Turicum of the past, Awesomeness in the present

I have always loved Zurich, ever since i first visited the place almost a decade ago.
Zurich is clean, efficient and beautiful at the same time. Did i mention it is beautiful?:-)

The city never ceases to amaze me. You walk through the city and you will find historic visuals in the midst of all modern and contemporary structures. The past and the present coexist so beautifully that it is a marvel in itself. It soothes the mind, rejuvenates it.

And then there is the food.


The first stop every time for me and wife has been this wonderful small dimsum place, located right across the main train station of Zurich. We discovered this place a few years back, when we arrived at Zurich by train, hungry and tired. The dimsum's at this place were simple, delicious and cheap
(compared to Zurich prices). Funny thing is I dont think this place even has a name, its just called Dim Sum. Look it up on tripadvisor and chances are that you will find nothing. This time around though i found out that the place has expanded a little, with the kitchen a little bigger than what i remember seeing last time.

But since this trip was a business trip, i did not get to go wandering around much. But I did have a couple of memorable meals, both of which are worth a mention.

The first place, surprisingly is a Thai place. Yes, your read it right, Thai. The restaurant White Elephant located on the first level of the Zurich Marriott hotel. A few of my colleagues have always spoken very highly of this place. But come on, how fantatsic can a Thai place in the middle of Zurich be, right? Wrong. The place is awesome. And by place I mean the food. I had fresh coconut water from Thailand ( the server kept repeating" From Thailand" everytime he mentioned it.) It was fresh and sweet with young coconut tender pulp inside. Divine.

In its original container:-)
Everything that followed was equally good. The prawns wrapped in potato strings, the dim sums, the chicken satay. I was full to even dare to order main course, but i could see they had a lot of options to choose from. My colleagues had the yellow curry and the fish, which they liked immensely. No room for dessert, and we left as a happy group. Prices are pretty steep, but then so is everything in Zurich.
More details can be found on http://www.whiteelephant.ch/en/

The second place worth mentioning is Ristorante Bindella, located in the heart of the city. They serve Italian inspired food. One peek inside and you can see happy locals enjoying a drink, gorging on the food and generally merry making. Now, I have always said that anyplace that is thronged by locals has to be awesome.
And this place was.
We were lucky to get a table on a weekend evening inspite of no bookings.



The service was prompt and the server friendly enough to recommend the house specialties. I had the fig and Mozzarella salad, dressed in a honey and balsamic dressing. The dressing was insane. Who could have thought that honey and balsamic can create such a fusion of flavors.

Fig and Mozzarella salad

The magical King prawns

Next to follow was the King prawns marinated in some Italian herbs and cooked in a generous portion of butter. It tasted divine but the butter did its trick and had me full to the brim. My only complaint was that it was served with a side of rice that was dry and somehow pointless.
Again, a very full and happy group walked back to the hotel.
Deatils can be found at http://www.bindella.ch/de/bindella-zuerich.html

Apart from these, the other meals were ordinary, nothing much to write about.

But, it all ended with the best Zurich has to offer ( in my humble opinion at least). Hot chocolate, at Sprungli. They have a cafe at the airport now, where you can enjoy this nectar. I believe ( and always will) that this is the best hot chocolate in the world.

The King of the drinks

All in all a fabulous trip. The only downside is i feel sad leaving Zurich everytime. I wish for more time, everytime.
This time was no different. So, till the next time Zurich, auf wiedersehen.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The smaller things in life.

Image
When hunger strikes, there can be nothing more satisfying than a pizza. Especially if you are in a distant land. You dont know much, yet you want to have that comforting feeling of being caressed in the lips by the warm crust, the melting cheese. Add to that smiling people who seem to be proud of their art in making pizza, and voila, you have reached lalaland. Something similar happened on a recent trip to Paris. We were staying close to the Gare De Lyon. The hotel menu did not seem interesting. Weather was very cold to venture out with the little one for a late night adventure, something we would not even think twice about before the arrival of the little one. Thats when i had to consult every travellers best friend, tripadvisor. It showed me a pizza place within walking distance ( 13 mins or so). What blew my mind was the rating the place had. Almost all 5 stars and every review raving about the place. I donned on my foodie cap, bid adieu to the wife and kid and started on my ad
Read more

Maharaja East by Vineet

Image
Maharaja, translated in to english, means the Great King. And so when Maharaja by Vineet opened its doors in Saudi a long time back, I was really looking forward to a feast. Well, it was operational in Khobar and Riyadh, both significantly far from Jeddah, so it had to wait. The restaurant is the brainchild of Vineet Bhatia, a Michelin star chef. It is making waves in every location it has opened. So I had to try it out. On my last visit to Riyadh, this dream was fulfilled. A few colleagues from work ( 7 to be precise) headed to this place for dinner on a working weekday. Nestled in a fairly quite location just across the main Tahlia street in Riyadh, this place was failry easy to locate on the map. We called ahead and made a booking, but upon arrival noticed that although the place was occupied, it was not necessarily overflowing with patrons. The decor was minimalist yet chic, in line with the many fine dining options now available in homeland India. The menu looked
Read more

Hoş geldiniz

Image
Hos geldiniz in turkish literally translated means " Your arrival is lovely". And this is so true for the arrival of this wonderful Turkish bakery and cafe GULNAR. Tucked away in a small corner off Prince Sultan street after Heraa street, this place is a wonderful small world in itself. Right from the beautiful signboard to the beautiful wooden doors, the place screams out Turkish in all ways possible. I have been to this cafe around 4 times in the past 6 months or so. And every time I come out smiling. The place is cozy, the service friendly and the food fresh and delicious. I have a thing for freshly baked goods. Before you slap the not so healthy literature about bread, let me warn you, I wont listen. Even if i do, the next time i pass by Gulnar and the smell of freshly baked simit hits my nostrils, all your efforts would have been wasted. This is one place where the singles section feels much better than the family section. I am not sure if it is the height the s
Read more