March 20, 2009
"Mongolian BBQ?"
Now this was a first for sure. Today marked the end of my first week on the project, and to mark it well my boss took our team out to lunch at a Swiss Mongolian BBQ with Pakistani chefs. Welcome to Switzerland in 2009. Diversity is all around us.
It was a typical Mongolian BBQ, as far as I know with my experience being limited to once last year in Anchorage with our family. The girls liked it I remember, and its certainly a different sort of experience. To make it even more different here in the land of cows & cheese, the ingredients ranged from, of course, cheese to soy beans to squid to horse to kangaroo to a mushroom I've never seen before.
Load up your plate, but choose wisely as some ingredients don't mix well like squid and certain meats that I can't confess publicly to trying for fear of punishment from my daughters. Suffice it to say that the calamari in California still tops squid in a Mongolian BBQ. The veggies were the best and I should have stuck with that, but I warned you earlier that I like to experiment.
It was a great time though, nice to enjoy a moment in the town with lot's of Swiss people buzzing around the restaurant (the place was packed at noon), a nice treat from my boss, and the service was exceptional, with true Swiss staffing the dining room, unlike back home where it may be difficult to communicate with the Korean Mongolians for some. Oh, another interesting thing, they weigh your plate there too and charge accordingly, seems fair, just another new thing in this wonderland.
Dinner was something else. I left the office with Patrick, TGIF and ready to spend the weekend back in the Alps. Patrick had planned with Urs to give me the use of one of the company cars, a Volvo SUV Diesel. We left the office together and headed to my flat to grab some things, and then next door to the ski shop to pick up some rental cross country skis that had been arranged. We drove together from Bern to Patrick's home in Thun, near lake Thun and Interlaken at the base of the Alps and the Berner Oberland. After quick introductions to his friendly wife Ariane and two young children, Iian a boy of 3 1/2 and Kyra a sweet Swiss angel of 8 months who never stopped smiling (and they say she rarely does stop), we parted and my weekend journey began.
My goal was to ski in at least 3 or 4 areas over the weekend, packing in as much as reasonable to really get a taste of the Alps and get some much needed exercise at the same time. I headed out of Thun and into the country, winding past farms and homes as the road narrowed, climbed and took me into the snowy hillsides of the Alps. There was no traffic, the sun was setting to the West of Bern and gave me a great view as I drove higher.
I listened to a custom CD of Swiss music that Urs had burned, and the music fit the road and scenery perfectly. I drove for some time, seeing nothing but hillsides of snow dotted with dense pine forests, until the road suddenly narrowed and stopped and literally turned into a nordic ski trail. At the end of the road sat a chalet style lodge building, with lights on, and a Piston Bully trail grooming tractor, also with lights and engine on. Looked like the groomer was about to groom, and maybe he was inside the lodge eating dinner, along with others I could see through the window. It was just turning dark, and the trees were swaying in the wind a bit, and it definitely felt like winter. Ski boots, gloves, hat, coat, skis, poles, check and I was on the trail. Unfortunately it would be short lived as the trail was hard and icy, and within the first kilometer my head lamp stopped working...so not wanting to risk an injury this early in what was to be a fantastic weekend, I packed it in and headed for the Gasthaus Chalet at the trailhead, in search of a bite to eat. As I walked toward the chalet I was met in the dark by a man who turned out to be the groomer, and he asked me something to the effect of "Were you able to ski on those trails?" I answered him in the best Swiss-German I could muster after a week in this fine country, with a definite no, that it was just too icy and hard. He said he'd have it groomed by morning, but they were down to just grooming weekends at this point in the season. It was a funny moment where I somehow was beginning to feel at home, speaking comfortably in German in the dark and wind with a cool old Swiss nordic ski trail groomer. He said he was waiting for his brother and then they would follow each other with two groomers to grind the ice back into skiable trail. Nice plan, but I knew I couldn't wait till morning, so I'd press on to my next destination after looking for food in the Chalet.
And, food I did find, but a very limited menu of 5 items, starting on the bottom with some sausages for 10,00 CHF, followed by roasted chicken wings & fries for 15,00 CHF (my choice based on price and the smell coming from the platter on the table next to me with a family of four who appeared to be enjoying them), Fondue for 23,00 CHF but you'd need a partner, and so on up to the most expensive entree of some variation of Schnitzel for 25,00 CHF or so.
I had decided to eat here in part because it seemed that they would otherwise get little to no business here at the end of a long uphill, narrow, snow-sided road to nowhere; but I couldn't have been more wrong. There were already a dozen or so seated when I walked in at about 7:00pm, and within 20 minutes the place was packed, as if the people had literally come out of the trees surrounding this mountainside chalet. I had seen zero traffic on the road just an hour earlier, not to mention there wasn't much space to park where the road ended, and then you still needed to walk a few minutes along the start of the nordic ski trail to get to the building. Nonetheless, they came streaming in, obviously knowing something I didn't about this five-item menu oasis. My food had barely arrived at my red and white checkered table when the music began, Volksmusik, Alpenmusik, I don't know exactly but it was the most enjoyable accordian and base duet that I've ever heard. They played a lively upbeat music that fit the scenery, the setting, the food, the people, the beer, quite perfectly. I had arrived in Switzerland and I even called Cindy and Urs both to make sure I wasn't just dreaming this.
Oh, back to the food, the wings were covered in herbs & spices and tasty, but halfway through I realized this wasn't probably the best "training food" and wished there had been a Nüsslisalat on the menu! A guete....
