Traipsing through Switzerland, we arrive in Bern on a freezing winter's morning. Fogged in and miserable, we seek solace in the wonderful bakeries down the city's main street.
Beautiful presentations and delicious smells convince us that something had to be done:
A small local doughnut (note spelling) dusted with cinnamon and sugar.
This was, A declared, the best doughnut that she had ever tasted. Being quite a connoisseur of doughnuts and notoriously difficult to please, this is very high praise indeed! The pastry was fluffy and mildly sweet, with the taste of fresh bread. The fluffy inside was so light as to be melting, while the outside almost slightly crisp and nicely caramalised.
Cold and tired, we wander into a small cafe for a pick-me-up. A's cafe latte is stylishly served in a tall glass with the most amazing marshmallow-like foam.
My espresso was rich and dark, with delicious crema.
Almost CHF10 (£7) for a couple of coffees: what else would you expect from Switzerland?
More chocolate-gazing...
Cakes, biscuits and pastries line every surface...
For the feature part of this post:
Restaurant Zur Krone
Gerechtigkeitsgasse 66
CH-3011 Bern
By now, we are cold, hungry and very tired from window shopping, so we wander into a restaurant promising fondue.
Daily specials.
The drinks menu.
We choose a nice bottle of Swiss wine. Not many people outside of Switzerland will have tried their wine, as so much of it is consumed domestically. This was a fine example of light, fruity, and quite a summery wine. Not for winter, you say?
It's because we're having cheese for lunch! Not the cute little fondue forks that in any western country outside of Franco-Europe would scream 'retro'.
Ahh the chewy, crusty, stale bread.
We chose a tomato and basil fondue. Slightly different from the traditional plain cheese, but we thought it'd be an interesting experiment.
A side serving of baby potatoes to dip in the cheese.
Mmmmm warming-toasty-cheesy goodness.
The bread was actually too fresh, in my opinion. It clung to the cheese well without disintergration, but it also lacked the real chew of a good hard-bread. The cheese was extremely flavourful, with strong notes of wine, tomato and herbs. Not too rich, but hearty on such a cold Swiss winter's day, it was exactly what we needed.
The damage: Bottle of wine, some great fondue, and a side serving of potatoes came to CHF76 (approx £50). Not bad for Switzerland, and not bad for the delicious meal.
Back to the window shopping and chocolate oogling.
Truely, this is the land of chocolate.
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