Filipino Restaurant and Shop in Zurich

How exciting, I found out that there is a Filipino Restaurant and Shop in Zurich. Missing the food I just had to go and check it out. So off I went with my dad who never had tasted Filipino Cuisine.

The day is slightly overcast, actually just perfect to go to Zurich by train and walk around a bit. It has been a while since I was here last time, so of course I was quite excited. We took the train to the main station, then did a couple of things before taking a tram to the restaurant and shop. It is not in the main center, but a little away and one has to take the tram. The good thing is that it is directly at the tram station, one cannot miss it.

The name is Golden Asian Restaurant and shop and is straight at the tram station Limmatstrasse 199, exit Quellen Strasse. One cannot miss it.

The restaurant is small but clean and the menu was a bit reduced when we came, I think there is not too much business at the moment, but I can imagine that there is more happening on the weekends in the evening when everybody goes there for Karaoke

We had Chicken Adobo which was very nice and of course we had a San Miguel with it, can't drink local beer with the food, it has to be authentic. My dad liked it very much, the first time he had it and it was a new experience as the flavors of the Filipino Cuisine is unique. With the Adobo we had of course rice and spinach that was cooked in coconut milk and there was a little pork belly in it, this was just absolutely stunning and I will try that one out soon.

Of course I had to buy something as well, the store was not as full as on the website, but most importantly I got some Tocino Powder, so I am cooking Tocino before leaving Switzerland which is soon.......

As normal for any Filipino restaurant all over the world, and I have seen a couple on my travels on ships, one can as well do money transfers back to Philippines, this is something that is very important and of course one gets the cheapest phone cards to call the loved ones all over the world.

I have the link for the restaurant, so any Filipino in Zurich or coming to Zurich, pop in and say hello, have a little piece of home

http://www.goldenasian.ch/index.htm

Swiss National day

I am currently in Switzerland.....and having a great time as the weather is absolutely beautiful. The sun is shining and the temperatures are high, always around 32 C which is hot for Switzerland. Summer is always great here, the public pool is great, especially in the morning and then of course the is the Swiss National Day.

I have to admit that I did not go to the festivities for at least 20 years, not because I didn't want, but because I was never in Switzerland at that time, so being here now it is simply a must to go and it was exactly as I expected it.

Usually there is a place at a forest with loads of benches where one meets, there is usually one of the clubs running the restaurant so one just sits down where ever there is space and then gets what one needs. The most important part the sausage. You take either grilled Brat Wurst" or a "Servelat"with a piece of bread, best with a local beer. I will write another blog about some really interesting and nice beers I tasted.

In Switzerland to eat a Cervelat with bread is like a national dish, it gets eaten every where, especially if one goes to sports events. We have it down to a fine art to have in one hand the hot sausage and the bread and in the other hand the drink, the challenge is not to burn the hand on the freshly grilled sausage.....yes we Swiss are strange sometimes!

Let me tell you a bit more about the cervelat. According to Wikipedia it is described as following: 

For the first time in 1552 this spelling appears in Rabelais . She goes back to the Milanese dialect word zervelada and the resulting Italian cervelato. In Switzerland 160 million annually cervelats be produced, so the average Swiss eats 21 cervelats per year.

The sausage mixture consists of approximately equal parts beef , pork , back fat / ground rind and ice and spices and pickling salt. There are no more offal are processed for cervelat. The ingredients are in boats crushed into natural casings filled (imported, mostly Brazilian), smoked for about one hour at 65 to 70 ° C first and then scalded at 75 ° C in a water bath or in the cooking cabinet.

Anyway, back to the festivities. During the evening the local music club is playing, then of course there are speeches, usually by politicians but this time it was a bit different, actually very nice as it was not always the same political bladibla one hears all the times, then of course we all got up to sing the national anthem....hehehe, it was printed everywhere because the majority of Swiss can't remember the words, yes me included. Then we all got a slice of cake for the 750 year birthday of Seuzach, our home town and then finally, the fire works, the thing we were all waiting for and waited for long as it only started around 1030 PM as it needs to be dark, makes sense I guess....just after the first big bout of fireworks everything stopped for a long time....guess there were some problems in the back

But overall it was a great evening, nice to be back here for this special event, it was worth coming here and having a good time

Onion Tarte from Schaffhausen

This dish is very close to my heart as it is from the region I grew up in Switzerland. OK, Schaffhausen is about 30 km away from my home town, which is a lot in Switzerland, but it is close enough to write the recipe down.

The Schaffhausen style onion tart is a great way to eat onions. My mom always planted a lot in the garden, so when the season started we would have this treat a couple of times. The preparation is so easy as all it needs is onions, a bit bacon, eggs, milk, cream and a quiche dough.....which my mom usually bought, but it didn't matter. What matters is that the tart or quiche was absolutely delicious.

 

For this recipe I made them individual but usually at home I make one big tart and then we just cut slices. It stays a bit more moist when making a big tart.

 

Of course one can make this tart as well vegetarian......just then it is not the traditional tart anymore, the bacon is giving a lot of flavor to it, but like I said, one can leave it away....I can't, I love it with the bacon too much.

Every part in Switzerland has their local specialties, I like that so much. It is a very small country, but when it comes to food, there is a huge variety of dishes around.

So here is the recipe

750 G Onions
100 G Bacon
500 G Pie Dough
5 Ea Eggs
300 Ml Milk
200 Ml Cream
Salt Pepper Nutmeg

1 Ea Lollo Rosso
1 Ea Lollo Biondo
1 Ea Red Oak
1 Ea Green Oak
30 Ml Red wine
75 Ml Olive oil
Salt Pepper

Slice the onions in fine strips
Cut the bacon in fine strips
Fry them in a bit butter till soft and all the liquid had gone
Roll the dough out and layer in individual forms
Cut the top off and make holes with a folk
Put the onion-bacon mix in it, will all the way to the top
Mix the ingredients for the Royal
Pour the Royal on top of the onions, bake for 10 min

Clean the lettuce and plate
Drizzle with dressing
Serve with the freshly baked Onion Tart

Emmental Style Lamb Stew

As you can gather from the name of the dish, we are starting Swiss Weeks here at the Moevenpick and of course I share all the recipes with you. We have Swiss weeks because on the 1st of August is the Swiss National day.

I want to start this series with a rather unusual dish, the Emmental Style Lamb Stew. Unusual because the Emmental in the Bernese Mountains is not well known of having a lot of lamb, it is cow country as everybody can believe with the lovely Emmental cheese coming from here. I mean the real Emmental Cheese, the one with the big holes but still lovely taste, don't get mixed up with other Emmental cheeses, not the same

The other strange part of this dish is the saffron, there is no saffron in the Emmental, but still, this dish is a very well know classic in Swiss cuisine, you make sense of it, I can't, but still love the dish and that is why I give you now the recipe

Even with all these odds, this this is as traditional as the Roesti or the sliced veal Zurich style, it is well known in Switzerland and simply delicious, so try it out, here is the recipe

2.2 Kg Lamb shoulder
250 G Onions
2 Ea Bayleaves
2 Ea Gloves
1.6 L Beef stock
2 Ea Sage
5 G Saffron
15 G Salt
100 G Shallots
200 G Carrots
50 G Butter
50 G Flour
400 Ml Cream

Cut the lamb in 2 cm cubes
Add the beef to the stock, then add onion bayleaves, saffron and gloves
Simmer for 45 minutes
Add shallots and carrots, simmer till meat is soft
Mix butter with flour, add to the lamb
Then add the cream and season

Serves 10 portions

Zurich

Zurich, one of my favorite cities. Why? Maybe because it was the first “big” city I lived in when I left home with my innocent 16 years. I made my apprentice ship in the Hotel Zurich, now the Marriott and loved every moment of being there. Zurich is a big city on Friday and Saturday night, but then a small town on Sunday morning. It has the high life, the normal life, plenty of street coffees, shops, just everything and it is on a lake which makes it even more special.

I haven’t been here in many years and must say, not much has changed, the Bahnhof Strasse just got a bit more fancy more jeweler shops and expensive places, but it is still nice. I made a couple of photos to show you the beauty of Zurich and of course will part with a favorite recipe the Zurcher Geschnetzeltes, sliced veal with mushrooms in cream sauce. This is very traditional here, it is easy to prepare and goes perfect with the Rosti recipe I gave you a short while ago, it is actually normally eaten with Rosti

When I go to Zurich I always like to walk down the Bahnhof Strasse with all the luxury shops, I like to pop in a Orell Fussly a well know book shop and the one on the Bahnhof Strasse (corner Rennweg) is in English and has a great array of books. Then I like to walk up Rennweg and like to eat in the Taverna Catalana, a lovely Spanish Restaurant that is there since at least 25 years and is in the same ownership. Jose, the owner still stands in the kitchen and helps out and the food is a delicious and simple fare.

After lunch one best walk downhill, through the old part of Zurich towards the river Limmat. It is a great place to rest a bit and maybe have some ice cream before heading over to the Niderdorf, the “red light district” of Zurich. It is a great place where one can find everything from the top designer shop to the up market restaurant to the pizzeria, pub, bar, private club and x rated move house, everything is next to each other and that makes the Niderdorf so attractive. During my chef apprenticeship I spent many nights there with my friends, having drinks after work.....too young still to do any of the naughty stuff. It is a very save place where everybody can still walk around at 1 AM in the morning and usually it is still very busy at this time of the night.

Zurcher Geschnetzeltes for 4 friends
450 G (1 lb) Sliced Veal
250 G (0.5 lb) Mushrooms sliced
150 G (5 Oz) Onions in dices
Oli, Salt, Pepper

100 Ml (3 Oz) Whitewine
100 Ml (3 Oz) Beef Stock (Demi Glace)
250 Ml (9 Oz) Heavy Cream

Fry the meat in a very hot pan, just for a couple of seconds till the meat turns brown, but is still only half cooked

Take the meat out, then add teh mushrooms and onions. The bottom of the pan is getting brown, when it reaches a dark brown color add the white wine, then the Demi Gace and theh cream.

Season and reduce till the sauce gets thick and creamy.

Just before serving add the veal and bring once to the boil, serve and eat immediately