Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Lucerne Cheese Festival

Over the weekend, a fellow Zurich-Expat Blogger, Juanitatortilla, and I went to Lucerne on what she termed a 'blind date' :) to hang out and partake in the Lucerne Cheese Festival! We walked around the markets in Lucerne (photos tomorrow!), which I admit are far more interesting than the Zurich markets, in my humble opinion - perhaps the atmosphere, being right on the river with all the Kappellebrücke in the background had something to do with it. Then after working up an appetite, we found our way to the main event, the Cheese Festival!

The festival was a lot, LOT smaller than expected, about 4 booths worth (perhaps we missed something?!) but it was still interesting and quaint, in the way most Swiss things are. The highlight of the day was having Raclette, the real deal where they char the cheese wheel right in front of you, for lunch.

It smelled heavenly so we waited patiently in line and shelled out - in hindsight a montrous sum of - CHF 9 for a puddle of melted cheese, 2 potatoes, a few pickled onions and 1 gerkin. It was good, but we both agreed that it would have been far more satisfying if (there was more! and) it was served on a heated plate to keep the melted goodness from sticking.

Here is a wee video from the Raclette wonder... I didn't notice it until the playback, but check out how the chef TOTALLY sneaks a bit of cheese off the scraper. IT IS TOO FUNNY!



Here is the only cheese that was on sale at the Cheese Festival. I took some home, of course, and it was GOOD.

Here is Juanita with her plate of raclette... sadly, I think this was one bite in... it is just so tiny. Good for the waste line though! More room for cookies from Austria, right Juanit

Finally, cheese wheel rolling. Don't worry. This isn't child abuse. These were filled with air...

Thanks again, Juanita for a great first date! ;)

3 comments:

JuanitaTortilla said...

Oh... that guy's so caught on tape!!!
No, thank you for the date. Going to Luzern for Cheese was SUPER!
:)
(now I shall return you the favour and plaster your face on my next blog, *LOL*)

John Barneson said...

My wife and I also ran down for the Cheese Festival. It was a bit tought to navigate; the festival was spread out around town. There were around 15 booths that were all selling cheese (we bought too much) near the Kapellplatz.

At least you didn't eat too much or buy too much as we did!

John B

Jessica said...

Ah ha... I knew we must have missed something, but yes, it helped our wallets and our waistlines that we did! :) It was still lovely to venture into the market and see Lucerne on such a clear day.

I still need a fondue pot but Juanita is going to sort me out with a trip to a Brocki soon! :)

 

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