I used to think Barney was the worst children's TV show ever. But then, I watched it in German. Nightmare!
The stuffed cabbage came out gorgeous. The meat filling was moist and dense and intensely flavorfull and the sweet and sour tomato sauce for it was perfection! Yummy! Oh my god it was good! And the Basel bread? It's heavenly. A crusty white loaf, a sourdough I think. It's so good you could live on it.
Dessert will be crepes with strawberries.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something wonderful will go just right and work out for a best friend of mine. In fact, I'm pulling out all the stops and wishing on a star for him as well.
Ramble, Ramble, I'm off to torment myself with another dose of strange continental television
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
I risked the stairs this morning when, after an endless wait, it was apparent the elevator just was not coming. I had a hunch it was an issue with the exterior door somewhere not closing properly or something to do with the signalling.
Anyway down all 6 flights I trudged. And they are loooong flights even going down. I walked to the bakery by the train station. Yay! I actually knew where the train station was (guesses correctly from memory), so score 1 point for me on orientation.
Bought a loaf of fresh Basel bread and a cinnamon pastry then headed over to a discount supermarket that's basically caned and packaged products, not fresh food, to get the tomatoes and flour, etc I need for today. I'm making stuffed cabbage in sweet & sour tomato sauce. Dessert is crepes with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream or ice cream. I've sliced and marinated the strawberries already.
Lucky for me, my guess on the elevator was correct. When I got back to the house with my heavy shopping bag, the elevator was waiting on the ground floor and worked just fine. Someone needs to sort out the door signaling circuits, tho.
My coffee should be ready now. Ahhhh first coffee of the morning!
Anyway down all 6 flights I trudged. And they are loooong flights even going down. I walked to the bakery by the train station. Yay! I actually knew where the train station was (guesses correctly from memory), so score 1 point for me on orientation.
Bought a loaf of fresh Basel bread and a cinnamon pastry then headed over to a discount supermarket that's basically caned and packaged products, not fresh food, to get the tomatoes and flour, etc I need for today. I'm making stuffed cabbage in sweet & sour tomato sauce. Dessert is crepes with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream or ice cream. I've sliced and marinated the strawberries already.
Lucky for me, my guess on the elevator was correct. When I got back to the house with my heavy shopping bag, the elevator was waiting on the ground floor and worked just fine. Someone needs to sort out the door signaling circuits, tho.
My coffee should be ready now. Ahhhh first coffee of the morning!
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
What a monumental downpour here! It's been raining on and off all day, often severely with gusts of high wind. But about sunset the sky cleared and it warmed up and we had a sunny end to the day - or so I thought.
Just now a load of lightning and thunder and massive storm rolled in. The rain is so loud you can hear it thru the double or triple paned glass. The entire skyline flashing with lightning and massive rolls of thunder. Wow! I closed the terrace doors. I presume the cats have sense enough to be inside. If not, I'm sure they'll make the fact known soon enough.
I'm going into the livingroom now. Going to turn off the lights and watch the storm. The livingroom here has, essentially, a glass wall onto the terrace. The view looks out over the city onto the Jura mountains. We're on the 5th floor (by European style counting) or the 6th floor (by American style counting). Yes, we have an elevator.
Just now a load of lightning and thunder and massive storm rolled in. The rain is so loud you can hear it thru the double or triple paned glass. The entire skyline flashing with lightning and massive rolls of thunder. Wow! I closed the terrace doors. I presume the cats have sense enough to be inside. If not, I'm sure they'll make the fact known soon enough.
I'm going into the livingroom now. Going to turn off the lights and watch the storm. The livingroom here has, essentially, a glass wall onto the terrace. The view looks out over the city onto the Jura mountains. We're on the 5th floor (by European style counting) or the 6th floor (by American style counting). Yes, we have an elevator.
Rosti - Swiss National Dish
How was I to know that I've been making the Swiss National Dish for most of my life? I see all this nonsense about "rosti" on the news here, on cooking show discussions, at the supermarket. Loads of anxiety from the women on the cooking shows about their abilities to cook this mysterious "rosti".
Being curious, I finally checked it out at the supermarket. (I know, I should have goggled it, and I finally did today) What do I find but that it's just a big old potato pancake like I first learned to make by watching my Great Grandmother many, many years ago as a small child. Instead of making the pancakes in small 3-5 inch diameter cakes, the Swiss make a large pan-filling thick cake. Big deal, that's exactly what my Great Grandma used to make to plop on the table when there were a houseful of my Great Granpa Izzie's friends. They'd cut it in wedges and eat it along with glassfuls of Balentine's Ale.
So what is the big deal about that? It's a nice simple peasant dish. Warming and filling and tasty. But for god's sake, a national dish? That you get all aggravated over? Wow.
Anyway it's storming here; massive downpour and high gusting winds and cold. Quite a change from the bright blue sunny skies and almost hot weather yesterday. At times the rain came in almost horizontal waves. Severe enough that I had to close the windows even though we are surrounded by covered terraces.
I'm not going out in this awful weather. Tomorrow will do for a trip to the supermarket to buy tomatoes for the sweet and sour stuffed cabbage I planned for Wednesday's supper.
Being curious, I finally checked it out at the supermarket. (I know, I should have goggled it, and I finally did today) What do I find but that it's just a big old potato pancake like I first learned to make by watching my Great Grandmother many, many years ago as a small child. Instead of making the pancakes in small 3-5 inch diameter cakes, the Swiss make a large pan-filling thick cake. Big deal, that's exactly what my Great Grandma used to make to plop on the table when there were a houseful of my Great Granpa Izzie's friends. They'd cut it in wedges and eat it along with glassfuls of Balentine's Ale.
So what is the big deal about that? It's a nice simple peasant dish. Warming and filling and tasty. But for god's sake, a national dish? That you get all aggravated over? Wow.
Anyway it's storming here; massive downpour and high gusting winds and cold. Quite a change from the bright blue sunny skies and almost hot weather yesterday. At times the rain came in almost horizontal waves. Severe enough that I had to close the windows even though we are surrounded by covered terraces.
I'm not going out in this awful weather. Tomorrow will do for a trip to the supermarket to buy tomatoes for the sweet and sour stuffed cabbage I planned for Wednesday's supper.
Monday, May 02, 2005
My First Solo Excursion in Basel
Not a very exciting or extensive excusion, I'm afraid but quite enough for the first time.
I really needed to get groceries. Asti drinks cream in her coffee. I'm a coffee with milk sort. Also I needed some bread or rolls and a modest assortment of fruit, veg, and meat so I could prepare normal meals rather then nibble on junk or eat out. Luckily, being a New Yorker, I had a large canvas tote bag one could stuff with groceries to carry home. No worries about the paper or plastic decision on the continent. They simply bypass it by not providing ANY bags at all. You bring your own. Period.
I have a transport pass so I planned to take the #14 tram down to the farmers market. Great idea. I go out, walk down the block to the tram line where trans stop going in both directions. Very convenient. Except, which way did I want to go? Hmmm. No idea. I was totally disoriented. No map, of course. (Note: get city map of tram routes!)
Giving up on taking a tram at random with the certainty of getting thoroughly lost in a city where I din't speak the language, I decided to walk to the local supermarket. That at least I remembered from a walk with Asti when I first arrived. So down 2 blocks to the supermarket.
Reasonable enough. Of course I only had a 100 swiss franc note and no change so no shopping cart for Barb. I grabbed a small plastic handbasket and perhaps that was just as well as it reminded me clearly to limit my purchases to what I could reasonably pack in my tote bag and carry home.
Prices are shockingly high for one accustomed to NYC supermarket prices. They are evn high for one accustomed to Waitrose supermarket prices in the UK. Try almost $8 a pound for chopped meat! Insane, eh? How about $2.40 a pound for the lest expensive apples? And $6.25 a pound for peppers. Ok, so we're not going to have stuffed peppers for supper this week, I'll make stuffed cabbage. (I have to go back for tinned tomatoes tomorrow, too heavy and bulky for today.)
I thought I was doing pretty well though. I even braved the meat counter and spoke to the butcher. I managed to make myself understood when I ordered some great looking bratwurst. Hands held apart the length of bratwurst I wanted. She lifted the long coil of sausage and eying my hands asked something in a burst of incomprehensible to me, German. I nodded and said, "alles", she nodded and twisted off exactly the length I wanted. Success! I managed to order 100 grams of Swiss farmer salami as well. It looked really lean and beautiful.
It was interesting wandering about and trying to figure out which were the equivalents of the products I'm used to, which new products looked interesting and appealing. From years of shopping at Waitrose in London, I'd gained the false assumption that supermarkets everywhere were basically the same since Waitrose is almost exactly like a better class NY/NJ supermarket. The one here wasn't. It was geniunely alien. Not bad, it was actually qiuite lovely. Just very alien.
The total for the small basket of groceries I bought was shocking. It was 57.75 swiss francs which is $48 US. I guestimate the same basket of groceries would cost me about $35 in the US. Ah well, I'll get used to it. At least it gives me a good guideline on what sort of salary I need to target here.
So, enough for now. It's noon and I'm ready for a roll and butter and a bit of that lovely farmer's salami.
I really needed to get groceries. Asti drinks cream in her coffee. I'm a coffee with milk sort. Also I needed some bread or rolls and a modest assortment of fruit, veg, and meat so I could prepare normal meals rather then nibble on junk or eat out. Luckily, being a New Yorker, I had a large canvas tote bag one could stuff with groceries to carry home. No worries about the paper or plastic decision on the continent. They simply bypass it by not providing ANY bags at all. You bring your own. Period.
I have a transport pass so I planned to take the #14 tram down to the farmers market. Great idea. I go out, walk down the block to the tram line where trans stop going in both directions. Very convenient. Except, which way did I want to go? Hmmm. No idea. I was totally disoriented. No map, of course. (Note: get city map of tram routes!)
Giving up on taking a tram at random with the certainty of getting thoroughly lost in a city where I din't speak the language, I decided to walk to the local supermarket. That at least I remembered from a walk with Asti when I first arrived. So down 2 blocks to the supermarket.
Reasonable enough. Of course I only had a 100 swiss franc note and no change so no shopping cart for Barb. I grabbed a small plastic handbasket and perhaps that was just as well as it reminded me clearly to limit my purchases to what I could reasonably pack in my tote bag and carry home.
Prices are shockingly high for one accustomed to NYC supermarket prices. They are evn high for one accustomed to Waitrose supermarket prices in the UK. Try almost $8 a pound for chopped meat! Insane, eh? How about $2.40 a pound for the lest expensive apples? And $6.25 a pound for peppers. Ok, so we're not going to have stuffed peppers for supper this week, I'll make stuffed cabbage. (I have to go back for tinned tomatoes tomorrow, too heavy and bulky for today.)
I thought I was doing pretty well though. I even braved the meat counter and spoke to the butcher. I managed to make myself understood when I ordered some great looking bratwurst. Hands held apart the length of bratwurst I wanted. She lifted the long coil of sausage and eying my hands asked something in a burst of incomprehensible to me, German. I nodded and said, "alles", she nodded and twisted off exactly the length I wanted. Success! I managed to order 100 grams of Swiss farmer salami as well. It looked really lean and beautiful.
It was interesting wandering about and trying to figure out which were the equivalents of the products I'm used to, which new products looked interesting and appealing. From years of shopping at Waitrose in London, I'd gained the false assumption that supermarkets everywhere were basically the same since Waitrose is almost exactly like a better class NY/NJ supermarket. The one here wasn't. It was geniunely alien. Not bad, it was actually qiuite lovely. Just very alien.
The total for the small basket of groceries I bought was shocking. It was 57.75 swiss francs which is $48 US. I guestimate the same basket of groceries would cost me about $35 in the US. Ah well, I'll get used to it. At least it gives me a good guideline on what sort of salary I need to target here.
So, enough for now. It's noon and I'm ready for a roll and butter and a bit of that lovely farmer's salami.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Sipping coffee this morning in front of my computer, outside it's glorious spring in Basel. I can hear early morning birds and looking out the room-wide windows in the home-office, it's bright and sunny and warm and the sky is a pale blue right out of an impressionist picture.
I am falling in love with Basel.
Yesterday, Asti said lets knock off this computer thing and get out in the sunshine. What a good idea!
We walked to the tram and took that down to the Rhine. It was really very warm and sunny, summer weather, almost sultry. We walked across a bridge over the Rhine and on through crooked, narrow streets - many of the houses, perhaps most, dating from the 14th century. We ended up at Ueli-Bier stube in Kleinbasel. This bier stube brews their own well esteemed biers on the premises. We sat in the rear garden and had their specialty brew Tut Ankh Ueli. http://www.lupi.ch/ex/tutanchueli/tutanchueli5.gif
This beer's recipe is based on the analysis done on residue found in drinking flasks in an ancient Egyptian tomb. Probably the earliest known actual beer. This brew was excellent, and those who know me and that I don't normally drink beer, will understand that that means a lot.
The smell of saurbraten was driving us wild with its warm yumminess so Asti and I shared a platter. Oh lordy, lordy! That was good!
After a while we continued our day out walking along the Rhine to the next bridge. There are fountains everywhere. Basel loves water and they are very proud of the quality of their water. As we approached the next bridge over the Rhine we saw an area taped off with people and police standing about watching for something. And suddenly Zoooooooom! there they were and there they went...it was the annual Basel rollerblading marathon. So of course we watched the skaters zoom by for a bit, then continued on to the bridge and over the Rhine again. This time we walked all the way home, stopping here and there along the way. We detoured briefly at the Kunstmuseum (art museum).
In the front courtyard of the Kunstmuseum is The Burghers of Calais by Rodin. (You can read about the story behind their sculture and see photos of it here: http://www.answers.com/topic/the-burghers-of-calais)
We window shopped and stared at architecture the rest of the way home. By the time we arrived home close to 9pm, we were hot, tired, desperately in need of huge diet cokes with loads of ice, and very pleased with our day out.
Asti had a mad packing session as she was off to Belfast on a 6am flight this morning. From Belfast she'll drive to Cork and then back to Basel on Wednesday. Thursday it's back to London for a day.
It's May day here - and they actually celebrate it. There are May poles in the parks. I'll go out this afternoon to watch the dancing and celebrations.
I am falling in love with Basel.
Yesterday, Asti said lets knock off this computer thing and get out in the sunshine. What a good idea!
We walked to the tram and took that down to the Rhine. It was really very warm and sunny, summer weather, almost sultry. We walked across a bridge over the Rhine and on through crooked, narrow streets - many of the houses, perhaps most, dating from the 14th century. We ended up at Ueli-Bier stube in Kleinbasel. This bier stube brews their own well esteemed biers on the premises. We sat in the rear garden and had their specialty brew Tut Ankh Ueli. http://www.lupi.ch/ex/tutanchueli/tutanchueli5.gif
This beer's recipe is based on the analysis done on residue found in drinking flasks in an ancient Egyptian tomb. Probably the earliest known actual beer. This brew was excellent, and those who know me and that I don't normally drink beer, will understand that that means a lot.
The smell of saurbraten was driving us wild with its warm yumminess so Asti and I shared a platter. Oh lordy, lordy! That was good!
After a while we continued our day out walking along the Rhine to the next bridge. There are fountains everywhere. Basel loves water and they are very proud of the quality of their water. As we approached the next bridge over the Rhine we saw an area taped off with people and police standing about watching for something. And suddenly Zoooooooom! there they were and there they went...it was the annual Basel rollerblading marathon. So of course we watched the skaters zoom by for a bit, then continued on to the bridge and over the Rhine again. This time we walked all the way home, stopping here and there along the way. We detoured briefly at the Kunstmuseum (art museum).
In the front courtyard of the Kunstmuseum is The Burghers of Calais by Rodin. (You can read about the story behind their sculture and see photos of it here: http://www.answers.com/topic/the-burghers-of-calais)
We window shopped and stared at architecture the rest of the way home. By the time we arrived home close to 9pm, we were hot, tired, desperately in need of huge diet cokes with loads of ice, and very pleased with our day out.
Asti had a mad packing session as she was off to Belfast on a 6am flight this morning. From Belfast she'll drive to Cork and then back to Basel on Wednesday. Thursday it's back to London for a day.
It's May day here - and they actually celebrate it. There are May poles in the parks. I'll go out this afternoon to watch the dancing and celebrations.
I returned to Basel on Friday from 10 days in the UK. Asti and I flew over from Mulhouse airport to London City Airport. Then a mad 100 mile journey accross London from the extreme east to the west in a massive arc to avoid the 5 quid congestion charge. Arriving at Alan's we drank his coffee, gobbled up some really nice cheese salads, and off we went to Oxford for the ACCU spring 2005 conference. Both Alan and I did presentations and they went very well. Asti and I were also on a panel on Women in Computing. It was really an excellent discussion, too bad they scheduled us directly opposite Bjarne Stroustrup's keynote talk. Despite that, those who did attend enjoyed the session. A highly successful conference on all fronts including networking and deal-making.
We also discovered a really great and really cheap noodle house just around the corner from the Randolph Hotel. Yay!! The Singapore noodles were the best I've ever had!
I didn't walk around Oxford very much aside from a few short strolls with Alan to look at the Colleges and drop in at Blackwell's. The weather was cold and drizzling. Lucky us had a suite at the Randolph Hotel tho - courtesy the lovely ACCU organizers.
Anyway, we drove back to London on Sunday morning. Asti was off then to Surrey and returned to Basel on Tuesday. I stayed on in London with Alan till Friday. Besides a IBgames business meeting on Tuesday, we just wanted a few more days together.
We also discovered a really great and really cheap noodle house just around the corner from the Randolph Hotel. Yay!! The Singapore noodles were the best I've ever had!
I didn't walk around Oxford very much aside from a few short strolls with Alan to look at the Colleges and drop in at Blackwell's. The weather was cold and drizzling. Lucky us had a suite at the Randolph Hotel tho - courtesy the lovely ACCU organizers.
Anyway, we drove back to London on Sunday morning. Asti was off then to Surrey and returned to Basel on Tuesday. I stayed on in London with Alan till Friday. Besides a IBgames business meeting on Tuesday, we just wanted a few more days together.
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