But when I traveled around to other parts of Switzerland before the lockdown, I really enjoyed more traditional Swiss food. Switzerland is very well known for chocolate and cheese, and for good reason! But there are other foods and dishes that are also integral to Swiss culture that I didn’t know about before I arrived. For instance, sliced dried meat (beef, pork, and horse) and hard salamis are to be found in every grocery store and are sometimes eaten at breakfast. One Swiss dish that I didn’t know existed before is called raclette, which is usually served as a dinner dish. You put cheese slices into a little shovel-shaped metal spoon and melt the cheese on the shelf of a special little raclette oven. Then you dribble the melted cheese over your boiled potatoes, dried meats and pickles. And yes, it is as delicious as it sounds! Another traditional Swiss food is rösti, which is grated potato and spices fried into a giant pancake, served usually with an egg and ham and cheese. Do you see an ingredients theme, here?
My absolute favorite Swiss food, however, is fondue.
I have eaten fondue in two very different places in Switzerland. The first place was in a restaurant, which I visited during my first week at school, here, with my mom and my harp teacher. Because fondue is a lot of cheese to eat by yourself, you usually share this dish with a group of people. It felt very funny to be sitting with my mom and my harp teacher in a sort of fancy restaurant, and all dressed up, while not very politely stabbing pieces of bread and dipping them into a big pot of melted cheese!
