A Literary Culinary Journal
by Rosa Mayland
INCREASE YOUR GASTRONOMIC EXPERIENCE BY EATING IN SYNC WITH THE SEASONS
With the arrival of hotter weather, I am thrilled that some of my favorite fruits are starting to grace (super)market stalls. They are so fabulous that I can never get enough of them. Not one week goes by without me making either pies, pastries, cakes, trifles, crumbles, clafoutis or cobblers in my itsy-bitsy apartment kitchen.
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by Rosa Mayland
Colors burst in wild explosions
Fiery, flaming shades of fall
All in accord with my pounding heart
Behold the autumn-weaver
In bronze and yellow dying
Colors unfold into dreams
In hordes of a thousand and one
The bleeding
Unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer
Their flutes and horns in nightly swarming
Colors burst within
Spare me those unending fires
Bestowed upon the flaming shades of fall.
– Dark Tranquility, With the Flaming Shades of Fall
Each season has a significant impact on our behaviour and spirit. All four seasons impart a special mood as well as a certain rhythm to our existence. The explanation for that is very simple: no plant, animal or human being can break loose from the forceful and capricious powers of the Universe to which they are submitted and depend on. We just have to accept the fact that there is a greater plan (I’m not talking about God, but about the force behind the entirety of the cosmos) and that most of the time it completely escapes our understanding. There is no other choice for us than to cooperate with the elements in order to benefit from them. Fighting against them will get you nowhere. Save your vigor and be in harmony with them…
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by Rosa Mayland
Summer fades; the first cold, Northern air
Sweeps, like hatred, through still days –
The August heat now gone elsewhere,
To Southern, bird-filled coasts and bays;
Amid constricting vales of cloud,
A pale and liquid Autumn sun
That once beat down on an empty plain
And may again. And may again.
— Trever Howard, Autum
Lately, I’ve been in an unusually nostalgic, and in a rather morose state of mind. No matter how much I love autumn and look forward to cooler weather, seasonal mood swings always hit me hard when the summer ends. I guess it is something natural/biologic which each of us experiences to a certain degree. This time though, the “blahs” hit me a little harder than usual and I guess this is partly because last week, on the 13th of September, my English grandmother would have celebrated her 85th birthday, that is if she had not passed away last March…
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by Rosa Mayland
Switzerland (also known as “Confoederatio Helvetica” or “die Schweiz”, “la Suisse”, “Svizzera”, “Svizra”) is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons and 4 different linguistic and cultural areas (German, French, Italian and Romansch). It’s therefore not surprising if its cuisine reflects its rich heritage and highly diverse cultures. It is rather like an island in the middle of Europe, like a tiny kingdom.
Each region and canton has its very own traditional dishes and specialties as well as produce, and they defend and even protect it fiercely, because there are dishes, cheeses, wines, breads, and many more food items that are now protected by AOCs in Switzerland.
Even if this tiny piece of land stuck between Germany, Austria, France, Italy has its own highly diverse culinary identity, one cannot refute that each part of the Swiss Confederation has, to a certain extent, been influenced by its neighbors, and vice versa. For example, a sausage resembling the anise-flavored Geneva sausage called Longeole can also be found in Chablais (Haute-Savoie); a cheese similar to Valais raclette is made in Savoie too; the Swiss German spätzli seem to be of Swabian (German) origin. Then there is polenta or risotto which evoke the Apennine Penninsula, and are often found in Ticino, and, well, the list goes on. As it is the case with every place that is not in total isolation, the borders are quite permeable, so it is pretty understandable that ideas, information, arts and science cross back and forth across the borders.
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by Rosa Mayland
I don’t know if you have the same uncomfortable feeling as I, but I have the impression this year is flying by, and that we are more than ever racing against time, without being able to get a grip on the present moment or connect with the now. It is insane and quite confusing…
As incredible and shocking as it might seem, September has already arrived and so has autumn (and by the way, just in case you have already got the creeps, we are dangerously approaching Christmas – only 3 1/2 months to go before the ludicrous craze!). Even if you try “lying” to yourself, you cannot do anything other than confirm that the hot season is over and the slow decline of nature is taking its toll. As sad as it might sound, we have no other choice than to bid goodbye to the joys of summer and to the delightful sensation of lightness as well as worry-free days, it is a harbinger for the cold, dark, gloomy days that gently weasel their way into our lives. All those changes are real, visible and can be perceived very clearly.
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by Rosa Mayland
This year, unlike all preceding years, I decided that I’d serve a Swiss menu for our National Day as I believe there is no better way to feel close to your roots than by cooking the foods that are a part of your identity. I also had the urge to share a traditional and summery Swiss recipe with you.
The date marks the death of the first German Emperor from the house of the Hapsburgs, the independence of Switzerland from the Austrian rulers, the alliance of the rural communes Schwytz, Uri and Unterwalden (central Alps) with a view to protecting themselves from outside attackers or anyone attempting to subject them, and the creation of the Federal Charter of 1291, a pact which ensured free trade and peace on the important mountain merchant routes.
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by Rosa Mayland
“As a grandmother of six, I believe that it is crucial that we make time to pass on our recipes, cooking and growing skills and other crafts to our grandchildren.”— Darina Allen, president of Slow Food Ireland
In our modern world, most women choose or have to work, and countless couples don’t have the time or energy to become kitchen bees. Many people prefer buying prepackaged food and don’t see any point in spending their free time preparing homemade snacks. The majority of 21st-century grandmothers hail from a generation of females who cut themselves off from old traditions, therefore nowadays, very few kids are lucky enough to have grandmothers* who cook or enjoy cooking, and who are able to share their family’s culinary legacy with their grandchildren.
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by Rosa Mayland
Good food and good eating aren’t a class thing – anyone can eat good food on any budget as long as they know how to cook.— Jamie Oliver
Unfortunately too many people have the preconceived idea that eating healthily and with indulgence is synonymous with expensive, and believe that spending less money on food implies that your dinners will be dreadfully bland and grimly boring. Well, today I am about to break with the big myth and set the records straight by showing you how being limited financially doesn’t mean you have to eat like an austere monk on a strict diet or a New Age prophet living on love and fresh air, nor restrain your kitchen activity and stop inventing dishes. Quite the contrary!
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“Preparing food is not about yourself and others. It is about everything!”
– Shunryu Suzuki
Click here for more pictures and a recipe for “Cold Soba Noodle Salad“.
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by Simón de SwaanAll cooks, like all great artists, must have an audience worth cooking for.–André Simon
André Louis Simon (1877 – 1970), born in France but married to an English woman, was the charismatic leader of the English wine trade for almost all of the first half of the 20th century. He became the grand old man of literate connoisseurship for a further 20 years.
His most distinguished book was The History of the Wine Trade in England from Roman Times to the End of the 17th Century, in three volumes (1906, 1907 and 1909).
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Meet Jonell Galloway, a freelance writer and editor specialized in French cuisine. 
