Favorite Restaurants in Zurich

I can't believe it's 2011, and vacation's almost over! I guess that means it's a good time to jot down the highlights of our trip before we forget.

We spent about a week in Zurich, mostly working, but also wandering around town and eating. The sights were nice, especially since I'd never been in a European city before. (Wow, cobblestones!) But piggies that we were, the most memorable part was probably the food, so I'll write about the restaurants we went to and liked.

Hiltl

This is the best vegetarian restaurant I've ever eaten at. Granted, I don't eat at many vegetarian restaurants, but this was very yummy. Founded in 1898, Hiltl is also the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe. I ordered the Jalapeños and Salad, which was fried cheesy jalapenos with delicious quinoa, red rice, and green salad and guacamole.

Chris ordered the Green Thai Curry, which he said was good, but since he caught a cold, we should note that he couldn't taste much.

Le Dézaley

Since Switzerland is supposed to be known for its cheese, we decided we HAD to try some fondue. Mmmmmmmm!!! (Also, here's a fun fact. The Swiss don't call their cheese Swiss cheese; it's called Emmental.)

I liked the casual atmosphere at Le Dézaley (not too dressy), and our waiter was a nice smiley guy. We followed the advice of this nice blog post about Le Dézaley, and ordered the Käsefondue (cheese fondue) and Geschnetzeltes Kalbfleisch nach Zürcher Art mit Rösti (sliced veal "Zurich style" with rösti). We also ordered a few extra sides – potatoes, bread, and an assortment of pickled gherkins, baby onions, and baby corn to go with the fondue.

We devoured the fondue. We ate the entire pot of cheese, and then the waiter scraped out the bottom of the pot to give us two more bites of delicious chewy cheesy goodness. He mentioned that lots of people think that's the best part, haha.

I was expecting to dislike the pickles (because I don't like pickles), but these were a very pleasant surprise. Seems like the Swiss know how to make pickles better than Vlasic. I suppose that shouldn't surprise me.

The veal and rösti were also very good, although we were already feeling very full by the time it came. Veal is probably not our favorite meat, but it was very tender and the cream sauce was tasty.

Rösti, I learned, is a traditional Swiss dish that's exactly like hash browns, except that they sometimes put more cheese, meat, and seasoning on top.

The total bill (including the wine) came out to be around CHF 130, so this was probably the most expensive meal that Chris and I have ever eaten together, but hey, I guess this is what eating in Zurich is like!

Sternen Grill

Chris read that this was one of the best sausage stands in Zurich, and since they're supposed to be good at sausage in this part of the world, we were excited to give it a try. I was too hungry to take pictures, but you can see some on the Sternen Grill's photo gallery. Really excellent sausages. I thought the white ones were especially good.

Sprüngli

Sprüngli is a chain of cafes in Zurich. The luxembergerli were just heavenly. They're like tiny French macaroons, but the famous flavor at Sprüngli is champagne. The hazelnut and chocolate were terrific too. I really wish I could have brought some home to share with everyone, but they're very delicate and only last a couple days.

Luckily, since Sprüngli is the same company as Lindt, they also make delicious champagne-flavored chocolate, so we could send that instead!

Zermatt, Switzerland

Finally, some downtime to write about our amazing last several days! We:

• Flew out of SFO on Wednesday. (Fun fact: There were at least five other Googlers on the same flight to Zurich. We recognized five, but there may well have been more.)
• Landed in Zurich on Thursday afternoon. We worked for a couple hours, and then shuttled off to the Google Christmas party.
• Scrambled around Friday morning to find power adapters and SIM cards. We then worked for a few more hours, and took a three-hour train ride to Zermatt.
• Skied on a glorious, sunny Saturday, underneath the Matterhorn.
• Strolled around Zermatt on Sunday morning, took the train back to Zurich, and then strolled around Zurich while sipping Glühwein and watching pre-Christmas festivities in the city.

Now, Chris has found a way to stream the Patriots-Bears game, and we have some time to relax.

Here are the pictures from our Zurich/Zermatt adventures (so far). For once, I wish I could write about all my pictures, but since they're really painful to import into Blogger, I actually added captions in Picasa, and I'll only post my favorites.

Front and center at Zermatt is the Matterhorn, of course! I didn't really believe how close we would be until we got there. And how lucky were we, to get such a crystal clear sunny day?!

Before the trip, we were super-psyched about the idea of skiing into Italy. I'd read about a particular run called "Red 7" which is an intermediate run starting from Switzerland and ending in Cervinia, Italy. It's been called one of the top intermediate runs in the world. But sadly, the top of the "Matterhorn glacier paradise" wasn't open.

We ended up spending the day on the blue (easy) and red (intermediate) slopes around Gornergrat and Trockener Steg, and had a ton of excitement. We took our first ski lesson at Squaw in Tahoe the previous weekend, and thought we'd improved by such an amazing amount (hooray, Level Four skiers) that we could tackle lots of reds, but it turns out the blues at Zermatt were quite challenging enough for us.

The conditions were a bit icier than they were at Tahoe last week, and we both took a bunch of spills, but we managed to make it all the way down from Gornergrat to Furi. WOOHOO!! Our reward was a yummy, warm,  ~$15 (!!!) cup of goulash soup. (People are not joking when they say Switzerland is expensive.)

Toward the end of the day, we went up to the highest slope open, a wide, gentle blue one with magical powdery snow, a fantastic view, and best of all, very few people! Gornergrat was extremely crowded with (in my humble, level four opinion) really good skiers that went intimidatingly fast. Up at the blue run above Trockener Steg (the one with the t-bar lift), close to the time the sun was setting, it seemed like we had the whole mountain to ourselves. We felt so lucky.

Staying at Hotel Antares

At the advice of my teammates who organized the trip, we booked at Hotel Antares, a hotel that was practically next door to the Matterhorn Express Gondola Station. Google Maps says it's 110 meters.

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The location was perfect for someone with short legs and who can't really walk in ski boots. There was an ATM at the station, and the rental shop, Dorsaz Sports, was right across the street and a short elevator ride down. Couldn't be easier.

The hotel itself was cozy. I thought the furnishings in room were a little faded-looking, though very clean and comfy. There was a nifty balcony with a view of the mountains and the river Vispa. The most annoying thing was that the bathroom, which looks so sleek and new, had an absurdly low shower head, below chest-level for me, and I'm 5'2". But the location was so excellent that I didn't mind, and we loved the breakfast – delicious croissants (I had no idea croissants were supposed to taste so good), lots of meats and cheeses, and Nutella!

As I wrap up writing about Zermatt, I'll leave you with one more awesome picture. That's right, an ad for a Swiss Army knife with a laser pointer and USB key.

More on Zurich some other day! Again feel free to look at the album if you want to see more.