Swiss Meals

Southland Times, Issue 20648, 21 November 1928, Page 13

Swiss Meals

The average middle-class family in Switzerland, townsfolk and farmers alike, begin the day with what we would consider a poor and inadequate breakfast. A cup of coffee, often without milk, a thick piece of dry black or half-black bread, and some cheese usually make up this meal. The cheese is very often the kind they call "magerkaese” or “lean cheese,” which is made from skimmed milk and has no fat in it, says a woman tourist. The mid-day meal always begins with soup, and very excellent soup, too. A Swiss family would never dream of leaving out this essential part of the meal, and partly for this reason, the favourite meat is boiled beef, so that they may have some stock for

the soup. Boiled mutton they never eat, 1 neither do they tare as much as we do for j roast beef. They find it too greasy, and it . is no good for soup. Their other favourite meats are pork and veal. Their vegetables are about the same as | ours, except that they are fond of the I German sauerkraut and also have a spec- j iality of their own, the red cabbage, which ' is cooked with onions, red wine, and a little bacon, and then chopped up fine. Salads | they like too, and they know how to make excellent dressings for them. White cabbage | salad and potato salad are prime favourites The mid-day meal close with fruit, stewed or raw, and coffee. Our puddings are practically unknown to them, and they have not even a name for this form of dessert! At four in the afternoon they drink coffee (seldom tea), with bread and cheese or jam. Suppers vary considerably, but tea and I sausages make a favourite menu for this I meal.