Gas Station Deluxe

Time to address the topic most dear to our hearts and stomachs... food! For Steph and me, visiting anywhere--and particularly Europe--is largely about local food and booze. Some people really enjoy the museums or art or theater or architecture or shopping or history or local customs--I'm sure those are all great--but for us it's always about food first.

There's plenty of good news and only a little potentially bad news in the sustenance department. The fantastically good news is that daily provisions are expensive and amazingly excellent! The potential bad news is that many restaurants, at least in Zürich, are amazingly expensive and perhaps not always as excellent (by the way, would now be a good time to ban "expensive" from the vocabulary?). I'll focus on the good news first. So far, I would rank the Swiss Food Importance Hierarchy (SFIH) as:

Tied for #1 - Bread and Cheese
#3 - Coffee
#4 - Mineral Water
#5 - Fresh Produce

(Notice that wine and beer don't make the list; the Swiss aren't teetotalers but also not huge drinkers--in fact the largest grocery chain in Switzerland, called Migros, slightly frustratingly doesn't carry any alcohol. Luckily there are plenty of other good sources.)

Rather than attempt to describe items #1-5 to you (flowery writing about every nuance of exquisite flavor nauseates even me), I'll provide an example. It starts quite unfortunately with Stephanie contracting severe flu symptoms after dinner on Friday night continuing through Saturday morning (almost certainly a long-delayed response from the cumulative stresses of the Chicago marathon, preparing to move halfway around the world, actually moving and then starting a new job in less than one month). At 6:30am Saturday, after a markedly unpleasant night, she asked me to shuffle over to the nearby gas station for a 7-Up or Sprite to rehydrate and settle the ol' stomach. Normally comatose at 6:30am, I obliged in this case.

The gas station--a one-minute walk and typical size for a small U.S. gas station--is a CO-OP, the second-largest grocery chain in Switzerland; here both Migros and CO-OP infiltrate every aspect of life, from ubiquitous grocery stores to full department stores to gas stations to language classes. Gas stations provide important staples in "emergency" situations since all other stores close early, usually by 6:30pm Mon-Sat, and close completely on Sunday. Steph had visited the CO-OP station once before, I had not. It's always quite bustling and now I know why.

At 6:30am, the gas station smelled overwhelmingly like a bakery. Bread and pastries in the substantial corner section were being warmed on the premises in a closet-sized oven. There were loaves and rustic loaves and crusty rolls and exotic rolls and pretzels and danishes and croissants and blah, blah, blah. Although it wasn't on my list, I couldn't help grabbing a wheat croissant which Steph, Hobbes and I later agreed rivaled my other greatest croissant experience at the Four Seasons in Chiang Mai, Thailand (both unlikely locations, no doubt). I also found the drink section quite ample, though without 7-Up or Sprite, procuring a GatorAde and some manner of lightly-sweetened lemon-flavored mineral water called Rhäzünser Plus that I supposed might taste like 7-Up (and I was right!).

Of course I should have been mentally prepared, since Steph's prior CO-OP gas station visit had produced a fantastic soft Brie-like Swiss cheese (called Tomme, maybe look for it at Whole Foods) and a quite good French Chardonnay table wine for a mere 7 CHF, truly our best (first??) bargain yet. Also the gas station has something strange called Tomaten, which look and feel exactly like a Chicago tomato except very deep red in color and perfectly fresh with a really great fresh tomato flavor; I've started using them where I used to use Chicago tomatoes with delicious results.

Needless to say, actual grocery store food provides comparable quality to the gas station items. Food shopping is an every day routine--kitchen refrigerators are small (known to U.S. ex-pats as "Barbie Refrigerators") and freezers are TINY and nothing is preserved. Unless it's pasta or cereal, you mostly buy and eat it the same or next day. For long-term visitors to Europe, my guess is that the constant activity required to purchase and prepare (and dispose of) food either inspires hair-pulling fits or introduces a different but welcome appreciation for the three meal routine.

Finally, regarding the potential bad news, I'll lay off the restaurants for now because we need more experience there (but maybe Todd needs some income first).