Zurich - Eating Out

Service at Casa Ferlin (copyright Casa Ferlin)

I’m now in the manic phase as my time gets nearer and nearer to when I return to Egypt. On top of this, there are a lot of changes taking place where I work, so it’s all quite exhausting.

Consequently, there’s not been one working day last week where I actually cooked myself a main meal. Monday was my birthday (happy birthday to me – this means it’s about 5 years since I made the decision to live in Egypt, doesn’t time fly?). I didn’t have anything planned so I was very British and got myself a curry to take home so that I could just pig out in front of the television. I couldn’t go to the Malabar, which is my favorite curry place in Oerlikon, since it was closed on Mondays. As a result, I ended up trying the Indian Palace, which I’d seen several times from the bus/tram but had never tried before. I don’t think it was as good as the Malabar but it was still tasty and suitably spicy (this can be a problem in Switzerland sometimes since their taste isn’t as adjusted to Indian food as the UK palate), so I’d go back. And they had a peshwari naan, which is quite unusual over here, too. They gave me a free mango juice while I waited and I was able to inspect their outside area, which I didn’t even know they had.

On Tuesday I ate out with my team at work for lunch – it was hard to find a time where we were all available (and even then one person had to opt out at the last minute), but it was good to have the chance for us to catch up. We went to an Italian restaurant across the road – options are limited near work (well, we have quite a few options, it’s just that I’ve been everywhere on multiple occasions), so the meal itself wasn’t so exciting.

However, Wednesday was a birthday meal at Gustav’s. A group of us have been trying to book there for over a year now but somehow we always cancel. It was a little bit the same story this year, since yet again one of us ended up not being able to join. Anyway, it was worth the wait. We took the three-course surprise menu; it started with gazpacho soup, which I don’t normally like but this was very good. The main course, I think, was selections of pork cooked in different ways (one was suckling pig). It was all beautifully presented even though they insisted on putting some cheese on top of the courgette. For dessert I think we had a peach mousse, but it was quite delicate – the almond shavings were lovely. We also had a chocolate cake as a birthday offering. We were able to sit outside because the weather is still good here and the courtyard was very cosy. I’d recommend it.

Thursday evening was another day of fine dining, this time at Casa Ferlin (I find the name very forgettable, which is a bit unfortunate!), an Italian restaurant that I’d never even noticed before quite near Central. It had received good reviews on tripadvisor. It was more upmarket than I was expecting; the interior was very nice (on the old-fashioned side) and all the waiters wore suits and served the meals with aplomb. We had a very nice white wine to go with the food (I had a salmon pasta dish, but they’re famous for the ravioli). It was another good find.

And then on Friday I was at Neumarkt. I’ve been there several times over the years and is probably much loved due to its courtyard with cobbled stones and trees. Even though I knew the place, I somehow managed to walk into the wrong restaurant, so was a bit surprised when they didn’t have our reservation. They then pointed me to the restaurant on the other side of the square. Whoops. I have memories of the menu being a bit sparse and little for me to choose from, but I think they’ve changed since then as there were a number of things I could have selected this time. I ended up with Zueri Geschnetzeltes (the local traditional food) since I won’t be able to have it again for a while.

Next week is my last week and then I’ll be off to St Petersburg, so there’ll likely be no blog next week. I’ll be back the following week, which will be my last blog this year from Switzerland (unless I decide to come back for a couple of weeks at some point). It’ll be my tales from Egypt again (inshahllah!).