South of Whose Border?

When originally debating the move to Switzerland, two main concerns gave us significant pause: 1) how would Hobbes respond? (via pictorial evidence, he's responding with gigantic grins) and 2) could we live without good Mexican food?

Chicago possesses a substantial and (from our vantage point) welcome Mexican influence with ubiquitous burrito houses and taquerías and well-stocked authentic Mexican food aisles in every supermarket; quality Mexican cuisine indeed ranks highly on our preferred food list. And although excited about the diverse Swiss offerings of traditional French, German and Italian cuisines mixed with a healthy dose of fondue, we ultimately plunged into central Europe with eyes wide open regarding "the Mexican risk."

So we're testing the waters both ways. We've dined twice now at "downtown" Kloten mainstay Restaurant Löwen (meaning "lion"--so your favorite beer Löwenbrau means "Lion's Brew") featuring real Swiss-German food. And last Thursday evening we enjoyed "big city date night" with a French dinner in Zürich's wonderful Old Town at an establishment called Zum Grüner Glas ("At the Green Glass," although it might have been Zum Nordpol, "At the North Pole" for the temperatures the past week). The verdict? Restaurant dining is expensive and generally good but not great yet. Of course we were spoiled living in Chicago, one of the world's truly great restaurant cities (I'll argue anyone on that point).

Both at The Lion and The Glass, I tried Zürich's professed signature dish of kalbsgeschnetzeltes (say that five times fast), thin veal slices in mushroom-cream sauce. Both times the veal was slightly overdone and the sauce needed salt (I've decided to attempt it at home sometime soon instead). The restaurant wines are always fantastic, though. And the espressos. By far the best food bargain to date remains our "discovery" of an open-air downtown Zürich grill serving phenomenal bratwurst and cervelat (the bratwurst's worthy cousin) with hot mustard, crusty rolls and draft beer.

Somehow cognizant of the American (or at least Chicagoan) love of Mexican food, our Swiss associates here immediately apprised of two or three Mexican restaurants in the city. Our trailblazing new Hyatt/Chicago/Zürich friends Dave and Heather, who arrived a month prior to Steph and me, share the addiction and have already tried several. Two Fridays ago we ate dinner together at a "Mexican" restaurant called Cheyenne, reportedly representative of the class--not bad, but really a Swiss interpretation of Tex-Mex with added flair such as zucchini and carrots in the steak burritos. Enough said. The wine was fantastic, though.

So matters must be taken into one's own hands. Armed with a list of three Mexican-type ingredient shops in Zürich (never mind how we obtain these things, and it's not via the Internet unless you can Google in German), do-it-yourselfers Steph, Heather and I descended into the city on Saturday for a daring reconnaissance mission. After fueling up at the previously mentioned sausage and beer outpost, we found a few tram rides later that Shop #1 was actually an "exotic global cuisine" restaurant, i.e., an unfocused fusion place with appetizers including pot stickers AND tandoori chicken skewers AND empanadas. Strike one. Nostalgic for not only Chicago's Mexican food but also its simple street grid pattern, we took eight wrong, cold, windy turns before finding Shop #2, actually a wine boutique growing a variety of its own hot pepper plants (?) and sporting a large shelf stocked with gourmet spice-oriented items including a range of hot pepper-infused chocolates (this is Switzerland after all). OK, somewhat better but mostly strike two.

We trained back up to the Zürich main station with final Shop #3 lying only two blocks away. Immediately on entering the tiny store called El Maíz--pay dirt! An awesome assortment of all things authentically Mexican! Tortillas, fresh tomatillos, moles (that's MO-lays, not "moles"), gallon canisters of pickled jalapeños, high-end tequilas, Negra Modelo beer, etc. We grabbed a basket full of items and later prepared a fairly excellent fresh Mexican tostada-with-refried-black-bean-and-roasted-tomatillo-garlic-salsa thing for dinner Saturday night. As an unexpected bonus, before returning to the station we stumbled into an authentic Thai ingredient shop and take-out restaurant, definitely also worth another visit. Now feeling secure foodwise, we have two easily-accessible aces up the sleeve for the infrequent times we crave something other than zürcherkalbsgeschnetzeltes.