season! Wooo! (My poor husband, 'cause I can't stop cooking with all of this stuff. I'm kinda addicted to kale, and even more so when it's partnered with tomato sauce and white beans and basil.) And since I managed to get my hands on some fresh poblanos this year I've made these awesome stuffed peppers twice (although sans beer, 'cause I very much don't like it, unless it's in a beef stew). I even accidentally cooked a vegan meal the other night, but it was ok, because Mike survived it by being in Sicily and eating fresh seafood instead. (Actually, I thought it was delicious, and I've been able to use the leftover tahini sauce in hummus twice now...but word to the wise, whole-roasted eggplant is not good leftovers. Definitely, definitely make baba ganoush instead.) On the flip side of all those veggies, though, is the restaurant we've discovered near Limmatplatz: 4 Leoni, which is, against all odds, an actual branch of one of our favorite restaurants in Florence itself. It is staffed by lovely Italian people, who very kindly let us practice our terrible Italian with them, and the food is out. of. this. world. But mainly, Mike now knows where to go to get a reasonably-sized steak.

Stefano helping Mike select his bistecca Fiorentina. The excitement was palpable.

And I'm not even to August yet, folks. 

Next up: a quick trip to London (woooooo!); a quick trip to the US; and--surprise!--more food adventures.

*"And for an extra CHF 10, we'll throw in some deep-fried Sebastian crabs and a little Flounder!"...is the logical next step here.

**Not pictured in this list: the fantastic mojitos with which we closed out the night, hand-made by Mike's rugby teammate Pat. That's talent, right there.

***Just so you understand my excitement here: Cheetos may be my favorite edible item on this earth. Which makes them very, very dangerous for me: if I open a normal-sized bag by myself, I lose whole chunks of time to what I call the "Cheetos trance." Once that bag is open, a half-hour is suddenly gone, as is most of my bag of Cheetos, and I have zero recollection of the passing of either. My parents understand both my abiding love for this snack food, as well as my issue with it, and gave me a case of miniature bags for Christmas, thus providing me with my own culinary crack cocaine while saving me from it. It is no exaggeration when I say that it was probably the best. present. EVER. (Ooooh, and also, this last time we were in the US, we discovered jalapeno Cheetos. Dangerously delicious. Even Mike agrees on this one. Which probably means they'll be discontinued [thusly] when we go back at Christmas. That's how this stuff always goes.)^✤

But I digress: NOW WE HAVE CHEETOS HERE. It's a big day for me.

Ok, so, I may have a bit of a jalapeno-flavored-snacks hang-up, as well.

****Although lack of editing did lead to my discovery of this sentence in the current book I'm reading: "General Pershing feared that the Japanese would replay the wonton sacking of Shanghai and Nanking in Singapore..." Terrible editing, or hilarious pun intentionally left intact by an editor with a positively genius sense of humor? I choose to believe the latter, thank you very much.

^✤Like that one time waaaaaaay back in Pennsylvania, when Mike and I found this bag of seemingly-normal Cheetos puffs that claimed to turn your mouth Shrek green when you ate them (a promo for one of the movies, natürlich), and while they were their normal shade of atomic orange coming out of the bag, when you chewed them, they did as promised. THEY TURNED SHREK GREEN INSIDE YOUR MOUTH. It was terrifying and awesome all at the same time (chemically--how did they do that? will we get rare cancers later in life? could this have been some sort of dual hallucination induced by our pizza-heavy lifestyle? but more importantly, HOW DID THEY DO THAT??) and I desperately wanted some more after they were gone...but we only ever saw that one bag. Why, universe, why??

i like your moxie, sassafras.

Ok, so, it's maybe just the teensiest bit late, but happy New Year, friends! I'll confess now that I stole my title line here from a little (old) TV series I've been watching lately, 'Pushing Daisies.' I both love this show and am hugely irritated by it, but inarguably, the aesthetics are fantastic, and the dialog is both clever and mostly-hilarious. ("No dirt, no clues, no service!" Hah!) Make of that what you will.

A second confession, right up front: there haven't been any blog posts yet this year, as I had NOT GONE ANYWHERE THIS YEAR--as in, hadn't even left Zürich at all--until the weekend before last, but that's a story for another day. Today, I have neither exotic destinations to describe in headache-inducing detail, nor fantastical travel stories to share...but I thought I might throw together a little tidying-up post, both to include here some details that I've (accidentally) omitted in other places, and to catch you up on things that have happened in our normal lives. (As if you could really call anything we do 'round these parts "normal"...)

And with that, back to the subject of that first paragraph: what we're watching! (I know...how long's it been??) Lately, it's been lots of superhero stuff. I know, I know, the market is supersaturated right now, but I just can't help myself. The highlights:

• We're totally hooked on 'The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D,' and 'Agent Carter' is a pretty fun watch, as well. 
• All caught up with 'The Good Wife,' which apparently ends this year; Mike says it's played out, but I'm still enjoying it, as some of the best characters on TV (Eli! Sweeney! And I quite like both Luca and Jason!)
• Really, if you're not watching 'New Girl,' THEN YOU HATE LAUGHTER AND ALL THINGS HILARIOUS. (And also genuinely silly, and a bit surrealist. Schmidt--and, come to think of it, Winnie the Bish--rank right up there with my favorite TV characters of all time, and that list includes Swanson, so you know it's no joke.) 
• 'Modern Family' continues to be sublime, brilliant, and consistently hysterically funny; as does
• 'Brooklyn 99' (that Andy Samberg is a delight, and the whole ensemble is absolutely perfect [the episode 'The Cruise' is one of the silliest and most hilarious things I've seen in a good long time]); and finally
• 'Grimm,' while always ridiculous and so very melodramatic, is just plain fun.*

On the movie front, well:

• I watched 'Spotlight' last week before it won Best Picture, so who's got two thumbs and is prescient now? Yeah. This gal. 
• Also checked out 'Whiplash,' which is also relatively disturbing, but has some incredible music.
• And on a somewhat-regular basis, there's 'Goon,' which I cannot believe, in retrospect, I've omitted entirely from this blog. Make no mistake, it is bloody and violent and absolutely filthy with dirty words; that having been said, it is the sweetest, warmest, most endearing movie about hockey enforcers that has ever, or can ever, be made. Seann William Scott is a revelation, and I am not kidding. (There's also a heavily norther-accented Liev Schreiber, so yessssss.) 

Mainly, though, it's been documentaries, which is why, back in February, I spent the better part of two weeks weeping. Although they're almost inevitably quite depressing and/or horrifying, documentaries call to me in much the same manner as my beloved nonfiction books. Once again, prescient: I somehow managed to get my hands on 4 out of the 5 Oscar-nominated documentaries before they were Oscar material:

• 'Amy' and 'Winter on Fire' (the Oscar ones) were both really good and utterly heartbreaking, for very different reasons. Definitely watch them, I say (...although I think it's a bit of a surprise that 'Amy' took home the Oscar, because goodness, is 'Winter on Fire' is powerful).
• I also checked out 'Citizenfour,' about Edward Snowden, which, for a "thriller" filmed in "real time," was a bit boring, although there were a few moments where the uncertainty and suspense were insane. 
• The last was 'McCullin,' a first-person documentary about a British photojournalist. His images are astounding, but as he focused mainly on conflict in the latter half of the 20th century, also quite DISTURBING. (You've been warned. Use caution here.) 

And also: what I'm reading! Well, just the latest: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert Massie, about (who else?) Catherine the Great, empress of Russia during the 18th century (and let me just tell you, she was impressive). Prior to that, the ones worth mentioning are, in reverse chronological order:

• Gabby, a Story of Courage, Love, and Resilience, written by the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is essentially guaranteed to make you cry during each chapter. Count on it. 
• Boom, about the KXL pipeline, by Tony Horowitz (one of my fave nonfiction authors, full disclosure); 
• Dracula, Prince of Many Faces, about the eponymous anti-hero, by Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally (had to get into the real story after rereading The Historian for the third time); 
• Alice, Let's Eat, by Calvin Trillin, world's best food author (so funny! so dry! so eloquent! and so enthusiastic about the most random of foods!); and 
• Furiously Happy, by the Bloggess herself, Jenny Lawson. (Her second book is another that's simultaneously hilarious and sad and laced with profanity, but ultimately full of hope. I do like that Bloggess.)

And finally, my friends, the food. Ohhhhh, the food we've had over the past half-year! I've left out most of this due to space constraints in destination-themed posts, but now...as Bruce Buffer would say, "Iiiiiiit's tiiiiiime!" Either the pop-up scene here has exploded, or we've just lucked out and found ourselves in the right places with the right people, but whatever the case: so much awesome--if only temporarily available, but I think that makes it maybe even more fun!--food.

Wayyyyy back in October, we hit up this pop-up tavolata (essentially, everything's served family-style) in this insane spiral-elliptical building called the Cocoon.

On the menu: fish from our lake; mozzarella; beef tartar; fennel salad with grapefruit; long beans with tomatoes; pork belly; pasta with spinach pesto; beef baked in a dough crust; roasted potatoes and veggies; celery puree; eggplant with miso; a chocolate-orange tart; and caramelized pineapples with ice cream. Yup, we ate all that and shared it with strangers, and it was good.

November brought with it an astounding Mexican pop-up, cooked by a very nice Mexican lady who was quite proud to share her food with an appreciative audience. (She was also rather indignant that the Swiss consider Tex-Mex to be authentic Mexican food). In case you can't read that menu--terrible photo, dim setting, taken with my phone--there was a soup of roasted, pureed poblanos with corn; a small gordita filled with nopales (sauteed cactus paddles, which kinda taste like green beans) and topped with chopped radishes, tomatoes, queso fresco, and salsa; a mole tamale with white corn and chicken; pulled pork enchiladas with pumpkin, chile, and pipian (pumpkin seed) sauce, topped with pepitas (my mouth is actually watering about this right now); and pan de muerto (a sweet roll served that they served with a cocktail of bitter drinking chocolate, anise liqueur, and fermented honey--sounds weird, sure, but it was AMAZING) for dessert.  (The cocktail pairings were also tremendous--these guys always hit that nail on the head--but I didn't take nearly as detailed notes there.)

The New Year brought with it Lola Sally, a pop-up in the adorably renovated barn of a local restaurant, where they made Chinese food for a week, and then Japanese for another. It was GREAT. At the Chinese dinner, Mike and I shared some pounded prawns cooked in crispy tofu and served with a spicy dipping sauce; some Sichuan chicken wings; an order of pork buns (so fluffy!); some crunchy (possibly raw...?) shoestring potatoes with preserved veggies and mustard dressing, which they brought to us because they forgot to put in our final dish, the pork belly. Which, when it arrived, was spectacularly crispy, plentiful, and served on a bed of sour cabbage with chile. YES, PLEASE.

I went back with a group of friends two weeks later to check out their Japanese food, and it was equally amazing. Those crazies let me order, and since there were nine of us, I went nuts. We tried out the smoked broad beans with miso; the BBQ octopus leg (CRAZY DELICIOUS!!!); the beef tataki (super thinly-sliced, seared beef, which was so good that Steve ordered another plate of it with dessert, and rightfully so); the tuna sashimi; the smoked pureed eggplant; the veal cheek; the miso cod; and all three desserts (but the bean pudding with the caramel hands-down stole the dessert show). 

And finally, March brought with it another edition of Wood Food, which we'd first checked out last year. 

To start, there were grilled bread skewers with raw-milk butter, smoked salt, and some fantastic smoked hazelnuts. Then came smoked-perch soup with mushrooms and lemon; tiny roasted and salted potatoes with Douglas-fir yogurt (so...ridiculously...tasty!); an absolutely gorgeous plate of charred cauliflower with almonds, cherry seed oil, whitefish roe, kohlrabi, and apples (people, if you're going to do a mostly-vegetarian plate, THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT!)...

...this poached egg with smoked Hollandaise sauce, lime, teensy root veggies, and--yes--those are freeze-dried worms; lamb shanks with radish and cypress polenta; and grilled bananas with coconut ice cream and lime, served on a "shrimp-caramel earth" (which was just vaguely salty...dessert did not, in fact, taste like shrimp). HOLY SMOKES (if you will), what a meal.

Ooh, and then there was the music! We got a little crazy with the shows at Herzbaracke this year, and we have yet to be disappointed. The food is always great, and quality- and entertainment-wise, the shows are 5 for 5 for us. Obviously, then, I have every intention of going a little nuts again next year. It's one of my absolute things in this city, period. 

In November we checked out Marco Marchi and the Mojo Workers, a group of Swiss guys playing some of the best blues-Dixieland-old jazz-ragtime that I've ever heard. Seriously, they were all crazy-good musicians, and we smiled and laughed and stomped and clapped and hooted-and-hollered the entire night. SO. MUCH. FUN.

Next up was Frankie Silence & Ghost Orchestra, whose music utterly defies description (it's creative! it's spooky! it's weird! it has absolutely no genre!), but is outrageously enjoyable. They were without their marimba player that night--goodness knows that stage is small!--but a saw, a toy piano, and a xylophone were all expertly played.

And last, but certainly not least, we saw Lady Sings the Blues, and boy, does she. That singer definitely could be smooth when it was warranted, but she really shone when she absolutely cut loose; she sounded like a cross between Tina Turner and Bonnie Raitt, and it was phenomenal. Also amazing: her piano guy is hands-down the best jazz pianist I've ever heard! He played the entire evening only from charts (no actual music, and only sometimes needed the chart, anyway) but was obviously classically trained, and went on the most stunning and incredible improvisational solos ever. 

The drummer ("Steve aus Amerika") and bass player--who was definitely a rockabilly in disguise: the floppy hair! the full-sleeve tattoos! the six-shooter cutouts in his bass (no, for reals...this photo is awful, but you can at least kinda see them)!--were also amazing musicians and improvisers, but man, that piano guy was it.

Let's see, what else to catch you up on... Oh, I know. I went back to German class. Yup, after a nearly-five-year-long break, I decided to finish A2, and although it made sense at the time, it now seems utterly insane that I didn't finish it the first time around, as I only had 8 weeks left. Ugh. So I studied my tail off in January, somehow managed to test back into the course at the same unit as the one I exited from in 2011, and started classes again in March. So that's going again, and here's a photo of Stewie helping with my homework.

Yes...he's "helping." As is always, always the case.

But wait, there's more! Ned likes to be involved, as well. (Thanks, cats, for these zero-productivity study sessions.)

Ooh, and I've been stockpiling a list of weird chips over the last 6-ish months to review for you. (You're so welcome. I do it because I care. Links included so you know I'm not making this stuff up.)

• Burt's British, spicy chorizo: a bit more wurst-y than chorizo-y, but at least the flavors come through right up front. Nicely smoky and lightly seasoned.
• Ten-Acre Pastrami in the Rye: tasted just like pastrami with a hint of mustard. I didn't get the rye that Mike claimed to taste, but still, quite a tasty chip in all. (And somehow, it's vegan. For some reason I find that a little unsettling, because the rest actually involve some form of real meat. Or maybe that should be unsettling. I'm undecided, but either way, I will continue to eat this stuff. It's too weird to pass up.)
• Smiths Bacon Flavour Fries: holy goodness, these were so tasty. (Right up there with McCoy's Flame Grilled Steak, and that fejoada flavor that Lays had out for the World Cup.) Salty, mildly bacony, and utterly divine. Will absolutely buy these again the next time I or someone I know goes to the UK. (I've said it before and I'll say it again, those people love their meat-flavored chips. Like, I love meat-flavored chips, but those UK-ers have me soundly beat.)
• Burt's British, Devon roast beef: salty and marginally beefy-tasting, but I can't say that I'd automatically know what flavor these were intended to be. Quite savory, though, and I won't deny that I absolutely intend to finish the (small, snack-sized) bag. 
• And a total wild card that I found at a grocery store I haven't been to in quite a while: Chio Bull's Heads, grilled steak, which, crazily enough, are shaped like bulls' heads. (English possessives, Chio: look into it.) The chips themselves are oddly tasty, with a definite grilled-meat sort of flavor topped with what I imagine A-1 Steak Sauce tastes like (based solely on its smell, as I've never tried it...tomatoey, maybe, with a hint of Worcestershire? or something.). 

I felt a photo was necessary here, because look how silly these are. 

And finally, because this post is insanely short--at least, by my standards--I'm going to start a new feature and call it 'Forgotten Gems.' (Yes, that's a cheesy, cheesy, cheesy name, to be sure, but it's my blog, and I love cheese, so there.) In a nutshell, I'm going to list little pieces that have somehow gotten lost as I've written about travels past, that maybe deserve a place here after all. (Full disclosure: most of this was omitted because I'm a scatterbrained, terribly-organized person. So not on purpose, is what I mean.)

First, I'm going to take you way, waaaay back in time, to 2014, when we went to Genoa (sigh) with my parents. After dinner one night, returning to the rather grand Savoy Hotel (it's Italy! everything there's cheap, compared to Zürich! wooo!), we overheard some lovely and tasteful piano playing emanating from the lobby. We strolled over to check it out, and found a man sitting at the piano without music, just improvising lovely, quiet, lush covers of all sorts of pop and rock music (sadly, all I remember is some Metallica song--I kid you not--and OneRepublic's 'All My Secrets'.) As we listened, we noticed that he had a laptop sitting on top of the piano and was, between songs, Photoshopping what appeared to be professionally-taken advertising photographs at the actual speed of light. With one hand. At one point he turned and struck up a conversation with us, and here was his story: he was a homesick engineer from Vietnam--where his family was, currently--and was in town on an engineering project of some sort. He was staying at the hotel, where they had absolutely no problem with him volunteering to play the piano in that same, rather grand, lobby...and he was Photoshopping to make a little extra money. Um...what?? Talk about a gifted individual, and very, very nice, to boot. We only saw him in there that one night, but obviously, he made an impression on me. I hope things went exceedingly well for him, wherever he ended up, and whatever he's doing.

And while I know I took a photo of that lobby, with all of its marble and columns and classy decor, I can't seem to find it anywhere. So here's a link to their gallery (all of the photos with a cream-colored terrazzo floor and a black piano are from that lobby), plus a photo of part of what makes Genoa magic.

I love this city. It is so intriguing, and is up to its eyeballs in amazing history.

Next up, a few snippets from something slightly more recent: Budapest and Bratislava last year for Mike's birthday. One of the things I liked most about Budapest is that the people there, while not outgoing, seemed to be not the least bit resentful when speaking English with us, even if their English wasn't so strong. (A thing for which I am eternally grateful, seeing as how Magyar is far, far outside my feeble linguistic grasp!) I also appreciated, though, that whenever someone approached us there, the first thing they spoke was Magyar; usually, in Europe, that's not the case for us. (For some reason, everyone thinks we're German, but that's only until they hear us speak our terrible, terrible Deutsch.)

Shamefully, I know that I also left out a bit about dinner at Csalogany 26: there was a pre-dessert, people. Let that sink in: pre-dessert. It wasn't even listed as a course on the menu, and yet they brought us tiny portions of creme brulee with mango sauce and a tray of petit fours that included what I can only describe as a tiny, lemony Peep; a super soft slice of lemon-anise shortbread; and a wee, fluffy little carrot-poundcake muffin. Want to go back right now.

Also in Budapest... Spotted around 1:00 in the morning, post-kebab and ruin pub tour: an absolutely massive bronze statue being hauled (horizontally) somewhere on the back of a huge flatbed truck down a rather major thoroughfare. With a serious police escort. (As in, one of the at-least-four police cars pulled over a motorbike to let the statue pass.) Neat. And surreal.

Thanks, Budapest. You were very kind to us. And also very entertaining and delicious.

Also spotted on that trip, in and around both Budapest and Bratislava: roving packs of stag parties. (That's "bachelor parties," to you Americans.) What makes them delightful in Europe, however--at least, in my experience--is that they begin during the day, and that the groom is always subjected to some sort of very public humiliation, but is generally a decent sport about the whole thing. It's fantastic. In those cities, it seemed like the humiliation mainly involved dressing up: we saw a guy in a frog costume; a guy in a skirt, matching leopard-print scarf, and heels; a guy dressed as an old-timey stewardess; and, my favorite, a guy dressed as Tinkerbell. All surrounded by a smallish group of normally-dressed friends, and all doing completely normal things like going into a pub or drinking coffee at a cafe. I'm fairly certain I tried to take surreptitious photos of those, as well, but seeing as how I'm really bad both at being surreptitious and at taking photos of people, none came out. So: a entirely unrelated Bratislava shot, just for you.

Well hello, giant pink palace of the Primate.

Last, but certainly not least, I cannot believe that I managed to leave out a description of a couple of very small things that made my last birthday downright magical. I generally find it inconvenient to have been born in such a cold time of year--how is that supposed to make me want to celebrate anything??--but sometimes, things work out. Like when we went to Palma, and they turned on all of the city's Christmas lights while we were there. If you're me and you positively detest the cold, a city full of Christmas lights is just about the only thing that makes it worth going outside, and then it's like being a kid again, all full of wonderment and joy and whatnot. But I digress.

 This time around, it was in Brasov that I got to marvel a bit. First, the owner of the Drachenhaus, the truly delightful hotel in which we stayed, figured out from my passport that we were there over my birthday, and brought a bottle of local red wine, an opener, and two really nice glasses to our room as a surprise. And then thanked us for choosing to stay with them on that particular day! Could they be any nicer there?? And then, after we were out exploring all day, we came back to find that the hotel had hung their Christmas decorations while we were gone, and there were wee blue and white lights all over the place, and tons of actual pine garlands everywhere, which made everything smell like pine tree heaven. I know that that second bit wasn't for me, but it was just so welcoming and magical (forgive the overuse of that word here, but it really was!) to have all of that spring up during just a few hours, and on my birthday, no less. It may have been absolutely freezing out there, but it definitely felt warmer in that courtyard, thanks to the loveliness of the people and the season there. (I believe I also failed to mention that the staff in the attached Hockey Pub were also absolutely lovely, that the hotel serves up a divine breakfast there, as well.) 

So it's not the best shot, but you can see a wee bit of the lights and garlands. (And a big thank you, Drachenhaus, for being so darn welcoming and awesome.)

And with that, I believe I'm all caught up! Well, I would be, at least, but we went to France two weekends ago as a preventative measure against me getting stabby**, and so there's that to write about. And my German final is next week, and Mike's big birthday trip begins the next day, so there'll be that, too! I guess what I'm trying to say is that you probably won't hear from me again for the next six months or so, given my current pace of writing and inability to focus on anything at all..! 

Really, though, I'll do my best to stay on track. We'll talk again soon, friends!

*Also, stupid bit of pop-culture trivia: did you know that the lead in 'Grimm,' David Giuntoli, is real-life BFF's with my favorite (linguistically hilarious and insanely musical) YouTuber, Flula Borg? (Whom I also cannot believe I've never mentioned! What is happening??) Check out these videos here (and this one--how did he manage that??...and also this one, with his actual adorable German parents) and you'll get why I heart Mr. Borg. And then imagine the ridiculousness of him and Detective Nick Burkhardt together in real life. (Ok, you don't have to watch all of the Flula videos, but I can almost guarantee you'll love them, too, unless you don't like creative and funny things. If that's the case, then there's just no pleasing you.)

**Look, I'm sure literally every single one of you has been out of your respective cities at some point during the current calendar year, but I HADN'T BEEN OUTSIDE OF ZUERICH SINCE CHRISTMAS and was starting to get all sorts of cabin-fever craziness. I realize that I've said now at least three times in this blog post, but I want you to understand the depth of my desperation to get out of here for a while. Even just a couple of days. And thank goodness, we did.