Cheese, butter, and cream in Switzerland

[cindyluwho]

Hey everyone,
I just spent a week and a half in Switzerland, which was very beautiful! I stayed with my friend's parents for a few days, and then with my friends for the remainder of my trip. While I stayed with my friend's parents, his mother made cheese and butter sandwiches for me for lunch, and gave me craime fraiche and quark cheese with fruit for dessert. For dinner she sometimes made me more cheese and butter sandwiches, this time toasted. At my friends' house, I had raclette, which is basically big slabs of melted cheese on potatoes, then went to another person's house and had fondue. In between all this, I had lots of chocolate, since Swiss chocolate is delicious. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif
As much as I love cheese and chocolate, I am extremely eager to get back to eating vegetables again since as a vegetarian I love my veggies, and I really can't eat like this for very long without having some serious broccoli withdrawal. However, the interesting thing I noted is that I didn't gain any weight from all this extremely rich food. The Swiss are not an overweight people either, generally speaking. Maybe it is just that it's a very hilly country and you're always climbing up some hill somewhere. Maybe it's because people don't do alot of snacking. Maybe the processed foods with hormones and stuff in the US just aren't so good for you. I don't know...what do you all think?

[hhcowgirl]

It's all about the portion sizes, I think. I'm sure you didn't see anything there that was "super-sized." I think it is disgusting how gluttonous America has become.

I think the activity level is another factor--I lived in England for 6 months and there, you only got in your car as a last resort. Most people walked to the grcery store, church, etc. When was the last time you saw a group of college kids lugging their groceries home on foot over here?

[cindyluwho]

Yeah, I think you must be right. I guess you get full pretty fast from eating the rich foods in Switzerland, so unless you are stuffing yourself beyond what is reasonable, you just naturally eat less than you would if the food were less rich.

In terms of activity level in America, I imagine it probably depends on where you live. I'm a student in the Boston area, and I don't have a car, so in fact I just lugged my groceries home on foot last night. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif In the warm months I can even walk to church, and though it takes over an hour, it is very nice to walk by the river in the early morning when there are no cars about. Boston is small enough (and pretty enough) that you can do that (and *want* to do that) whereas I imagine you would be hard pressed to get by without a car in Los Angeles or Texas, for example, and it's not quite so scenic so you wouldn't particularly feel like walking around much. I guess cities in Europe are often not as sprawling as they are in the US, so that you are able to walk places without too much trouble. I also think in places like Boston and San Francisco where it is really difficult to battle the counter-intuitive street organization and to find parking, walking starts to look very attractive even when you have a car. And when you do drive, that doesn't mean you don't have to walk... when I lived in SF, I was usually pretty happy to find a parking space within 6 blocks of my destination, whereas when I visited San Diego, people literally got in the car to drive 2 blocks and seemed surprised when I suggested that we just leave the car where it was and walk. Probably the fact that gas is so expensive in Europe also causes people to use their cars less.

[pmmahan]

cindy - what a fantastic time you must have had! Like hhcowgirl, I lived in England for 6 months and was also able to spend about 2 months in Germany, and traveling. I love raclette. My fiance became acquaintd with this dish while skiing in the French Alps. we make it at home with tons of cooked veggies like broccoli, mushrooms, onions, cauliflower. we put all that over cooked potatoes, top with cheese and put it under the broiler for a few minutes. delish.
I ate tons of rich food when I was in Germany - apfelstrudel, the breads, the cheeses, I also ate a swiss dish called rosti that is yummy - did you have that as well?
Oh, I wish I could go back!!
I also work in boston and you are so right - it is such a walkable city.

[cindyluwho]

I didn't get a chance to eat rosti, but I've had it at a restaurant in Boston--Marche Movenpick, which is in the Prudential. I don't know how authentic it was, but I liked it alot! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif