A 3-on-3 Geneva Macaron Duel

As mentioned previously, I am rather fond of macarons, much more so than gooey coconut macaroons. Laduree, the Paris-based, original creator of the double-decker macaron, has an outpost in Geneva, which meant I had an obligation to indulge myself. I bought three macarons at CHF 2.20 each: bergamot orange (their limited-edition, seasonal flavor), violet-cassis, and fleur de sel (salted caramel), plus a mint-green tote bag adorned with a giant macaron photo (because where else are you going to get a macaron bag?)

Rather ceremonially, I removed my bag of macarons from the tote (for the record: if you buy six macarons, you get them in a cotton box), carefully removed the sticker, and slid the macarons out. Of course, this epic display of propriety was shattered when I opted for my passion fruit juice as accompaniment since I had neither coffee nor milk on hand.
Top to bottom: fleur de sel, violet-cassis, bergamot-orange.

So now, the single-bite rotation, beginning with the violet-cassis. In short, simply beautiful: the grown-up, glorified equivalent of the patty cake. The compote had melded seamlessly into the macaron double-decker, making a cakey-jammy interior; accordingly, the macaron didn't break on the first bite. The cassis flavor was powerful but not overwhelming, while the violet played the backseat rather delicately.

Of course, excellent first bites make for rather impossible expectations; the bergamot orange, while a sound concept - citrus and bergamot go hand in hand, and bergamot is the scent behind Earl Grey, my favorite kind of tea - lacked the kick of the violet-cassis. Rather, I was left with a concentrated bergamot scent, which gave the macaron a bitter aftertaste and which the orange could not redeem.

Finally, the fleur de sel. Equally as good as the violet-cassis, but in a different way (I silently agonized for five minutes in deciding on a favorite). Neither jaw-breakingly chewy nor Hershey-thin, the caramel bound itself to its macaron hosts in a tight symbiosis of styrofoamy, rich sugar rush. At the same time, the caramel had enough salt to stop me from gagging and to enjoy each tiny bite I took. (I managed five bites from the fleur de sel's two-inch diameter).

After my first Genevan exposure to the macaron, I needed more. And so I found myself drawn to the Pougnier storefront, six blocks from Laduree, for "research purposes." Again, I bought three macarons (CHF 2.10, each): rose, Earl Grey and apricot-hazelnut. (The two stores only overlap on classic flavors - chocolate, strawberry, pistachio - though Earl Grey and bergamot-orange should theoretically have been similar.)

Another photoshoot was in order, and then tasting. (I should probably note that the macarons I happened to pick at Pougnier happened to match color better, although the packaging was comparatively lackluster on their part.)

I started out with the apricot-hazelnut. Overall, I was pleased with the flavor: notably, there was a piece of apricot in my filling and the hazelnut flavor was subtly pleasant. However, the fundamental problem was the texture of the macaron - as soon as I bit into the apricot-hazelnut, I felt how hollow the macaron was. And then I saw the hollowness, once the macaron immediately separated from the apricot filling. Once that happened, it was like eating a deep dish pizza layer by layer: good, but not great. And the macaron, apart from the filling, wasn't that impressive - it actually tasted a little stale.
You can visibly see the separation of the double-decker in this photo. Top to bottom: rose, apricot-hazelnut, and Earl Grey on the bottom (it actually was flaked with gold leaf, why it was red I don't know).

This review got a small boost from the rose macaron; because creme filling was used, the macaron structure held fairly tightly. However, I wasn't too impressed with the filling - though the rose flavor was distinctly and deliciously rose, the cream was curdlike, but not like jam-curd like, it just happened to be lumpy. I would have liked to see a rose jelly instead.


Finally, the Earl Grey. I actually liked the taste of the macaron more than that of Laduree's bergamot-orange. It was clear that the macaron was Earl Grey-flavored, which I gave a prompt thumbs-up to. At the same time, Fougnier infused a bit of chocolate flavor in the filling - which not only made it sweeter but also moister - enhancing the cookie's texture. Still, the outsides of the macaron sandwich were brittle.

As a consistent problem, texture was the deciding factor from which Pougnier couldn't recover. So for me, Laduree wins; it's still worth their CHF .10 premium.

But while these are the two major macaron producers in Geneva, there's more "research": Because Geneva is on the French-speaking side of the Confederation, it sticks mostly to French-style macarons, but luxembourgli, a Swiss variant on the French macaron, were invented in Zurich.

And if I manage to go to Paris later this summer, there will be lots of competition with Laduree's three-story flagship store, including La Maison du Chocolat (they specialize in combining chocolate filling with basic-flavored macarons), and Gerard Mulot. Hopefully, a macaron tour will be in store, and if so, I'm most excited about Pierre Herme, known as much for his savory macarons (including foie gras and ketchup) as his "high king" status in the macaron world. But for now, I'll be sticking with an occasional violet-cassis...though I'd love to see the new seasonal flavors.

These small wonders

I will never, ever put a Rob Thomas reference in a post title again.

Of course, this would have been highly appropriate for the jewel-colored, miniature macarons I just wrote about, but the nature of this post is write about other tasty, less-than-CHF 5 additions of mine. Think of it as Citysearch's Three-buck Bites, but adjusted for Switzerland's minimum wage (which is rumored to be CHF 18 -- about US $17). So...count macarons (here, CHF 2.20) as one of those delights. Meanwhile:

• Coffee, preferably subsidized by the office at CHF 2. It's foamy and requires two little cream cups and a packet of sugar to come close to the less-bitter, American Starbucks side. But it is the best accompaniment for eight hours of work, especially with its hint of cocoa.
  
• Flavored Nestea has come in handy on day trips. I'm a sucker for limited edition flavors, so I coughed up CHF 3 for a bottle of pineapple-mango Nestea. It would have been much better if Nestea had decided on one straight flavor...
• French fries: the real reason for the CHF 5 limit, as it's the exact price for a plate of starchy satisfaction. You don't need to go to McD's for McD-tasting fries; just hit up one of the kabob places on the sidewalk. (Note that kabob doesn't mean "on a stick" here; sorry State Fairers!) The resemblance is uncanny, but the major difference is that mayonnaise, along with ketchup, is served on the side.
• The best part about being in Switzerland is being able to complain about paying over CHF 2.25 for a pain au chocolat. (I get mine for CHF 1.70 here - and I'm already anticipating the shock once I return to Minneapolis and pay for my new addiction at French Meadow). Also, complaining about chocolate - but that is for another post. Specifically, the one that details my trip to the rural Nestle-Cailler chocolate factory (wait for it!)
• Yogurt: Dannon "fruit on the bottom" doesn't get advertised here, because the fruit's there by default. When Tomo and I went grocery shopping together, we wondered what our groceries said about us; we concluded that his one baguette and chocolate covered cookies screamed "bachelor without kitchen." Meanwhile, my eight cups of yogurt...all we could come up with was, "Heidi likes yogurt." I really appreciate the passion fruit and mocha flavors here, neither of which are widely available at the local Safeway; the premium yogurt here is packaged in a black-and-gold luxury wrapper and contains fleur de sel - salted caramel - and kiwi seeds. For CHF 1. Score.
• Finally, who could forget bread and cheese? Yes, that is my "homecooked" dinner below: cucumbers, salami, an olive mini-baguette, and some Gruyere (the Swiss cheese).
  
• And speaking of homecooked dinners, I'm off to make croque-madames! (Think a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, topped with a fried egg.)
  

Nestle is the conglomerate to beat.

Evidence on Lake Geneva: the Dessert Liner. YES.

Day-trippin': part 2, Carouge; Review: Wolfisburg

The day after our sixteen-hour trek to Lausanne and Vevey, we slept in. Which was fine, because I had, with five hours of sleep, doubled Erin's sleepless evening, and also because virtually nothing is open on Sundays in Geneva. So, what to do at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon, besides creep on people in the park?

We decided to creep on people in the town of Carouge instead. A little context: Carouge, often referred to as a Genevan suburb, was founded by Victor Amadeus III, the King of Sardinia, in hopes of snatching trade and people from its rival Geneva. (Fail?) As a result, Carouge is supposed to be architectually distinct from Geneva; despite its non-lakeside location, it has Mediterranean-style buildings.

Moreover, because Carouge is further from the center of Geneva, local Michelin-starred restaurants' entrees are CHF 10 cheaper. But they are closed on Sundays, and so Erin and I settled for a lazy panini-search (we had eaten the last of the food in our room - potato chips - earlier that morning). We first ended up at GelatoMania and concluded our backwards meal with a debate between Chinese food and a cafe, Wolfisburg. Wolfisburg won out, partially because its entrees were under CHF 20 and because after two scoops of gelato, we weren't that hungry anyway.

Although we missed out on Peking duck, we also had a lot of fun at Wolfisberg...except Erin was missing tomatoes on her panini (CHF 9), which she described to me as "just okay." Wolfisburg was more about the experience of being rushed in and out of the cafe than about the food, though. (I swear, I'm not being sarcastic.) Upon swinging open the door, we were greeted by a row of customers and a chocolate bar, flanked by the bakery on the right.
I wasn't feeling particularly hungry, but Erin - the enabler - suggested I get a traditional macaron (CHF 2.90). Two words: good call! I'm starting to be able to use my taste buds to parce the differences between amaretti and macarons. (German Wikipedia claims that amaretti are basically Italian macarons, while English Wikipedia doesn't link the two cookies. Both use eggwhites and sugar and almond paste, but macarons are a little less gritty, smaller, and in their modern form, have the cream sandwiched between two cookies. When you see them, they usually don't have a peaked top like amaretti do. Traditional macaron, like this one, are bigger and only have one cookie, no cream.) This particular macaron used hazelnut powder, instead of almond powder - it was a creative idea, but a strong hazelnut flavor does not beat a strong almond flavor in my book, as the hazelnut demolished every other taste in the cookie. The texture, though, was perfect for a amaretti. A chewy, nutty challenge without being jaw-crushingly nougaty, and when I bit it, it didn't have the styrofoam "crunch," either.
I've saved the best part for last. The real reason why we loved Wolfisberg? Its gift section, which made us hang out for fifteen extra minutes at the counter and why the people surrounding us shot dirty looks. Swiss chocolate knifes? Check. Gift-wrapped truffle boxes? Gourmet syrups from France? CHECK. We couldn't resist the brightly colored bottles, some with flavors that are rarely found in the States (especially when you're not buying in bulk). There were the brown food flavors, and then the neon food flavors:

If you look at the bottles, you can see what we mean. Acerola, in the top photo, is known as the Barbados cherry and is commonly used in Switzerland to garnish desserts. It's a small spheric jewel-colored berry -- think translucent crabapple -- and is super-tangy. In the bottom photo, pomme d'amour (aka tomato), chewing gum (yeah, because I totes want chewing gum moccachino -- but I guess bubble gum is a common ice cream flavor) and cactus. For kiddie flavors, like chewing gum and blue raspberry, they have smaller pump bottles (that I mistook for hand soap, my bad). Erin and I ended up with a bottle of strawberry and of lavender, respectively -- I had to have the lavender; I'm going to make easy lavender honey ice cream soon, I hope!

Review: Hotel les Armures

My friend Erin, who some of you may recall from her guest post on Yale d-halls, came out to Geneva for a weekend visit. Her history skillz compelled her to photograph all the Genevan fountains (free water for all!) and other ancient fixtures and signs, but I still managed to convert her into make the weekend a pseudo-culinary tour. (Pseudo, only because because I had an obligation to bring her to regular touristy things.)

Hence, the next series of posts will be reviewing our chock-full-of-food weekend - from chains to fine dining to the Alimentarium (a museum specializing in food and culture, and which I've been plotting to see ever since I've gotten here).

To begin: after Erin got here Friday night, we scrambled to get a stash of food before everything closed at 7. After a quick tour of Old Town, we wandered Bourg de Four for dinner before settling on Hotel les Armures, whose claim to fame is that diplomats and "three Democratic U.S. presidents" have stayed there. (Translated: those darn Republicans.)

Hotel des Armures is well-known for its cheese fondue, but although it was rather cold on the patio, we wanted to get some red meat into our systems for the rather lengthy day trip tomorrow. Erin chose the traditional saucisson-rosti combination (CHF 19), which consisted of a Swiss-cut sausage coupled with rosti, a round cake of shredded potato that can be compared to soft, non-crispy hash browns. I went for a house specialty, the cold roast beef with tartar sauce coupled with fries and a spring mix (CHF 24). We split a wild mushroom soup as a starter (CHF 14).

(You get CHF 1.05 for every US$1 exchanged here, so we just think about it heuristically as one-to-one.)

The mushroom soup was my favorite part of the meal, though Erin relinquished the majority of the bowl to me. As a bisque, it was neither cream-of-mushroom nor chunky broth; although the color was a bit off-putting, it tasted like mushroom sans the bitterness (I silently compared it to the mushroom tart at Porter Square's Chez Henri).



My roast beef froid was pretty good; lots of the red at the center. I usually try to steer away from tartar sauce in the States, but homemade tartar is a different story...plus there were no capers in the tartar. The chunky raw chive added to the top of the tartar made it a little more crisp. The salad was lackluster, and although shredded potato was a good idea in theory, drowning it in a creamy mayonnaise dressing and tossing it on top of the salad was not the best idea.


Fries...hmph. I'm already slightly disgruntled with fries here in Switzerland; they're too potato-y (potatoe-y looks better, but I don't want to pull a Dan Quayle just in case) and yellow colored for my McD sensibilities. To make matters worse, I asked for ketchup and was never served it, and the already-brusque service went downhill from there. Yes, I know I'm hopeless - so please, the ketchup. I can't do it with cracked black pepper, alone. (I could have done with some aioli, too.)


On the other hand, Erin's sausage was amazing. Lots of dense flavor permeated it, and the casing wasn't obnoxious. I prefer Perkins pan-fried hash browns to rosti, but that's probably just because the chewier texture is acquired.

Throwdown: go for the lunch specials at CHF 19. You can get a main plate with risotto/rosti and veggies on the side. And don't ask for the ketchup.

The Closest I'll Get to Minnesota Out Here, or the Lutheran Church Ladies' Bake Sale

Before les Armures, Erin and I were getting really, really hungry. But not hungry enough to wait for twenty minutes for our food. So we went to church.

Specifically, Erin is fond of photographing old church sites, and I am fond of choral music. Because the Fete de la Musique - the annual music festival - was this weekend, we got to enter church buildings during typical off-hours (Erin: check) to listen to motets that were on my Music 1a syllabus (Heidi: check). And near one of these churches (virtually all Lutheran, of course, given John Calvin's OG status in Geneva - yah, you betcha I linked Urban Dictionary in a Calvinist sentence) was a bake sale. Given the collusion of our hunger with our Minnesotan (and more-or-less Lutheran) roots, we were (pre?)destined towards the Lutheran ladies' lunch cart.


We had to buy something. We ended up buying several things, especially as we realized these goodies were the equivalent of savory two-bite brownies and could be managed in one bite. Plus, one item was CHF 2.50, but four items were CHF 8, as we rationalized...so here they are.

Erin and I both agreed that we each picked a hit and a flub. First photo and top of the third: the salmon-spinach roll. That was my flub -- I picked it because it looked pretty. The phyllo was delicious and flaky, but the spinach - as well as the salmon - was just plain salty. Hitting the piece of salmon in the roll was like the opposite of hitting an oasis. That said, my winner was amazing - it was the onion donut (bottom right of third photo). Biting it felt like striking payday on an oil sponge, but it was clearly just fried, and the oil evaporated once you swallowed. The onion flavor was strong but not overpowering, and the texture was crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Think about it as a spongy popover.

Erin's flub was the regular cruller-donut ball (left of third photo; partially shown). It was basically a copycat of the onion donut, but supposed to be "sweet." I imagined it as the donuts one eats at Chinese restaurants, but it was not very soft or doughy like Chinese donuts. In fact, despite the giant air bubble in the middle, it was pretty dense...this might have been due to the fact that they were probably cooked much earlier in the day as the donut felt a little stale. Also, not judging, but there was no visible hint of sugar. Her winner was excellent, though - a ham, cheese and potato mixture wrapped in phyllo. Warm and comforting, especially with all the rain outside this period, and a good portion to boot.

Gelato Wars

(And when I ask if I can take a picture, I really mean two...sorry!)

Ever since I "moved" to Boston for school, I've found myself shifting away from cakey, pastry desserts towards ice cream (never sorbet, unless it's ninety degrees and there's nothing else - buying sorbet, in my opinion, is like rationalizing your Icee, but for a dollar more). This might be due to the inch-thick layer of icing on Harvard desserts (I dislike excessive icing, unless it's cream cheese on carrot cake), but more likely due to the opening of Berryline, coupled with the handfuls of dollar-off coupons I received from Herrell's at the beginning of the year.

In any case, I've channeled this love for solid dairy into the search for the best gelato here. So far, I've been to four places, two of them repeats. The main takeaway? Don't buy gelato in places that sell other food. Good gelato deserves fidelity. (This fact remains true in Boston's North End - go to the place left of Mike's Pastries and not in Mike's Pastries for gelato...)

1) The gelato/glace cart adjacent to the Jet d'Eau
I've mentioned this cart before; any cart along the Geneva side of the lake will do, given that they serve the same company's ice cream. The rose gelato was amazingly refreshing and well scented; the flavor somewhat makes up for the thinner texture. Although this place had the smallest portion, it's also slightly cheaper than the other gelato I've tried at CHF 2.50. Highly recommended, though I can't say much about the other flavors.

2) The gelateria at Bourg de Four
Partially because so many restaurants are in Bourg de Four, I've gone here twice. (I don't have its name down, but it's the only gelateria in the area, between the cheap green-awning pub on the left and the wonderfully pink chocolate shop on the right.) Both times were subpar experiences, even on a hot day (which immediately lowers one's expectations); the first time, I chose the blood orange since I bypassed that particular flavor at the Jet d'Eau. The texture was thick, but felt rather grainy. It wasn't as if there were chunks of orange pulp in the gelato (which I wouldn't have minded, anyway), but it seemed as if there was well-mixed powder inside. Questionable. I attributed this particular distaste to my own anti-preferences for anything that resembles sorbet, and chose the almond a few days later. Different, but not better - still a grainy texture, and again, it wasn't a nutty texture (though it was clear that they had used genuine almonds). At CHF 3.50 a scoop, it's clear that there will be no third visit.

3) Gelateria, Vevey (Old Town)
You begin to wonder if gelaterias have specific names. (Usually, they don't - unless it's a cafe, and then you avoid their gelato.) This particular place had some unusual flavors for Europe, including guava and lychee. (Interestingly enough, cassis - aka blackcurrant - is a pretty common flavor in Swiss gelaterias. As is chocolate orange - which is also available at JP Licks.) I actually ditched the guava for the caramel de sel gelato, inspired by Stanfood's wonderful review of fleur de sel cupcakes coupled with my love of the $4.50 box of Trader Joe's salt-coated brownies. It was a good call for CHF 3.50, though I probably should have asked for the guava sample. The caramel de sel gelato was wonderfully rich - almost too much (I was starting to gag without any water nearby). The salty overtone was there, though it would have been nice to have some crystallized sea salt in the gelato's contents; the caramel was buttery, but clearly brown-sugar based. Twenty minutes later, the aftertaste continued to linger.
The gelato counter at Vevey, complete with fake styrofoam balls spraypainted with the corresponding color of each flavor.

4) The winner: GelatoMania (Geneva and Carouge)
Yes, this is a chain store. But yes, they only sell gelato. And yes, this is our winner on all four major dimensions: taste, texture, quantity, and presence of weird flavors (as my friend Erin duly noted, "Only a few would go out of their way to find the weird gelato flavor, and then order a full cone of it."...but apparently we also share the tourist consensus). The gelato is creamy and refreshing without any freezer burn. And the scoops are significantly larger than the first two places I've mentioned; one scoop for CHF 3.50, two scoops for CHF 6, and if you get two scoops you can get a double cone. If you're easily amused like me, the choice should be obvious.
The choice is obvious. Here: basil pineapple on the left, cucumber mint on the right.

Like the Vevey gelateria, this chain has at least twenty something flavors - but besides the standard stracciatella or noixette (hazelnut) - all of which they have - GelatoMania makes fairly unusual combinations, per its claim of making "perfumees glaces" (perfumed ice cream): basil pineapple, cucumber mint, spiced apple, goat milk, and popcorn; in my two visits, I've tried all five. Erin swears by another unusual flavor: cinnamon. The basil pineapple might be my favorite; I know I criticize basil for being "trendy," because I'm obviously a hipster, but pineapple is one of my favorite ice cream flavors - the basil makes sure it's not too saccharine, while adding a mild herb flavor.
Double cone: basil pineapple on top, popcorn on the bottom.

(When Bridgeman's used to be open in Minnesota, pineapple ice cream was my default order - the only other place I know of with good pineapple ice cream is Adventureland in DisneyWorld. There, the Dole pineapple stand sells soft serve pineapple. Protip: if you want pineapple ice cream in the dining hall, mix french vanilla with canned crushed pineapple - the pineapple has to be crushed, not in big pieces, and the sugar water has to be strained out, otherwise it looks somewhat disgusting.)

Goat milk was also much more mild than I thought - GelatoMania makes sure this isn't a savory gelato and so a good deal of sugar was added in, making it more like a "sweet milk" than a goat milk or vanilla. It would have been a good combination with the basil pineapple, though I didn't try it in that context. Spiced apple was my next favorite; it had hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, but upon tasting it it was clear that the flavor was apple. Tasting the spiced apple was like licking a frozen, very creamy apple cider. Popcorn was surprisingly delicious and made a good pair with the basil pineapple; its strong, rich butter taste made the gelato seem more like a dessert, while the basil pineapple tempered the flavor and made my stomach less queasy. Far, far better than a buttered popcorn Jelly Belly - however, the popcorn pieces in the gelato could have been better popped, since I nearly choked a few times from unpopped kernels. The cucumber mint was my least favorite of the bunch. I assume this is partially because I've never really been accustomed to natural mint flavor, but it's also weird - I was able to transfer the flavor of popcorn, but not cucumber mint, to gelato. Perhaps it's because the popcorn tasted like hot cereal, but that doesn't make sense either, since the cucumber mint tasted like tzatziki sauce. In any case, the blended shards of cucumber weren't as appealing as I expected, but it wasn't terrible, either.


5) Honorable mention: Cathedrale gelateria, Lausanne
On our way to the Cathedrale Lausanne, forty five minutes away from Geneva, we passed a gelateria that sold twelve flavors. One of them was curry - I promised myself that I would head back and get a scoop. Unfortunately, in our rush to Vevey, we couldn't stop by and by the time we walked up hills and hills to the gelateria, they had closed ten minutes ago.

I will assume that the curry gelato, unlike my curry potato chips (for which I spent $5 on), was delicious.
Lemon-black pepper dark chocolate bar: CHF 2.50 (and good 'n' tangy...though there could have been less lemon crystals and more lemon essence). Oriental curry chips: CHF 5.

Review: Le Syracuse

(Note: if there is erratic timing between my posts, it's because of the quantity of photos I'm uploading. Accordingly, blogposts often have some delay - apologies!)

As I mentioned, last weekend my friend Tomo - an intern at CERN - came out to visit Geneva, and I got to be his pseudo-host. Both of us were relieved that we had a travel buddy for the day trip, mostly because someone else got to take photos of us for our families back home.

We decided on lunch at the Bourg de Four, the liveliest part of the Old Town here. Tomo had heard me complaining of the definitely not-stipend-worthy prices here, and then realized I was serious when I said $25 was the average price for a sit-down lunch. (Apparently CERN partially subsidizes dinners in their cafeteria, since I gave him a dirty look when he said he got steak, veggies and a dessert for $15.) We found La Syracuse, though, and promptly were charged $3 each for a shared bottle of mineral water, but to our surprise, the water was crisp, and not just because it was chilled.

Tomo ordered the prosciutto pizza ($18), while I noshed on the steak des calamari, paired with pesto linguini. Both were solid choices. The pizza was a fairly good size for its price, though it was noticeably lacking on prosciutto (Tomo would consistently redistribute the prosciutto on the pizza, saving most of it for the last two slices).

The steak des calamari, true to its name, was two small slabs of calamari, and were well-grilled - I was surprised by their size, since typically, I eat my calamari in strips (I also had the brief fear that my lunch would result in a giant deep fried steak of calamari rings, held together with breading - not unlike country steak). The tomato sauce that accompanied it was a nice touch, though a bit too thick and salty. The pesto continued the lightness of the lunch, but also could have been less salty.

The summary: a restaurant that I might repeat, for the sake of price, but given that there are so many great places out here, probably not more than once.

Retroblogging: the first few days

To get to Geneva, I had a connection in Amsterdam, and was pretty impressed by the airport. It resembled South Korea's airport in frequency of cool blue and yellow graphics as well as the number of shops. Most of the Amsterdam merchandise was swathed in marijuana leaves and other such celebrations of localized Harold and Kumar. I'm not sure why I was surprised, but it was nice to have stores that were run by type of merchandise, and not brand; of course, the food ones were the most interesting:

Cafe Chocolat sold pure chocolate by weight, as well as hot chocolate, though it wasn't open when I was at gate.

I wish I could take meat and dairy products from one EU country to another.

Upon arriving in Geneva, I took a large swath of the afternoon just to wander through the streets and to check out the major landmark, the Jet d'Eau. The city is crowded during the majority of the day, which means that people are sitting out on cafe patios throughout all hours (until early closing around 8pm). The pace here is such a dramatic change from how I usually do things; although I do walk rather fast here (and because relative distance is shorter here, I can usually do more than a handful of touristy activities in a day), it's pretty ridiculous how long I take to eat lunch now. Forty whole minutes, haha -- even by myself.

The Bourg de Four is a neighborhood where a lot of people go for food; because it's in the vieille ville (old town) of Geneva, it also looks especially Disneyland-like. (I shudder for what I just said.)



I went to Chez ma Cousine for lunch. It's popular with Americans for the large quantity of food it serves at the price: half a baked chicken, with Provencal roasted potatoes and a salad, for about $14 US. It was a nice load before walking ten miles up the Geneva hills and around the lake; as you can probably tell from this photo, I was really hungry and nearly forgot to document the meal.


It was much better than my first lunch here at Migros, the grocery-cum-mall-cum-cafeteria, which I was told by the Harvard study abroad team was fairly reasonable. Can you guess how much this lunch cost?

That's right. $17 US for less than a half of pound of food from the vegetarian salad bar and a 7UP.

Now, a token picture of Lake Geneva, with the Jet d'Eau in the background:
All around the lake, there are a few cafes, but also many ice cream and sandwich stands. Although all of the ice cream stands are run by seventy year old ladies and seem family-owned, they all carry the same ice cream brand, the same signage, and the same price: US $2.50 for a scoop. Having endured Ben and Jerry's tyrannical $4.50 a scoop in Harvard Square (I ran out of my Herrell's dollar-off coupons, since they actually collect them now...), I willingly shelled out a few Swiss francs for a scoop of rose gelato. I couldn't simultaneously lick the cone and take a photo, but rest assured, it was delicious - and one-third the portion of a scoop in the States. That said, I'm under the impression the ice cream stands on the lake carry a relatively less gourmet brand, but it's been hard to find rose gelato anywhere else in Geneva (and I am sick of hazelnut gelato, thanks very much) and it is rather refreshing and less sickly sweet than other things. Next on the list: blood orange ice cream -- not sorbet.

To all you yuppies and quirky Juno lovers in Williamsburg: please consider rose gelato the new basil ice cream trend. In the meantime, here's a photo of the coolest trash can ever, near one of the ice cream stands. How space-efficient is it not?

Walking around Lake Geneva

Lots of stuff to backtrack on, but I'll start with today:

Because it's Sunday today, virtually everything in Geneva is closed - including supermarkets. I guess John Calvin's presence remains exceptionally strong. Some, but not all, restaurants and cafes are open, so this means that lunch and/or dinner will remain a kitchen job.

In fact, most things in Geneva close around 7pm on weekdays, which is actually pretty surprising for me. I mean, coming from the Midwest, on a weekday night I might hang out at the mall...which closes at 9 or 9:30pm. That is, the reason behind the early closings is for owners and employees to have time to relax with their family - which is a good reason, except for the fact that many people in Geneva are not from the area and as young adults, don't have family around. (I promise this isn't just me. Though, it probably means you'll see an influx of blog posts here on Sunday mornings in the U.S.)

My first few days in Geneva have consisted of exploring the town. Very surprising: I haven't eaten any Swiss chocolate (I've bummed Romanian chocolate off of my roommate, though, and it was necessary: the brand is called Heidi). Less surprising: I've substituted my chocolate consumption with a healthy dose of bread. My first meal here was tomato and brie (not mozzarella, as I discovered on my first bite) on a baguette.

Rolls, baguettes, crusty loaves: my breakfast is now a slice of baguette smothered with jam or Nutella. And my makeshift meals from my trusty section of the fridge consist of what I would call avant-garde (but really, broken-down) sandwiches: a couple slices from a crusty loaf, creamy French cheese slathered on top, surrounded on the plate by cuke slices and the best salami ever: salami from the deli, edged with black pepper.

In fact, it's the grocery stores that I enjoy wandering most here, and I lurk near the registers to see what people purchase, so that I can get some of my own. Weirdly enough, my French sounds best when I harass people in the deli line for recommendations - and gives me the best results, like the peppered salami. I've also been regularly drinking the sparkling passion fruit juice, Sumol, which is actually Portuguese and can be found in the States, though it's one of the few things that is cheaper here. (Consider: my cheap drink staple in Cambridge, Arizona Iced Tea, runs for US $2.50 here, instead of the 99 cent standard at the Harvard Square 7-11. Meanwhile, a bottle of Evian in the most expensive grocery here runs 80 cents.) I might add that the old-school garden fountains, are actually public fountains for people to fill up on clean water. My last addiction for this week is Nestle yogurt, which is about US $1, and comes in a variety of "exotic flavors," like pumelo-lychee (with real lychee pieces, just like Dannon), mango-guava and my favorite flavor, passionfruit.

Geneva it is!

For the past two weeks, I've been packing for Geneva, where my summer internship is located. And for the past few days, I've been in Geneva - and it's confirmed: it's one of the prettiest cities I've been in. Located by its eponymous lake (at least in English, its French name is Lac Leman), its trademarks include the Jet d'Eau (a water fountain in the lake that shoots up water hundreds of feet in the air) and the Flower Clock (again, self-explanatory: a clock made out of flowers).

Of course, there's great food - and access to it: bakeries on every block, cafes everywhere you turn, and department stores with entire basements devoted to groceries and wine. The first crackle of a baguette in the morning? Amazing. Surprisingly enough, I might even call myself a bread snob: in the three days since my arrival, when my friend Tomo visited and we went out to lunch, he marveled at the bread at the restaurant. "Too soft," I said. "Not enough crustiness."

For the next two months, I'll be documenting my eating interactions here. I've joked that this section of the blog should probably be called "How Will Heidi Manage to Eat Off of Her Stipend," because the shortcoming of the food here is that it's fairly expensive for someone from the U.S., as with everything else. The minimum for good sit-down lunches is around US $17 and for dinners, it's closer to $25. Hopefully, I'll be eating more than paninis on my lunch break, but I'll also be learning how to cook during this time, thanks to my roommates here.

So, welcome aboard!