Basel, Switzerland

What do you think of when someone tells you about Switzerland?
I am sure chocolate, cheese and the Alps are in your list. But honestly, Switzerland is so much more. I have visited Basel for a couple of days recently and I love it.
Now, that I finally uploaded all my pictures I want to share some special Swiss food with you:

1. Gilgen Bakery

This is one of the smallest and cutes bakeries I have ever seen. But it is fascinating how many cakes and pastries the little shop holds. There is no way of passing the store without noticing, which they made sure of with leaving the door open and letting the fragrance fill the whole street.

Once you are in there you can get any traditional pastry you would like. From plum pies to Linzertortes and Crumb cakes. And the ladies working there will take it right from the display window, because everything is made that same day.

2. Book presentation and vegan buffet

During my stay I also went to a presentation about a book, containing drawings and poems. The author is a Swiss environmental activist, walks around the whole world and makes people aware of reusable energy and sustainability. The past year he started drawing and writing poems to each of his pictures. Because of his various trips he knows a lot of people from all different parts of the world and I was meeting people from Europe, America and Africa. It was great.

After he talked about his book and how it came to become a book, there was a buffet set up with a lot of vegan crackers, fruits, sandwiches and at least eight cakes. The crackers were garnished with different vegetable or nut spreads and really good. I could have eating the whole buffet, if there weren't other guests. He made everything himself the same day and the decorating was with the best fall ornaments and flowers you can think of. So this definitely was a great event to go to. 

3. Typical Swiss dessert (Vermicell) 

There is this one dessert, which I could eat every day. Since I have been a little girl this is on my top ranked dessert list. I have to admit not everyone likes it, it is made of chestnuts and comes with whipped cream. Until now they are only sold in Switzerland so this is the must have when I visit. Translated into English means Vermicelles little worms. And you can imagine as a little girl I was thrilled about saying: "Look mom, I am eating worms!" 

4. Mövenpick ice cream

Probably the most famous ice cream is Mövenpick. They don't only have ice cream places and restaurants, they also have first class hotels. But I am sure everything they do is first class. Sadly it was raining a whole day, so I found an open door at the Mövenpick restaurant. It was packed! I really had a hard time finding a free table. Finally there was a nice waitress showing me a free table with the ice cream menu right in the middle. How did they know? So I looked through the noble book and found the one ice cream made for me: Caramelita. One scoop Caramel and one scoop Maple Walnut, garnished with whipped cream, caramelized nuts and caramel sauce. 

 

5. Tibits - A vegetarian restaurant

Vegetarian restaurants are becoming more and more popular. I don't exactly know why. Maybe it's because people want to eat healthy or there are just more vegetarians those days. Or simply because there are so many delicious things you can choose from. Tibits is a place where this is the case! 

 

You take a tray and a plate in the beginning, you go around the buffet once, twice, maybe three times until you start putting food on your plate because you can't decide on which looks the best and is absolutely worth taking and then you look for a nice table and enjoy. 

This is my perfect plate

I obviously liked it a lot ;)