Top 13 Hotels in Geneva, Switzerland

Published by Friday, June 14, 2013 Permalink 0

 Top 13 Hotels in Geneva, Switzerland

 

English: Geneva

 

Grand Hotel Kempinski Geneva

Hôtel Président Wilson

Intercontinental

Mandarin Oriental Geneva

Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues Geneva

Beau-Rivage Geneva

Hotel de la Paix Geneva

La Reserve Geneva Hotel and Spa

Le Richemond

Mövenpick Hotel & Casino

D’Angleterre Geneva

Hotel Bristol Geneva

Tiffany Hotel Geneva

Warwick Geneva

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Food Art: Rolling in the Beets, food photography by SandeeA

Published by Friday, June 14, 2013 Permalink 0

Food Art: Rolling in the Beets, food photography by SandeeA

SandeeA does original, exciting food photography, always in a playful manner. A woman of many talents, she is also author of our Food Play column. She writes in both English and Spanish and runs the popular food blog La Receta de la Felicidad, where you can find the recipes for these beautiful creations.

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Switzerland: Swiss-style Knepfle Pasta

Published by Thursday, June 13, 2013 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Switzerland: Swiss-style Knepfle Pasta

Knepfle is originally from Alsace in France, but it is also eaten in Switzerland, in particular in the Jura region, which borders Alsace.

You can buy them at the supermarket, but they’re much better when you make them at  home.

Swiss-style Knepfle Recipe

Ingredients

3 1/3 to 4 1/10th cups unbleached white flour
3 eggs
2 cups milk
About 1/2 cup water
3 large pinches of salt
1 oz. butter
Large pan of water for boiling knepfles
Coarse sieve with large holes

Instructions

  1. Put eggs into a bowl. Add milk, water and a pinch of salt. Beat with wire whip.
  2. Little by little, use wire whip to add flour until a heavy dough is formed. The dough should fall naturally off the whip.
  3. Let dough rest for 30 to 60 min.
  4. When time is almost up, bring  large saucepan of water to boil. Add 2 pinches of salt.
  5. Heat an oven dish large enough to hold all the knepfles.
  6. NOTE: The hard part: Real pros push the dough through a coarse sieve, but this can be a bit tricky. If this is your first time making knepfles, I suggest that you drop the dough by teaspoons the first time, and try using a sieve the next time. Make sure you have a sieve with large holes before trying this.
  7. Leave water to boil gently and start dropping teaspoons of dough into water, in several goes.
  8. Let knepfles poach until they rise to the surface. This should take about 15 minutes.
  9. Use a slotted spoon to remove them. Do this carefully so they don’t fall apart. Drain well. Place in heated oven dish.
  10. Do this in steps, until all the dough is used up.
  11. To serve, over medium to medium high heat, melt butter in a frying pan (butter should be sizzling).
  12. When hot, add dry knepfles and brown, carefully turning them from time to time. Cook until browned, about 15 minutes.
  13. Serving: There are many ways to serve knepfles: plain, with cream or bacon bits, or with other sauces.
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

The Art of Tasting Wine with James Flewellen: The Birth of a Wine Glossary

Published by Wednesday, June 12, 2013 Permalink 0

The Art of Tasting Wine with James Flewellen: The Birth of a Wine Glossary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are proud to announce that James Flewellen has started a wine glossary. It’s just the beginning, but we will be building on it soon.

Click here to see it.

 

 

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Food Art: White Chocolate & Speculoos Mousse, food photography by Meeta Khurana Wolff

Published by Wednesday, June 12, 2013 Permalink 0

Food Art: White Chocolate & Speculoos Mousse, food photography by Meeta Khurana Wolff

See more food photo compositions at Meeta K. Wolff or in our Food Art category.

Bio of Meeta Khurana Wolff

Meeta, that’s my name given to me by my dad. I was born back in the summer of 1972, one beautiful day in Bombay, India. I was practically delivered in a hotel. That’s where my father has worked for most of his life and it’s what injected the hotelier’s blood into my veins. This hotel lifestyle enabled me to travel the world, get close to many cultures, learn a few languages, and experience many great adventures.

Knowing only a hotel life, I decided to follow my dad’s footsteps and studied Hotel Management, specializing in Marketing and Guest Relations. I trained in one of the finest luxury hotels of this world in Doha, Qatar. That is when a tiny spark for food was ignited in my soul.

I now have settled down in Germany, with the two men I adore, Tom, my loving partner for almost 10 years, and Soeren my adorable son of 5 6 7 years.

Hotels are not a part of my life in Germany. After graduating I came to Germany and worked in an advertising firm, an architecture and design firm and a couple of software firms. Don’t ask how that came about – it just happened. Glad it did too because along this path I bumped into and fell in love with Tom.

We are now in Weimar and you’ll laugh when I tell you this my traveling feet have begun to itch again! Let’s see where life takes us.

I love photography, always have, but it was with the start of this blog that I discovered the world of Foodography. Since then the passion for photography I developed has taken a complete new angle and opened so many exciting doors. I try to capture shots that speak a thousand words, that makes one feel as if they were a part of the scene and experience the photo with their senses. You tell me if I am succeeding!

You can see more of Meeta’s work at What’s For Lunch Honey.

 

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Food Quote: Nelson Mandela on Food

Published by Wednesday, June 12, 2013 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Nelson Mandela on Food

I was not born with a hunger to be free. I was born free. Free in every way that I could know. Free to run in the fields near my mother’s hut, free to swim in the clear stream that ran through my village, free to roast mealies [corn] under the stars … It was only when I learnt that my boyhood freedom was an illusion … that I began to hunger for it.–Nelson Mandela

Photo courtesy of The Guardian

has provided “the backdrop and occasionally the primary cause for momentous personal and political events in the life of Nelson Mandela.” In his autobiography, he took an innovative approach to history and showed that a great man’s life can be measured out in mouthfuls, both bitter and sweet. With this title, the reader can cook and taste Nelson Mandela’s journey from the corn grinding stone of his boyhood through wedding cakes and curries to prison hunger strikes, presidential banquets and ultimately into a dotage marked by the sweetest of just desserts. Tales told in sandwiches, sugar and samoosas speak eloquently of intellectual awakenings, emotional longings and always the struggle for racial equality. He was always motivated by hunger, either longing for food he couldn’t have, or depriving himself of food in the name of freedom.

“Only the truly food obsessed would read such a statement and consider the stomach from whence it came, but I did and the result is a gastro-political biography entitled Hunger for Freedom, the story of food in the life of Nelson Mandela,” he told Ana Trapedo of The Guardian.

When in prison, he wrote to former wife Winnie: “How I long for amasi (traditional South African fermented milk), thick and sour! You know darling there is one respect in which I dwarf all my contemporaries or at least about which I can confidently claim to be second to none – healthy appetite,” he told Trapedo.

 

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Switzerland: Best Meat Restaurants and Steakhouses in Geneva

Published by Tuesday, June 11, 2013 Permalink 0

Switzerland: Best Meat Restaurants and Steakhouses in Geneva

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Au Carnivore, French cuisine, 30 place du Bourg-de-Four, 1204 Geneva. Tel. (+41) 022 311 87 58, open 7 days a week.

L’Auberge au Renfort de Sézegnin, French cuisine, 19, route du Creux-du-Loup, 1285 Sézegnin (Athenaz). Tel. (+41) 022 756 12 36.

Bistrot du Boucher, French cuisine, 15, avenue Pictet-de-Rochement, 1207 Geneva. Tel. (+41) 022 736 56 36. Closed Wednesday lunch, Saturday lunch and Sunday.

La Broche, French cuisine, 36, rue du Stand, 1204 Geneva. Tel. (+41) 022 321 22 60. Closed Saturday lunch and Sunday dinner.

Restaurant Café de Paris, French cuisine, 26 rue du Mont-Blanc, 1201 Geneva. Tel. (+41) 022 732 84 50. Open 7 days a week, non-stop from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Restaurant/Café de l’Ecu, French cuisine, 65, route de Rougemont, 1286 Soral. Tel. (+41) 022 756 33 50. Open 7 days a week, non-stop from  8 a.m. to 12 a.m.

L’Entrecôte Couronnée, 5, rue des Pâquis, 1201 Geneva. Tel. (+41) 022 732 84 45.

L’Entrecôte Saint-Jean, French cuisine, 79 boulevard Carl-Vogt, 1205 Geneva. Tel. (+41) 022 321 99 41, Closed Saturday lunch,, Sunday, and Monday.

 

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Outdoor Activities in English in Switzerland

Published by Monday, June 10, 2013 Permalink 0

Outdoor Activities in English in Switzerland

lavaux vineyards, bike outing with Fraiche Air, photo by Know It All at http://www.knowitall.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1072&catid=293&Itemid=398, Switerzland in English

Yvette Evers grew up camping, hiking and skiing in the Swiss Alps. A Canadian with Dutch roots, her career in international development allowed her to explore mountain areas around the world. Since moving to the Geneva area in 2009 with her husband and two teenage daughters, she also works as a sustainability consultant specializing in tourism. She refers to her work as “slow tourism,” says Know It All.

Yvette is the founder of fraiche air, an outdoor club that fills a gap in the market for global locals who are looking for information about outdoor recreation and tourism in English. The outings in small groups provide a wonderful opportunity to discover new outdoor activities and join an active community of like-minded athletic friends – power walks, hiking, snowshoeing, ski-touring, and family days.

Here’s a recent outing: Slow tourism along the Lavaux vineyard terraces. The first vines in Lavaux were planted in the 12th century, according to Know It All. The area between Lausanne and Vevey is now a UNESCO World Heritage site with stunning views of the Alps and Lac Léman, referred to as Lake Geneva in English.

FraicheAir is located in Geneva. For more information, look on their website at http://www.fraicheair.ch/ or call them at  (+41) 79 904 46 22. Visit their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/FraicheAir.

 

 

 

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Simple Sustenance: Summer Indulgence — Cardamom-Infused Mango Milkshake

Published by Monday, June 10, 2013 Permalink 0


Profile photo, Renu Chhabra, Simple Sustenance (C) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.by Renu Chhabra

Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected by a more or less tangible link, with some memory of the table.–Charles Pierre Monselet

Mango milkshake by Renu Chhabra, all rights reserved (R)

Summer afternoon and a glass of cold milkshake! Mango milkshake. Something I am always ready for. Why wouldn’t I be? It brings back memories of my childhood — fun and comforting memories.

Growing up in India, summer meant boxes of mangoes showing up in our house throughout the season. Not just one or two varieties, but several of them. Different sizes, tastes, and textures to relish, and we all had our own favorite.

 Mango for mango milkshake by Renu Chhabra, all rights reserved (R)

It was the summer fruit to indulge in — messy but syrupy sweet and wonderfully juicy. Most of all, it was fun to sit around the table; and enjoy this tropical fruit and celebrate the season.

 Mango for mango milkshake by Renu Chhabra, all rights reserved (R)

And with such abundance pouring in, we were treated with mango ice cream, mango custard, mango salad, and not to forget mango milkshake, the simplest of all for warm summer days. Simple because it can be put together in no time.

Its creamy texture and sunshine yellow color always lifts my spirits. Simply said, it’s a happy reminder of my childhood. Little moments that enable us to travel miles away!

 Mango and milk for mango milkshake by Renu Chhabra, all rights reserved (R)

I have accented the mango shake with cardamom in this recipe. Cardamom, as I call the soul of Indian desserts. Just a hint of it makes the recipe sing fragrant notes. A little goes a long way; otherwise it gets bitter. Like we say, “Too much of a good thing can be bad.”

I used honey as sweetener, but you can use sugar or agave to taste. The amount will also depend on the sweetness of the mango.

Mango milkshake by Renu Chhabra, all rights reserved (R)

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Food Quote: The Tragedy of the Absence of Hunger, by Amélie Nothomb

Published by Sunday, June 9, 2013 Permalink 0

Food Quote: The Tragedy of the Absence of Hunger, by Amélie Nothomb

We have yet to focus on the tragedy that the absence of hunger causes.–Amélie Nothomb, The Life of Hunger, 2006

L’absence de faim est un drame sur lequel nul ne s’est penché.–Amélie Nothomb, La biographie de la faim, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amélie Nothomb was born in Japan in 1967 to Belgian diplomats. She has had long periods of anorexia, which she swears to have conquered, and truly knows the feeling of hunger.

Her eccentric, complex personality, behavior and dress have made her somewhat of an icon on the French-language literature scene. She publishes one novel every fall in September, drinks champagne while she works, always wears a tall black hat similar to a witch’s hat, and only sleeps four hours a day.

 

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries