[🏔️ yodel ⛰️] Day 11: Grindelwald
Hello from sunny Grindelwald!
Today's newsletter will be a short one, because it was our Swiss Sunday (even though it's Thursday).
As mentioned in my previous newsletter, Grindelwald really feels like a town for rich pensioners or holidaymakers. The town feels like a manicured idea of what a Swiss ski resort should be, and while it's clean and safe, it also feels quite impersonal. If anything, the buildings here are all an "image" or "impression" of what a "Swiss mountain town" should be.
Take this home? chalet? for example. There haven't been wild bears in Switzerland for at least the past 100 years, but somehow they are still all over the place here. Partly because they're the official animal of the canton of Bern, but it instantly transports you to a type of wilderness. (It's also probably why Mont Bell has a bear as their mascot.)
That said, I love bears and I will gladly adorn my imaginary chalet with bear carvings like this if I ever had the chance to.
Let's go on a tour of random things I've noticed in this town, as well as document the food I've eaten in the past 24 hours.
There are a bunch of goats being reared here. Very Heidi. If only they had some brown goats in the mix! I've also seen a couple of llamas or alpacas here while flying overhead on a gondola.
The warm sun and cool air has brought certain late summer flowers out in force, such as these. The local supermarket is selling pots of these at 50% off, so I suppose they will be out of season soon.
We've had the chance to eat some pretty decent Asian food in Grindelwald, such as this red curry which I talked about previously:
And this yang zhou chao fan (a.k.a Canto fried rice).
Both dishes were surprisingly good, considering that we're in the middle of very very white Switzerland.
As to why we're eating Asian food, the reasons are kind of weird. We don't particularly miss Asian food, because the Swiss and Bernese food we've been eating has been varied and delicious. (I also don't know why I feel the need to justify that I'm having Asian food...) The place that sells red curry is one of the few, if not the only, casual takeaway places in Grindelwald that still operates after 7pm.
The place that sells fried rice (as well as other Canto/Chinese dishes) is a bit of a strange one. They have only 1 chef and 1 hostess so they turn down takeaway orders if the kitchen gets too busy. We decided to head there super early (e.g. right when they opened) because yesterday was a terrible day and we just wanted something warm and familiar to eat on our balcony.
Guys, the fried rice was amazing. It had good wok hei and the char siu was authentically sweet and savoury. I mean, char siu in the Swiss Alps! I'm not complaining. The chef had to have made it himself. Every grain of rice was wonderfully coated in oil and the plentiful spring onions was soooooo good. Perfect to nurse frazzled nerves.
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Jumping back in time a little, we had dinner at the Derby Hotel yesterday. Don't ask me why there is a hotel named after Derby, UK or a horse derby in Grindelwald. According to A Slow Train to Switzerland, Derby hotels appear all over the country and no one has a definitive answer as to why.
Dinner started with a delicious Rugenbrau beer from the tap. Isn't that the loveliest head of foam you've ever seen? I've since learnt that I can drink tiny amounts of beer and not vomit (it's one of the side effects of the medicine I'm currently taking — alcohol, sugar and malt-y things are hard for my body to process).
This is a delicious terrine of morel mushrooms. It's served with Noilly-Prat sauce, which the internet tells me is made from a certain kind of dry vermouth from the South of France. Our hostess told us explicitly not to pour it over the salad. We listened, but the sauce was so delicious I would have poured it over anything. Can I also say that the vegetables here are very, very fresh and appetising. I usually hate rocket but it's not so bitter here, so I can actually enjoy it. And as always, the tomatoes are great. I think I just need to buy expensive tomatoes from now on...
Anyway back to the morel terrine. Everyone should try it. It was delightfully meaty and had the texture of a very welcoming meatloaf. We don't get access to morels in Singapore very often, so I was quite excited to try this.
This is SD's calf liver, which was everything I wanted in a liver. I kind of hate liver because it's grainy when overcooked and can only stand eating it raw or... like this? I guess I can only buy or eat expensive liver. :(
My dish was a Bernese Suure Mocke. (Google Translate tells me it's "sour mock"...) Basically it's roast beef marinated in red wine, served with stewed pears and plum. Very, very good. They added a whole medley of mountain mushrooms and garden vegetables too, which were a great accompaniment to the meat. I'm not a food writer so all I can say was that this was very good too. Our hostess was very pleased with our selection. Many tables had fondue so I guess we were one of the odd ones out?
For breakfast this morning, I skipped the hotel's buffet and instead took a walk to Ringgenberg Bakery, a small cafe that's known for its croissants. Of which I did not order any. Instead, I got a Berliner and a schnecken! The Berliner was perfect and had a jammy center. The schnecken on the other hand was too sweet for me. The bakery auntie thought that two people were going to eat two pastries and thus served them on two separate plates. But um, sorry I ate everything...
The bakery also had a clock of my favourite Swiss sweet, Spitzbuben.
Walking back from the bakery to the hotel, we came across this lone manhole cover:
Hello, this is me, running out to the pharmacy!
We recuperated in the room for most of the afternoon before heading out to dinner at the famous Barry's. It's kind of crazy how many guides recommend this place. Sadly, we had the most lackluster meal here. Everything was a little too salty (I think maybe you need a lot of wine or beer to pair with the food?)
The romantic place setting was very nice though.
Can't go wrong with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar. This was alright!
I had yet to have my own serving of rosti on this entire trip, so I ordered one with Chili con Frango. Um, the best part was the garden vegetables...
That's all for today. Thanks for sticking around. We're nearly at the tail end of our trip and will be zipping off to Munich very soon.