Battle of the croissants.

The origins of the croissant lie closer to Zürich than to Paris. As the french term, Viennoiserie, used to refer to croissants, pains au chocolat, chaussons aux pommes, and the like, suggests, it was the Austrian capital that exported 'kipferln' to France after the Napoleonic Wars.

During my final week in Switzerland, I decided to consumer test 'gipfeli', as Swiss-German calls them, from two of the most popular bakeries in Zürich: Jung (est. 1976), on Bleicherweg, and Sprüngli (est. 1836), on Paradeplatz. I will be comparing these with the french version in the next few days.

The Jung gipfeli (1.40CHF / 1.13€), straight shaped with quite a dark colouring, was soft and dense, with an obvious flavour of butter and a hint of salt. 

The Sprüngli gipfeli (1.70CHF / 1.37€), a perfect crescent shape, in fact almost a circle, with a golden colour, was crispy but rather dry, with a light consistency, again a good buttery flavour, and more salt.

For flavour, I preferred the Sprüngli, but I must say I preferred the consistency of the Jung. However, both were a little disappointing, especially the dryness of the Sprüngli.




Butter ratings:
Sprüngli, Bahnhofstrasse 21, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland 

Jung, Bleicherweg 10, 8002 Zürich, Switzerland

Sächsilüüte: a very Zürich festival

Today is the local holiday of Sächsilüüte (six bells) in which the people of Zürich officially celebrate the end of winter. They do this by setting fire to a poor unsuspecting snowman on the top of a large bonfire, in a square specially reserved and named for this. The snowman, or Böögg's head contains explosives and if it blows off quickly then it will be a good summer: if the snowman lingers, so will the cold weather.
Accompanying this spectacle, is a whole day of feasting, associated with the city's thirteen traditional guilds. In the morning, they gather in bars and restaurants close to their Guild Halls and drink beer while the Guild band plays music. In the afternoon, the Guilds process through the city to Sächsilüütawiesä, a large square by the lake for the burning of the Böögg, which starts as the bells of the Grossmünster strike six.
Throughout the day, the city is full of stalls selling swiss sausages (bratwurst, cervelat to name but two), cheeses and cakes and biscuits. The most traditional are salty brezels and sweet Lebchueche (love cakes). These come in the shape of hearts and are inscribed with mottos such as 'Ich ha di gärn' (I love you) or, for those men backward in coming forward 'Du weichei' (you wimp!) Other sweet specialities appear to be nougat and also variations on the fig roll.
Here are some pictures taken this morning while things were getting going.

Building the bonfire under the Böögg

Fresh brezels

Nougat and fig cakes

Lebchueche: 'du weichei', 'meine Prinzessin'

Bergchäs (mountain cheese)

B 

Zouft zur Mäise (wine merchants, saddlers and painters)

Easter Bunnies Sprüngli Style

It can't have escaped your notice (unless, like me you have spent the last 10 days in the Far East) but Easter is coming very soon! My personal contribution to Easter will be revealed tomorrow, but for now I want to show you what Sprüngli, here in Zürich has been up to. They are changing their window display daily: yesterday sponge rabbits and today icing sugar pictures on top of cakes. They are quite original!

Gruezi Mitenand (again!)

Welcome to my second attempt at a blog. My first one, Züri Blog which aimed to document the City of Zürich through its COOP supermarkets, was a great idea but impractical. Firstly there are too many COOPs around the city and secondly, I found myself outside the city too much to make updates which were of a useful regularity. So, now I am back! This time with Chueche Bueb a blog that combines my two favourite pastimes of writing and baking.
I had the idea for this blog a while ago because of something I noticed on Facebook. No matter how many witticisms, insightful comments or exotic photographs I posted, the only thing that would really get my friends' attention was when I shared pictures of food I had prepared.
So, I am sure you are all asking yourselves where I got the name from. Well, as I live in Zürich, it seems appropriate to choose a Schwyzertüütsch (Swiss German) name. Chueche Bueb translates literally as Cake Boy and is a homage to two things: firstly it's an early version of the term 'metrosexual' which I think is really amusing and also it's the name of the shop of my favourite pâtissier Eric Lanlard.
Enough of explanations: let's get started with the really fun stuff ... the food! And as the subject of the ultimate food blog would have said: Bon appetit!