The Cosmopolitan Blog

i guess u have to have been to Switzerland to appreciate Swiss food (yes, there’s more to it than fondue!), but for those in the know, this is the best type of comfort food there is!! On the other hand, if you’re someone that thinks vegetables are an essential part of an everyday diet, then you might want to give this one a miss…
Swiss food is mainly about the cheese (well, DUH!), and yes, generally, it’s melted, whether it’s in a pot for fondue, or in a puddle on a plate for raclette (see my post on the Raclette War).

So i went to Alpenhaus, on the corner of Ste Catherine and St Marc. From the outside, there is a feeble attempt at having the side of the building look like a Swiss chalet, but seeing that they’re right next to a scruffy-looking depaneur, there’s not much of hope of that being successful. Having said that, back in 1967, when the restaurant opened, this was probably a lot more noticeable.

But then, you walk in, and all thoughts of Montreal disappear. The decor is all wood logs, cute curtains, doilies, fireplaces, different little rooms, low ceilings, nooks and corners, hanging cowbells, men wearing funny looking pants and women wearing traditional Dirndls, their national dress. It sets the tone right away. And i liked it, it was a little over the top, but i had been missing the Swiss culture for so long without realizing it, that i felt like i was coming home! I was so excited to see the menu, it was a good 4-5 pages of traditional dish after dish, and i was trying to figure out a way i could order all of them. They have the Viande des Grisons: typical slices of dried beef with spices, they have palm hearts and artichoke hearts, they have Rösti potatoes (grated and fried potatoes, sometimes with cheese or onions), they have Wiener schnitzel (breaded veal escalope) and Geschnetzlets(veal in cream sauce), they have various sausages, lots of dishes with gruyere cheese or emmental cheese, and of course, all the various fondues. A note about raclette: they don’t have any, preferring not to serve it, rather than serving it wrong. Instead, they have a Croute au Fromage, which, i suppose, is a large plate of melted cheese. Apparently, when it’s the season, they even have a fish called “Goujon-Perche” (ruffle, in English).

I was so happy i was there with 5 other people, because i got to tell everyone what to order, and we all tried each others’ dishes. Maybe it was because i had been craving the food so badly, but every single dish was delicious. Swiss cuisine could never be described as fine and delicate, but again, it’s sooooo good.

The wine menu was extensive and expensive, but because they were some really good wines from the Swiss, French, Austrian and Italian regions. The have a great menu of imported beers as well. The deserts are highly recommended too, yep, they even have the apple strudel, and once you’ve done all of that, the only thing really left to do is curl up by the fire somewhere and fall asleep!!!

I’ve never seen Alpenhaus full, but i definitely think it’s one of the undiscovered wonders of Montreal, i highly recommend it, and I encourage you to try it, you won’t be disappointed.

You can find their menu and pictures on their website: http://www.restaurantalpenhaus.com/

I’ve lived in Switzerland for many years, and I truly believe that if there is a heaven, that’s what it looks like (ok, minus the city of Zurich, there’s nothing heavenly about it), but the rest, the mountains, the lakes, the snow, the quaint little villages and chalets, the trains, the chocolates, the watches (actually, i don’t think there’s watches in heaven…)

Two of the most famous dishes in Switzerland are Fondue and Raclette, the first is the most popular, but i’ve always preferred the latter.

So now here i am in Montreal, a city with some of the most amazing restaurants, and i am pleasantly surprised to find that there are a lot of restaurants that serve Fondue, and they’re pretty close to those found in Switzerland, there’s the cheese ones, the Chinese one where you cook your own meat, the chocolate ones… So, after a few years of innocently enjoying swiss fondues in montreal in a couple of great restaurants, one day, I suddenly decided to actually read the menu, and to my amazement, i find that they serve raclette too!

Side note, at this point, I have to explain what my expectations were, by telling you what a swiss raclette is. So, imagine this really, really big round cheese that you cut in half, and the “open” side, you stick under a special raclette grill. The inside part starts melting and bubbling, and then, the chef (well, this is the swiss version of a barbecue, so in switzerland, it would just be the dad of the house probably) scrapes off the melting part that falls like a little puddle into your plate. You put a few little boiled new potatoes on the plate, as well as a few of those tiny little green pickles and tiny round white pickled onions, and you eat it by drapping your cheese over your potatoes. The puddle of cheese that had landed on your plate was little, because, just like a barbecue, the point is that you are supposed to keep going back for more, i’ve seen people go back 15+ times. Also, no good swiss host would go without telling you that you should only eat this while accompanied with a good swiss or german white wine, and to never, never gulp down large amounts of iced water, because with all the melted cheese in your tummy, it probably won’t be pretty sight later on…
So raclette is a very social thing in Switzerland, and even if it’s served in a restaurant, usually, they have the raclette machine, it always upholds the tradition of getting up and being served the next “puddle”, and it always comes with potatoes, pickles and onions…

So, back in Canada, here I am, waiting for my raclette, wondering where it is i have to go to get my next portion… and then this HUGE plate is brought in front of me… And it’s completely covered from edge to edge with thick melted cheese that seems to be drapped over something, and after investigation, i find that it’s creamy sliced potatoes, meat, mushrooms and a lot of other stuff, i think there may even have been a vegetable or two… and there’s definitely no puddle, it’s more like one entire industrial-size cheese on a plate! The problem you ask? Well, after 5 minutes of slowly working through this mass of cheese, it’s really no longer light and melted… and with all the meat and cream, i’m feeling sick and i’m not even 1/4 of the way through…

I thought maybe it was someone in the kitchen getting creative, but when i asked a work colleague the next day, he said, yes, that’s what raclette is… *sigh* So it appears that raclette means different things to different people… Raclette “à la Suisse” is definitely one of my guilty pleasures, the Canadian version on the other hand, hmmm… well… ’nuff said!

My mom is french, so French is my mother tongue. But I grew up in London, so by the age of 4, i knew both languages, my parents had made sure of it. For many years after that, I was told how lucky I was to fluently speak 2 languages, and how it’s an advantage because it helps in a child’s development and in her abiliity to learn more languages more quickly later on in life. So do Montrealers know how lucky they are? By its very history and location, Montreal is a fully bilingual city.

For those of you who don’t know, Canada has 2 official languages, English and French. English is predominent in most of the provinces in the West, all the way to East to Ontario. Quebec province is mainly french, but, Montreal, even though it’s in Quebec, is also a few kms away from Ontario, so both languages are common.

Sure, the city has a french side and an english side, but you can speak either language in either side and you will be understood. What’s amazing (my friends in the States and in Toronto still don’t believe me on this one), is that you can live in Montreal very comfortably even if you only know one of the 2 languages. All shopowners, taxi and bus drivers, business owners, everyone is bilingual. All products, restaurant menus, official paperwork, everything is written in both languages. There are parts of NDG and Westmount (areas of Montreal), where you have to search to find the french speaker, and there are still areas in Old Montreal and in the East where a shop owner will answer you in french even if you spoke to him in English, for sure, but that’s not the norm.

So, seriously, do they know how lucky they are? I don’t think so. The fact that my friends who live 3 states away in Massachussets or even those who live in the same country (in Toronto, in the neighboring province!) don’t know this, to me, means that Montreal, in it’s advertising, reputation and history does not count this as an advantage, or something to brag about. Unfortunately, I feel that language is this city is always used as a political argument or weapon (long story, i won’t get into the politics in this post), it’s always like a competition, it’s always a cause for controversy (such as deciding which school you can go to depending on the main language of your parents or where you were born).

Somehow, in Montreal, you’re constantly having to pick sides, you’re either an Anglophone or a Francophone… WHY??? I mean, sure, assert your identity and claim your preferred method of communication. Absolutely. But once you’re done with that, be proud of living in a city where there is a 2nd important language, embrace your differences!

Did no one every explain to you that 1+1=2 (and even sometimes 3: the concept of synergy, that together 2 things can have a greater effect that if they were separate, i.e. where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts)?

I don’t care how separatist you feel, surely no one can deny that having 2 languages (and thus 2 cultures) is a benefit. No, it doesn’t not mean that one will swallow the other, if you play it smart, if you value each other, your differences and your similarities. It was a benefit to me to learn 2 languages as a child, it’s a benefit today still to have Montrealer kids learn both languages, it’s a skill that will help them in their lives later on. Learning to live with someone who doesn’t speak the same language, that doesn’t have the same culture, learning this without having to leave your own city, that is priceless.

So, Montrealers, do you know how good you have it????

My closest and dearest friends are those that challenge me and challenge my beliefs… I find that by having to justify with people who are in the know and who can play devil’s advocate, is actually the best way to find out what you truly believe in.

I don’t even know how we got on the topic, but a friend of mine, this morning, challenged my pacifism… It was a great discussion… I’m a pragmatic pacifist, that means I don’t believe in violence, i don’t think it will ever be the answer… but, and yes, there’s a but, there are situations where you can’t avoid it… so is being a pragmatic pacifist, a cop-out? no, it’s just realistic.

I believe that war is never the answer, EVER! but i also believe that once a war has started, you have the right to defend yourself and stop those who, otherwise, would continue to do harm. Concrete example, I believe that the only way to deal with Hitler was to kill him and I believe that each country invaded by the Germans and Russians had a right to defend themselves and get their country back. I don’t believe that peace negotiations would have worked at that point, and if we are unfortunate to have psychopaths like Hitler and Saddam Hussein at the head of a country, force is the only way to get rid of them… And yes, that might be violence, but compared to the violence that would continue if they weren’t removed from their position, it’s the solution with the least amount of casualties.

The problem, of course, is where is the line? When is it ok to use violence and when isn’t it? I mean, it’s a slippery slope, right? Technically, then, Islamists would be right to use terrorism in order to send the message that the USA should stop causing casualties in countries like Iraq, right? Wrong. Wrong, because we all know that no matter how many western civilians die in terrorist attacks, no matter how many US troups and Iraqi civilians die, the government will not get out of Iraq, because now, it’s about prooving something, it’s about prooving that our way is the better way and that a democracy MUST be set up in Iraq… pppfff… but that’s another topic altogher…

So, no, I don’t think that my version (well, it’s not just mine, i mean, it’s in Wikipedia, so it’s gotta be real, right ?) of pacifism is a cop-out, i think it’s a realistic version of an ideal concept.
But that’s just me. What do you think?

shallow moment no1: i have to say this… Madonna RAWKS! She just performed at Wembley Stadium for the Live Earth concert… the woman is insanely hot, seriously! She is sooo fit, and she danced and sang better and with more energy than the young teenagers out there, i mean this lady is 50 years old and she is sooo healthy, you know, it’s not the skinny type, but just the cardio-fit, toned type…

ok, i’ll stop commenting on women’s bodies now before i freak myself out, but seriously, Madonna? THAT’S HOT!