Category: Restaurants

Gastronomic Surprises in Switzerland

Many of the restaurants that cater to tourists in Switzerland have similar menus, consisting of raclette, cheese fondue, rösti (the Swiss equivalent of hash browns), schnitzel, pizza, pasta, and burgers. We were fortunate to find places that broke the mold on our travels. Here’s what we found, town by town. Mürren. Our hotel served burritos …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2024/07/15/gastronomic-surprises-in-switzerland/

Ciao di Morcote

Stop #3 on the Swiss tour was Morcote, a small town hugging Lake Lugano in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Unlike our earlier stop, the town wasn’t mobbed with tourists. We rented an apartment above the downtown strip. The number of stairs to reach the front door with our luggage, then the flight up to …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2024/07/15/ciao-di-morcote/

Mingling with the Masses in Mürren

Mürren was our second stop in Switzerland. We walked around town briefly on our last trip to Switzerland 13 years ago. I didn’t think it was a huge town at the time. I didn’t detect that many tourists. Times have changed. As with Venice last year, I heard more English spoken. We also saw many …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2024/07/12/mingling-with-the-masses-in-murren/

Saturday in Little Saigon

We haven’t been to the Little Saigon neighborhood of Seattle since before the pandemic. Today’s trip down there was to check out the Italian ingredients at Big John’s Pacific Food Importers. You may ask (as my sister did), why would you look for Italian ingredients in a Vietnamese enclave? Simple. Little Saigon is at the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2024/01/09/saturday-in-little-saigon/

Vacation Postmortem

Now that we’ve been home for over two weeks, I’ve had a chance to sort my thoughts on this year’s European junket. Here are some words from this wiseacre if you’re planning to head to Europe in the near future: Getting Covid while on vacation sucks. Airports and airplanes, not to mention crowded public spaces, …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/09/21/vacation-postmortem/

The Canals and Cannolis Tour

Julian and I are back on vacation in Europe. This time our itinerary included visiting his cousins outside Amsterdam. Later we flew to Italy for a week in the Dolomite Mountains and a week in Venice. We have the experience of canals in both the Netherlands and Venice and cannolis (we hope) in Italy. Our …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/08/22/the-canals-and-cannolis-tour/

There Oughta Be a Law

There are several food faux pas that I don’t get riled about. Want to drink red wine with fish? Okay by me. Want to pre-boil your ribs before grilling them? It’s your life. However, there is one thing that should never be done: putting mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich. I’ve made my opinion on mayonnaise …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/01/29/there-oughta-be-a-law/

Fish Sauce in Rural France

Since Vietnam is a former French colony, it makes sense that one can find Vietnamese food in Paris and other large cities. We didn’t expect to find a Vietnamese restaurant in Domme. Our host at the hotel highly recommended the restaurant, Comptoir d’Annam. The restaurant opened the year after our first trip to the Dordogne. …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/05/12/fish-sauce-in-rural-france/

Back to the Bastides

We’re back in France, this time in the Dordogne Valley to revisit the bastides. We were first here in 2015. These are hilltop fortress towns that were fought over for centuries. Now tourists fight over limited parking spaces in these towns. Our home base, as it was seven years ago, is Domme. This is a …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/04/28/back-to-the-bastides/

More on Pintxos

Pintxos are small portions of food, called tapas in other parts of Spain. You can have hot or cold pintxos. Some are on skewers, others on French bread. They’re often inexpensive, because the bar makes most of its profit on alcoholic beverages. Here’s a spread of pintxos we got at one of the oldest bars …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/04/24/more-on-pintxos/

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