The best chocolats in Genève: Philippe Pascoët

Since many centuries the Swiss have been famous for their high quality chocolate. The most famous chocolate that comes from Switzerland must be the Toblerone chocolate bars. According to Wikipedia the Swiss eat per year the most chocolate per capita in the world (11,6 kg). Here in Genève there are many chocolatiers where you can find very fine chocolate. Maybe the funniest ones are the poubelles. These chocolates have the form of a dustbin and are filled with caramel.

I tasted many bonbons of different chocolatiers in the past years but by far my favourites are the ones of maitre chocolatier Phillipe Pascoët. His small shop we find in the nice area of Carouge. Be prepared: a bonbon will cost around 1 Franc a piece. But believe me, it will be worth the money. The bonbons are infused with a wide range of tastes and often decorated with nice colourful decorations. The tastes are very eleborated and mix very well with the dark chocolate base of the bonbon. Every time I visit my family in Holland the first thing they ask if I can please take some of these chocolates for them. Some of my favourites:

- Passion fruit, really fresh like if you taste the fruit itself
- Caramel et fleur de sel, Just perfect
- Mint, doesn't taste like toothpaste, but like the leafs of fresh mint
- Cigar, may be not best taste, but still very good and original
- L'Adrien, with cassis and a small crispy layer. Perfect

Philippe Pascoët. Rue Saint-Joseph 12, 1227 Carouge Tel:022 301 20 58. Website: http://www.philippe-pascoet.ch

No go-er: L`esquisse

It was my intention to never send  any negative messages on this blog,  but I see it as my civil duty to warn people for this restaurant, because this restaurant (or bistro gourmand, as they dare to call themselves) crossed the line. Main problems of L'esquisse (7, Rue du Lac, Genève) are that they lost every reasonable sense of  a normal quality price relation and  that there is a ridiculous laziness in the kitchen.  I have to say that we had the "luck" that we went to eat here with the assiette genevoise card, so we only paid half price for the food, but still this was far too much.

As a starter we took nems filled with langoustines. We got 4 nems filled with a little bit of langoustine and vegatable. Next to that a few leafs of salad that were literally thrown on the plate and as "sauce" a sweet chilly sauce  that you can buy in every supermarket. And imagine that if you pay the full price you have to pay 28 CHF. As a cook you should be ashamed if you dare to sell such a poor dish for this price and as a waiter you should really train on your poker face to serve dishes like this without laughing the customers directly in their face. Apparently the cook has a problem with sauces because both our main plates didn't have any and a quick look at the menu told us that almost any plate had sauce with it. Maybe I didn't understand their "concept" but to me this smells like a lazy cook.

Well, as main course we both  took fish: Loup de mer and Sole. Respectively they cost at full price 52 CFH and 59 CHF. Well normally for astronomical prices like this, you would really expect something. But after the starters we already didn't have high expectations anymore. Well the loup was prepared quite okay, grilled in the oven with some herbes and still juicy. But too big for one person and it missed salt and inspiration. The sole my girlfriend took was dry and I doubt if it was really fresh fish and it was also far too much. The other things we found on the plate almost made me cry: Tasteless basmati rice and a mix of not well cooked vegatables.

After this we didn't even consider to take desserts and asked directly the bill. We paid 130 CHF (it also included a few glasses of wine that we drank as a substitute for sauce) but if we had to pay the full price, we would have to pay the ridiculous price of 213 CHF. So please rather burn your money......

The mythic Malakoff

In Swiss Romandie and especially around the Lac Léman the Malakoff has an epic status. The malakoff is a sort of  deep fried small bread filled with a  gruyère cheese mixture. In other words a calorie bomb made of cheese. It's very tasty and a good alternative to the more common cheese fondue or raclette. There exists many different stories around the origins of the malakoff, the one I like the most is the following story: In 1855 during the long siege of the fortress of Malakoff in present day Ukraine, a few very  hungry Swiss soldiers found out that with the leftovers of their bread and cheese they could make quite delicious and nutritional beignets. Back home they perfectionated the recipe, that ever since was handed from generation to generation.

 Normally we eat around 3 to 4 malakoffs per meal with  green salad and a plate of charcuterie as side dishes. The best malakoffs in my opinion we eat in Vinzel in restaurant au Coeur de la Coté situated in the middle of the vineyards of Vinzel. So you should also try here the local wine. (Others argue we eat the best malakoffs in Luins. They are also good, it's true. But the last time we ate here we had a shouting and insulting psycho waiter, so I won't make publicity for this restaurant.) 

Au Coeur de la Côte, 1184 Vinzel Vaud. Tel: 021 824 11 41

Le Portugais

I have to admit that it was the first time that I visited a real Portuguese restaurant, so I was quite keen to discover this cuisine. For a good introduction we tried the menu découverte (4 courses, CHF 59,-) and I was lucky because I was invited by my girlfriend. We started with a Portuguese classic the bolinhos de bacalhau. Tasty and well prepared, but it was not seasoned enough. After we got served a octopus salad in vinegar. It was a rich portion of pulpo, which was also perfectly cooked. But the vinegar taste was a little to overwhelming and again it was not enough seasoned. (I have to note here that in the dishes I prepare and eat myself I'm far from a salt freak. Still I find that salt plays an important role in the kitchen. It simply allows us to accentuate the specific tastes of the products we use)  The principal dish was grilled bacalhau (cod fish). Perfectly cooked with a nice grill taste, but again (and I'm sorry to repeat myself) it missed seasoning and although they served small seasalt cristals with it, it is much nicer when it is put on the fish while it's being grilled. Apparently the Portuguese love egg desserts, because almost all desserts had eggs in them. We took a sort of Ile flottant, of which the island was huge.
To conclude: I liked the food a lot, also I liked that all the plates on the menu were fish dishes. But if the chef had used more often the saltshaker I would have been more enthousiastic. Also I maybe missed a bit something really specific Portuguese in the dishes, it might as well been a Spanish restaurant that served these plates.

Le Portugaise. 59, Boulevard Pont d'Arve. 1205 Genève. Tel: 022 329 40 98 Website: www.leportugais.ch 
Closed on sunday and monday. 

L' Olivier de Provence

In the old part of Carouge we find L`Olivier de Provence. The restaurant is divided in two parts: a bistro and a restaurant part. When we asked on the phone what was the difference between the two parts, the waiter responded simply: the price. A quick look at the menus can tell us that at the restaurant part the products used are more expensive and the dishes are more elaborated. Well, ``we`` decided to eat at the bistro part (also because it was me who was paying).  To be honest I`m not a too big fan of these divisions. It`s a bit between the ears, but  if I either choose the restaurant or the bistro, I always wander if I`m on the good side. If I would chose the restaurant I would feel I pay too much for basically the same thing and in the bistro I am afraid the kitchen puts less attention into my plates.

Well this said we ate very well at the bistro. We took a 3 course menu (55 CHF). As a starter we took a terrine of summer vegetables with mousse of goat cheese and mixed salad. Very tasty, fresh and provençale. As main plate I took a piece of beef which got braised in red wine during 12 hours. I had a sort of Proust moment when I tasted this meat. It took me back to when I was young and my mother and grandmother prepared a similar dish (we called it grandmothers meat, because she often prepared it and because of the stringy structure of the meat). My girlfriend took sea bass with a ' vierge' sauce. Very good and fresh also. To finish we took the tiramisu, good and not too heavy. To conclude: just very nice. But I still wander how it would have been in the restaurant part.

L' Olivier de Provence. 13, Rue Jacques-Dalphin 1227 Carouge. Tel: 022-3420450. Open monday till friday for luch and dinner. Also open on saturday night. Website: http://olivierdeprovence.ch

Mozzarella Treccia La contadina

This week they promoted at the Manor their mozzarella cheeses. They also had a new sort I had never seen before in my life: the Mozzarella Treccia La Contadina. It looks quite like a tressed bread, or with a little imagination like a stranded seal. It ways around 500 grammes (which is about 4 times the size of a normal mozzarella). The cheese is 100% bufala, is hard on the outside, soft on the inside and has for a mozzarella a quite strong taste. And the best thing was that this week it was half priced, so instead of 16 CHF I paid around 8 CHF. The producers of this product also have a nice website, with even a song about this cheese.

Because I had so much mozzarella, I decided to make a big plate pizza with a part of the mozzarella. Really this is one my favorite things: to make a good tomato basil sauce yourself, divide this over a pizza bottom,  add a lot of high quality mozzarella and out of the oven finish it of with a few leaves of fresh basil. You can see the result here. (Oh and it is also a good way to lose your hangover.)

 Mozzarella Treccia La Contadina. Address to buy: Manor food court, Rue Cornavin 6 , 1201 Genève  

Le Diwane: one of the better Lebanese restaurants in Genève.

In Genève we find quite a lot of good Lebanese food. For example there is Les saveurs du Liban at la place de navigation in Paquis. But since they renovated  the prices rushed up, while the cuisine didn't change so much. In my opinion it's better to try once le Diwane. You might get scared away by it's old fashioned interior, but we don't eat the interiors and experts should know that we find sometimes the best food in restaurants that lack any form of elegance.

The one time I went to eat at le Diwane I was starving, so my opinion on the food could be blurred by this. Best is to take the mezze,  so you can taste and share together many different plates. If I remember well you can take 6 mezze (cold or hot) for CHF 75,-, which is surely enough for two persons. Also here you can use the asiette genevoise card, which means you get a 50% reduction on the food. The mezze have a quite refined taste and the dough they use for the pastries is very fresh. My favorite plates were the pastries filled with cheese and minced meat and the falafel. The falafel (served with a tahin sauce) were especially a welcome surprise. Being used to the deep fried  tasteless falafel we eat sometimes in the street, this falafel took me by surprise through it's well balanced combination of chickpeas and sesame seed.

Le Diwane, 6 Rue de Zurich, 1201 Genève Tel: 022 732 73 91
Opening times: in winter open from 11.30 -14.00 and 19.00- 23.00, closed Saturday afternoon and Sunday . In summer open every day with non-stop service from 12.00 till 0.00. .

A few tasty cheeses

This afternoon I tasted with the mother of my girlfriend a few very nice cheeses bought at Halles de Rive and Manor. The first one I'd like to discuss is an all time favorite bought at Manor: A Swiss tomme cheese filled with truffle oil and pine nuts. The combination between the creamy tender cheese, the truffle flavour and the grill taste of the pine nuts is simply perfect. At Manor you can find of this and other brands of tomme many sorts of flavours like for example basil or cumin.

At Halles de Rive we find the fromagerie Bruand, famous for it's wide range of rare cheeses. We tasted today a goat cheese from the French Languedoc region: the fromage Cathare. Complete with a the Cathare cross on top of the cheese, it will look very nice on a cheese board after dinner. The cheese has a very refined but a not too strong taste. Note that the cheese is made of raw milk.

 The last cheese I will discuss here comes from the German part of Switzerland: it is called the Belper Knolle and even has it's own website. As you can see it's a small boll with herbs around it. You can use this cheese instead of parmesan and grate it (or slice very thin, for example with a Dutch cheese slicer) on your pasta, carpaccio or bresaola. It has a peculiar taste with a quite strong accent of garlic.

 Manor food court, Rue Cornavin 6 , 1201 Genève  
Fromagerie Bruand, Halles de Rive, Boulevard Helvetique 29, 1207 Genève.

Best pizzas in Genève

Always the topic for an heated debate: Where to find the best pizzas in town?  First I would like to share a general critique that most pizzas in Genève have a too thick and too bread-like crust, in contrast to the original Neapolitan pizza. In my opinion this makes the pizzas simply too heavy to be eaten and digested by one person. (but maybe it's just how the Swiss like their pizzas?). This said, I will tell you what are my favorite pizzerias. A long time favorite is Il carosello. Very central in Genève, not too expensive, they almost always have place and they also have good pastas and risottos. My favorite pizza here is the one topped with San Danièle Parma ham and fresh rucola.

Another good one is pizzeria da Gabriele in Eaux vives. Nice service, also good pastas (for example the pappardelle with safran) and this in a mega kitsch decor with a sort of kitsch reconstruction of a Roman temple. The best here is the one with Bresaola and rucola.

Yesterday we discovered a new favorite: Don Corleone in the Grottes quartier. Nice restaurant with a big calm terrace on the front. Decorated in it's own special way with attributes of one of the main characters of the Godfather. You can even eat here on a table where besides you is sitting a life size puppet of Don Corleone (some people apparently like this). The restaurant proposes traditional and special pizzas. Take a special, because they are topped with mozzarella bufflone and San Marzano tomatoes. I took a pizza Sophia Loren topped with rucola, bresoala and black truffles. Very good taste. They also have a special pizza topped with 50 grammes of beluga caviar that costs CHF 580,-. I forgot to ask if this is a little joke and if  it's not a joke, how often they sell this pizza. Also this year you can eat here with the Asiette Genevoise card, which means that you get 50 % discount on the food (for 2 persons). Also they have very nice starters, like the salade caprese, the carpaccio di manzo and the cold buffet.

For all three above named pizzerias I have to note that at everyone of these the crust is too thick. Actually the only place in Genève (at least that I know) where they bake the pizzas with thin crusts is at the Manora restaurant on top of the Manor. They actually have really good pizzas here and ...with the thin crust I like so much.


Il carosello.25,Boulevard Georges-Favon  ,1204 Genève, tel: 022 328 56 40
Da Gabriele. 4, Rue Cherbuliez 1207 Genève, Tel: 022 736 30 40
Don Corleone. 13, Rue des Grottes, 1201Genève, Tel: 022 734 13 44 
Manora, Rue Cornavin 6 , 1201 Genève  

Restaurant Nagomi: the best sushi in Genève and Switzerland?

Well hidden in the Paquis quartier, we find this tiny Japanese restaurant. Entering the restaurant you could be under the delusion to be in a sushi bar in Tokyo or Kyoto. The restaurant has only place for I would estimate about 15 persons and is decorated in a typical traditional Japanese style. You can sit on one of the few tables or around the bar (which  personally I prefer more because you can see from close distance how the chef prepares the sushi). One warning: this sushi bar is quite expensive, be prepared to spend around 100 CHF a person. It is more a restaurant to go to on a special ocassion, not just to snack a few sushis. Well, for quality we pay.

To start I can recommend the miso soup, which is much tastier than the average miso soup you get served in sushi restaurants. Also take an Asahi beer they serve in  a frozen cup, which gives the beer a special refreshing taste. You can choose an assortiment of sushi or order â la carte. The assortiment is a nice beginning and after you can continue to order the more special stuff à la carte. The keyword at Nagomi is freshness and that's why everything tastes so good. The rice the chef uses is still a little warm and he cuts the fresh fish at the last moment. Nothing is prepared, everything is made à la minute. My favorites are the rolls filled with tartare of fat belly tuna and spring oignions, the rolls filled with crab and mayonnaise and the maki with warm marinated eal. The only critic I could give is that they decided to divide their night up in two shifts: one shift before 20.30 and one shift after 20.30.  It`s logic they do this due to the small size of the restaurant and for me personally it is not a big inconvenience it`s only too bad to see that the chef is more stressed and that it kills a little the calm and serene atmosphere from before.


Restaurant Nagomi, Adress: 47, Rue de Zurich, Genève, 1201
Tel: 022 732 38 28 Opening times: monday till friday from 12:00-14:00 and 19:00-22:00

• 
  

"Around the corner" from Genève: Lyon

Visitors to Genève but also locals from Genève should consider to visit once Lyon for a few days. It's really not that far: around 1,5 hour by TGV train. And Lyon is just a really nice and romantic city. According to many it's France's "gastronomic capital" and a great city for shopping or for the less fortunate window-shopping. And we shouldn't forget the city's beautiful historic center, listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site. I will share here a few of the highlights from my last trip to Lyon.

Near the train station we find les Halles de Lyon - Paul Bocuse. This indoor market exists since 1859 and is renamed after it's renovation in 2006 after Lyon's most famous chef. Today there are 58 enterprises gathered in this market. On this market we find simply the best of the best of Lyon's gastronomy.  It's the best food market I ever visited in my life. The high quality and the freshness of the products is astonishing and some of the stand owners are even decorated with the prestigious MOF title (it stands for Meilleur Ouvrier de France and we can recognize the wearers by their tricolour collars. For the French it's a very very important title, I can recommend a really good, funny and nerve-breaking documentary on this subject about the concourse for the MOF title in pastry : the Kings of pastry).

A big part of the market exists of stands that sell ready made products. Again the quality is amazing, some of these dishes wouldn't misfit in one star restaurants. I think my favorite stand is the one where they sell amuses, for around 2 euro 50 you can buy here amuses like verrine de tartare de saumon or crème brûlée de foie gras de canard, also they sell at this stand many different kinds of house smoked salmon. We just couldn't resist  and at 9 o'clock in the morning we were already tasting the salmon tartare. A tip is to take a picnic basket to the market, buy the things you like and look for and a nice spot along the Rhône to eat all you have purchased.

At another stand of the market we find a really nice backery with a wide choice of pastry. You can pick something to your choice and after you can directly eat this with a coffee on a terrasse next to the stand. To conclude: if somebody would ask  me to describe food heaven, this market will fit well the description.

If you're looking for a place to sleep in Lyon, I can recommend a Chambre d'Hôte called Le chambre d'Hugo. We went here already twice. The room is central in Lyon`s center, big and very nice decorated. The owners are very helpful and sympathetic, but also discrete. The best anyway is the breakfast they serve in the dinning room: it's just huge, tasty and there is simply everything you'll like.

the breakfast 

To finish this post I would like to discuss one of the restaurants we visited. In Lyon there is a really wide choice of gastronomic restaurants, without exaggerating on almost every corner there is a restaurant. The restaurant we visited last time deserves a recommendation. It`s called la table de Suzanne (39, Rue Auguste Comte, Lyon) and is very near the chambre d`hôte I talked about before. It`s may be not super haute cuisine, but it comes near and the ambiance is very relaxed and welcoming. The kitchen is run by a young chef who is ambitious, but has still to improve on some points. The starter was  almost perfect langoustines on a sort of cold salad of ratatouille vegtables. The main dish of boeuf filet with baked foie gras was very tasty , but too heavy due to the big piece of foie grais and the green peas purée. The dessert was again delicious an à la minute baked lemoncake (too good)  with home made ice cream and fresh strawberries marinated in verveine.

Chez quartier

Another tip for a lazy afternoon in the weekend (or any other day of the week except mondays) is Chez Quartier. You can easily spent whole afternoons in this tearoom, drinking your coffee (or whatever you like to drink), reading the journals and serving yourself  from the banquet. In front of the café you'll find a wide range of homemade pastries like small quiches, pizzas,  croissants filled with tuna salad and  fruit cakes. There are also many different small sandwiches: like  ith roast beef , with st moret and watercress or with small shrimps and avocado. The small pizzas with bacon and the avocado shrimp sandwiches are by far my favorites. In the end when you pay the bill, you just tell the waiter all the things you have taken to eat and apparently they trust their clients to be honest in this matter. Personally, I'm always afraid that I forget to name one or two things. This is because often I can't stop taking things from the banquet and I lose count of what I've taken. The cafe is a very popular spot among locals but small, so don't be disappointed when there is no more place inside.

Chez Quartier. Address: 24 Rue Voltaire, 1201 Genève, tel: 022 - 3445321 Open from Tuesday till Sunday from 7 till 7.

Mozzarella burrata

 If there is a God, I think He will eat this mozzarella everyday for lunch. The mozzarella burrata (burrata means literally "buttered") comes originally from the southern Puglia region. The mozzarella has a firm outside and on the inside it is very very creamy (as you can see on the picture). Best is to add as little as possible to this mozzarella. A few slices of  a good tomato (like the italian San Marzano as I use on the picture) and a few leaves of basil or a few slices of spring onion will do the job. You even don't need to add  any olive oil.  You can even eat it just like this, but maybe this more for the pigs among us. Anyway eating this mozzarella is as if "an angel pisses on your tongue" (a Dutch expression).  In Genève you can find this cheese at Manor (my favorite supermarket ever). And as all good things in life, this mozzarella doesn't come cheap: 3,65 per 100 grammes.

Mozzarella Burrata: CHF 3,65 per 100 grammes at Manor food court, Rue Cornavin 6 , 1201 Genève  

Fleurs de Marie

Where to go in the weekend if you want to eat a nice brunch? Well, I know a few nice places. To start with Fleurs de Marie, I just ate there this afternoon actually, so I'm digesting their food right at this moment.We find Fleurs de Marie in the Quartier des Grottes, a nice quiet neighborhood behind the station with many nice bars and restaurants, which for some bizarre reason is a bit left aside by locals and visitors of the city.

The choice of food we find here is quite typical for a brunch café: salads, eggs prepared in different ways (cooked, baked or scrambled) and a wide choice of home made cakes and quiches. As you'll see on the picture above the cakes are beautifully presented together on a table. I tried the quiche à la moutarde ancienne and the crumble aux framboises. Both were very delicious and I'll soon go back to try their Chocolat fondant and their cupcakes. To finish I have to note how very nice this bar is decorated from the inside and the outside. Very colourful and full of flowers: A dream bar for most girls (at least for my girlfriend.)

Opening times (if I understood well, but excuse me if I'm wrong):  From Wednesday to Friday 8.30 - 15.00, Weekend: 10.00-16.00. Address: 8, rue de la Faucille 1201 Genève, tel: 022-7334730. Mail: fleursdemarie@bluewin.ch website: http://www.fleursdemarie.ch

Café des Négociants

In one of the most sympathetic neighborhoods of Genève (Carouge) we find my all time favorite restaurant Café des Négociants. My main reason for this "title" is although they serve great elaborated gastronomic food, they don't become snob and stay casual. The atmosphere in the restaurant is more that of a brasserie, everybody will feel here at ease in it's cozy interior. In contrary to some gastronomic restaurants where  because of the graveyard atmosphere you'll have to try to enjoy your food in total silence. The team of waiters is attentive, very professional, quick and polite but not too stuck from the ass to make little jokes with the customers.

The kitchen is in it's base traditional French. But  here they serve a light and fresh variant of  the french kitchen. I recommend to take the menu saveurs (3 course CHF64,-,  4 course CHF84,-), because to eat here à la carte will be very  pricey. Often the menu starts with a foie gras dish, for example a tasty terrine. Or you can choose the fish starter (or when hungry , you can  just take both starters). I need to note that the fish is always very well prepared. Perfectly baked, crispy on the outside and still juicy on the inside.(in our opinion the starters are always the best part of the menu). Normally the main plate is a meat dish. Often a nice piece of  slowly cooked and juicy veal or pearl-hen with a tasty sauce (for example a creamy wild mushroom sauce) and season vegetables. The dessert to conclude the menu is fresh and not too heavy. If you're lucky a crumble is on the menu accompanied with the best yogurt ice-cream I've ever tasted. After the dessert, I think, you'll have eaten just enough without a too heavy stomach.

For the smaller wallet I advice to take one 3 plate menu and to share the starter of a 4 plate menu. Also if you don't like to spend too much on the wine, you can always choose here a very good glass of wine from the wide range of open bottles. Another good idea is to enjoy here once a 3 course menu during lunch for only  CHf 29,-.The daily menus are published on the website.

Open from monday to friday (dinner and lunch) Reservation is highly advisable 
Address: Café des Négociants, Rue de la Filature 29 (corner rue Saint Victor - Tramway), 
1227 Carouge, Genève
Tel: 0041 (0) 22 300 31 30   E-mail: info@negociants.ch