Breakfast At The Basel Marktplatz

Basel is so freakin cute. Like seriously cute. As far as Europe goes, I haven't seen much of it, but it's definitely up there on the cute scale. Like postcard cute. And it's quite a manageable little city. Quite walkable, trams take you everywhere, and it's nice to look at.
Every morning at the Marktplatz, there is an open air market where locals hawk their food wares. Like these beautiful veggies.
More veggies. I think.
Olives, my nemesis, and some cured meats.
More of my little enemies.
Fresh stuffed pastas!
Laugenbread. Looks just like challah, huh?
Fruits and nuts.
Strange berries. There are blackberries and blueberries, but there are some blue and red ones that I am not familiar with.
Who wouldn't want to buy fresh foods at a place this picturesque?
On this morning I got a delicious little latte from that adorable cart and a special crepe made with grapes. I had to wait awhile for this crepe, as the lone crepemaker had taken a break, but unfortunately, it was kind of awful. It was just super sweet and mushy. But that's ok, I forgive for the surroundings.

I Only Want Hot Soup - Nooch

It wasn't my plan to eat so much non swiss food while I was in switzerland. But damn it people, it was so cold there. While I was in Dublin, the weather was stupendous... in the high 50's, low 60's. As soon as I got to switzerland it was in the 30's. Yeah, the 30's. I could see my damn breath. So I only wanted hot soup. This is what I kept craving. So I ended up at Nooch. It's a small chain of asian noodle restaurants. So I ordered the fujiyama noodle soup - udon noodles, dashi broth, tofu, veggies, and such. This thing was kind of a mess. They took japanese noodles and broth, and then tried to bastardize it with things clearly not meant for japanese food. Cilantro? Thai basil? Seriously, have you ever seen those things in japanese cuisine? It was almost blasphemy. And they threw in a giant heap of pickled ginger into the soup too. Luckily, I was able to fish it out. The broth was ok, and the noodles were ok, but similar to the ramen, there weren't enough noodles. And unfortunately, I could still taste the ginger in the broth. The rest of the veggies were ok. But similar to the ramen, it was an underwhelming bowl of overpriced noodles. Hot, but otherwise just blah.

It's Hard To Find Dinner

It's funny. I came all the way to Basel to work with one of my customers. There were 4 people I was working with, and not one of them was Swiss! we had a Brit, a German, a Croatian, and a Brazilian, but not one Swiss. After meeting up with my Brazilian colleague, we set off to find some food for dinner. While I was walking around some more in Basel, I had come upon this cool looking rock-n-roll type place on a little side street up a hill. We tried this place first and we couldn't eat there because they were having a special event in the dining room upstairs. The only place we could hang out was the bar area and that was full and packed. So we moved on. It was my colleague's turn next so we walked a little bit to another cool looking spot. We weren't sure if they served food or not, so we asked. Although they did have a food menu, it was really just appetizers or steak. We really weren't in the mood for either. So we tried again! We went next door to another place and they told us they had just closed the kitchen. Dammit. Were we going to get to eat tonight? The lady who had just rejected us kindly told us that the pizza place across the street would still have food. So we said ok, because honestly, we simply couldn't take any more of this food rejection!

This is how we ended up at Centro. When we got there, the place was positively packed! And this made sense to me because even though there are so many other restaurants in Basel, apparently, it's quite a challenge to actually eat in any of them! Centro is an italian joint. They have pizza and pasta and other italian fare. When we first looked at the menu, it was really hard to figure out what was going on. The dishes were named in italian and they were described in swiss german. Although it's fine for me to figure out that lasagne is lasagne and that penne is penne, it was what was on them / in them that was hard to figure out from the swiss german. Eventually, I got an english menu and was finally good to go!I ordered the penne centro, which was penne with chicken and pepperoni in a creamy tomato sauce. It took forever for our food to come out. And we were both so damn hungry at this point. But it was totally worth the wait. I loved this dish! The sauce was perfect and although there wasn't that much chicken, what chicken there was was perfect. I ate the whole thing. As in I cleaned the plate. Yes, I stuffed myself silly. And if there had been more, I would have eaten more, as it was an amazing pasta dish. I don't actually recall pepperoni being in this, but I didn't care. And it looks like a hot damn mess in this plate, but trust me, it was damn good. If I'm ever in Basel again, I would get this again!

Radisson Breakfast Buffet

While in Basel, I was staying at the Radisson Blu hotel. On working days, I ate at the hotel breakfast buffet. No, I won't tell you how much it costs. It hurts just trying to conceptualize it. But it was a pretty kick-ass buffet. Breads and pastries and all sorts of awesome little spreads. I tried some of these little fruit filled pastries, and it was pretty amazing.
Birchermuesli. I have no idea what this is. Looks like yogurt and muesli mixed together? Perhaps a peach flavor?
They also had an amazing selection of fresh fruits. They also had kiwi, and I did a good job of hosing their kiwi bowls.
A bunch of random cold cuts for breakfast.
Cheese and grapes... are you supposed to be able to eat that half a fig?
Cereal and a very serious looking pitcher of milk. They also had hot items as well, such as eggs and potatoes and various bacons. They had an even better array of tea selections and their coffee was hot and super strong. While it was a nice breakfast, I still balk at the price. But if you're staying here for work, then go for it. You'll be quite happy with the spread.

Food Shopping In Basel

So the main grocery stores in Switzerland seem to be Migros and Coop. They come in different varieties and sizes. Switzerland has some convenience stores as well, but they're pretty small. These full grocery stores are a nice size though. Their yogurt aisle shames the US in comparison.
They also have much more sophisticated food tube technology. I believe these are mayonnaise in tubes.
Their pasta seems to prefer coming in bags, instead of boxes.
And they're fans of non-refrigerated milk.
And it is Switzerland people, so the chocolate selection is ridiculous.
Along with their cheese selections.
Chip flavors include paprika, curry oriental, and mexican.
The laugenbread that I had on the plane! It's delicious!
Oh, and you can get socks too.

The Most Expensive Ramen In The World

While looking for some restaurants prior to my trip, I found out that there's a japanese style ramen bar in Basel. Ok. There isn't even a ramen joint in Philly, but there's one in Basel? There's something wrong with this. We need a ramen joint in Philly! Anyways, enough of my ranting. But again, please, someone open a ramen place near home. Pretty please. I thought I'd try this place, because really, what the hell?

This place is pretty adorable. Not too big, with the kitchen and bar area in the middle, and then some tables on the outer edges. It's modern and clean and cute. They have ramen and udon, some sushi rolls, and some japanese appetizers. That's it. And some drinks and booze and perhaps a few desserts. I decided to pick the ramen with chicken in a miso broth. The server told me that the most popular bowls were the ramen with gyoza and the ramen with chicken. Can other Namamen eaters be wrong?
The food comes out fairly quickly. They cook the noodles and then pour it into the bowl which has miso paste in it. Then they throw the fixins on top. So, the verdict? Meh. Basically, it's just a bowl of miso broth with some mediocre ramen noodles topped with mediocre chicken and really inexpensive and flavorless vegetables. For a bowl of ramen, there was actually not very many noodles. And they're extremely thin. The broth itself is fairly boring. The chicken was ok, but nothing special, and without much flavor. It looked like boiled chicken. And they put shredded carrots, shredded big green onions, spinach, and some mushrooms in it. Oh, and half a boiled egg. All of these fixins were blah. The egg was the best part. But you know, it was freakin cold as soon as I got to Switzerland, so a bowl of mediocre hot broth and noodles was just fine with me. At least it was warm in my otherwise frozen body.
Ok, now let's talk about how expensive Switzerland is. This thing cost 22CHF. That's about $22. That's right, I ate a $22 bowl of ramen. And no, it didn't have gold or diamonds in it. And it wasn't chock full of hand pulled ramen noodles made by the premier ramen noodle puller in all of japan. But this is the frightening thing about Switzerland. This type of pricing is normal. $22 for a bowl of ramen is not that big of a deal. Isn't that CRAZY?!?!?! It actually offends me a little. For $22, I'd expect something amazing, along with maybe a song and dance number, or a foot massage. But no, for $22, you can get your own bowl of mediocre noodles in Switzerland. And dont' get me started on the $5 sodas.

Roasted Chestnuts On The Streets of Basel

After landing in Zurich, I hopped on a train to Basel, my actual destination. The train ride was fantastic. I'm not sure if you can eat on the trains (they're freakishly clean and spotless), but I was doing it anyway. These are my most delicious digestives that I picked up in Ireland. And they have a layer of caramel. Amazing.
My friend A had told me that they sell roasted chestnuts on the streets of Switzerland. I got most excited when she told me this. Then when I saw it in person, my heart skipped a beat. When I lived in the motherland, we used to get roasted chestnuts from street vendors all the time. During the wintertime, of course. But you can't really buy roasted chestnuts from street vendors in the US. If you can do that, please tell me where. And please make it somewhere near my home.
In any case, I love roasted chestnuts. If you've never had, you have to put a slice in them first before you roast them, otherwise, they'll explode. The moisture in the nut heats up and steam up, and if there isn't a place to release all the pressure, your little nut will explode. These are roasted from burning charcoal so they get nice and toasted and some even get some char marks. Because of the steaming, they're super easy to peel. I love chestnuts. Don't you?
You'll also see carts for pretzels. They're not like the ones from Philly! They taste similar, but the texture is completely different. Philly pretzels are dense and chewy. These are much more dry, more airy, and not chewy. I think I prefer the ones from home!