A delicious start to mini-vacation

Labor Day trip! Since we had an extra day off from work we booked a flight to Scottsdale, AZ (dirt cheap, especially with our two for one code)!

We arrived Friday morning - a bit too early for check-in - so we opted for a fancy lunch at Technique, the restaurant of Le Cordon Bleu Scottsdale. For those of you not familiar with it, a US company bought the name from the French school and opened for-profit cooking schools around the country. Whatever your feelings are on for-profit vs non-private education, you can't beat a meal at Technique from budding chefs.

For $13 you get a three-course meal, accompanied by bread and three delicious homemade butters: sun-dried tomato, garlic and shallots, and traditional unsalted.

Each course had a handful of tasty options, making it hard to choose. Here's how it went down:

1st Course

Pork Belly Confit (Craig) - A slab of beautiful fatty pork, so tender a fork could cut it. To the right, a small roasted potato sliced in half with a piece of bacon between the halves. To the left a mound of spinach topped with a poached quail egg. Each component was tasty alone, but when combined with a little of the fruit compote beneath the pork it was amazingly good.

Scallop Risotto (Ryan) - A gently pan-fried scallop sitting in a pool of creamy asparagus risotto. The scallop was cooked to perfection and stood up well to the heavy risotto.

2nd Course

Black Truffle Stuffed Chicken (Craig) - Yes, truffle stuffed chicken for $13! The bone-in piece of chicken was tender and juicy, with a layer of truffle and cheese in the middle. It sat over a potato purée, and an assortment of cooked carrots and pearl onions. The truffle flavor was strong and left me wanting even more.

Beef Burger (Ryan) - A medium-rare burger topped with pulled BBQ short rib and a large onion ring. The side of fries were salty and hot. Ryan asked for mayo and they made it fresh for him.

3rd Course

Trio of Sorbet (Craig) - Raspberry, lemon and lime sorbet mixed with some fresh fruit - light and refreshing.

Ginger Cake (Ryan) - Three pieces of ginger spice cake and a scoop of decedent sour cream ice cream. Definitely not a healthy way to end a meal!

And, to top off this wonderful meal we had a beautiful view of Camelback Mountain. I love good food, and I love it even more when it's cheap! Check if there's a Technique near you and give it a try.

The loot

Did we bring back too much?

Perhaps. Yes, there are 11 bottles of wine and about 50 bars of chocolate. We needed a six month supply!

Let the eating and drinking commence.

My kind of town

We're back in Chicago, where we can read everything! Oh how we missed America's super cold air conditioning.

Home sweet home.

Bye Europe

Vacation is over.

We left Zürich at 10 am this morning and now we're waiting for our connection at JFK. We're both very tired, and in that strange place between excited to be home and sad to leave Europe.

It's our ritual to order Chinese food when we get home, so that's something to look forward to!

Stay tuned for more photos from sites not blogged about...

Good night Zürich

We had another great dinner tonight at a beer hall and a long stroll along the lake and Limmat River. The walk of course including some ice cream!

We're now packing the last of our bags and heading to bed for our early flight to JFK.

Looking forward to being able to read and communicate with other people sans the language barrier, but we'll miss Europe as always!

Why so much?

Why is everything in Zurich so expensive? It makes London seem cheap. For example (1 CHF equals about $1.02 USD):

• 33 cl of Coke = 5 CHF

• Egg McMuffin = 5.10 CHF

• 1/2 L bottle of water at dinner = 8.90 CHF

• Tall coffee at Starbucks = 6.90 CHF

• Entree at mid-level Thai restaurant = 27 CHF

• Jeans at department store = 698 CHF

More than $5 for a bottle of Coke? The only good thing is wine is cheap. At dinner last night wine was literally cheaper than water.

Yikes, how do people afford to live here?

The best Brats

Called Zürich's most famous sausage stand, the Sternen Grill is located on a plaza near the Bellevue tram stop. The kitchen is inside an Airstream trailer, while a large white tent covers both the kitchen and a roomy seating area. We ate lunch here on our last visit and knew we had to return.

The grill is known for their red and white sausages, but have many other grilled and fried items. The sausages come with a side of spicy mustard and a large roll for 7 CHF. They were as good as we remembered - piping hot with a perfect snap. The mustard gives it a nice kick.

I want more!

Picnicking with the Alps

It's our last day of vacation and the sun is finally out! We decided to have a picnic by Lake Zürich to enjoy the nice weather.

We picked up two local cheeses, a fresh demi-baguette, an olive medley, and a half-bottle of white wine (made just outside Zürich) from Globus. And we grabbed a Bratwurst from the Sternen Grill (read my next post to learn more).

Lake Zürich might be one of the prettiest places on the planet. From our spot we could see the small villages along the east and west sides, and the giant Alps to the southern end. The waterfront was full of other travelers an locals doing as we were.

In the water, within reach, were dozens of swans. Did you know they hiss? Well they do, and apparently they do not like small dogs. I'm a little scared of them now.

I couldn't think of a more relaxing way to spend part of our last day in Zürich.

Dinner on top of Zürich

Tonight's dinner was a once in a lifetime dining experience. And I have to thank my Dad for treating!

Uetliberg is a mountain on Zurich's south eastern end. It's easily accessible by the Zürich S-Bahn from the city center. Aside from hiking and biking activities the mountain is home to a restaurant called Uto Kulm. It sits at the highest part of the mountain and the dining room has breathtaking views of both Lake Zürich and the surrounding country.

We reserved a table by the south facing window overlooking the lake. The dining room was spacious with white tablecloths, orchids and lit candles on each table.

To start I had the caprese salad, which came with a shot of balsamic dressing and a basil purée. The tomatoes were extremely fresh making for a tasty starter. Ryan had the green salad with a heaping side of beets.

For the entree I chose the Geschnetzeltes Kalbfleisch nach Zürcher Art - sliced veal and mushrooms in a tasty cream sauce served with golden brown roesti. The veal was tender and the sauce rich. Ryan had the Feine Kalbsleberli - sliced veal liver pan fried with diced apple, fresh sage and a “shot” of calvados, accompanied with golden brown roesti.

I love Swiss sides, as they usually consist of some sort of starchy masterpiece. The roesti was no different - it was basically a large hash-brown, but so much better.

Dessert was all about sorbet. Ryan ordered a dish with cherry sorbet and champagne. The combination was to die for! I ordered a scoop of pineapple and a scoop of lemon - I know, it was an odd selection. Both tasted wonderful, but the highlight of dessert for me was a very smooth glass of port.

I greatly enjoyed this meal. Every dish was cooked perfectly and seasoned well. I love when restaurants take classic, standard items and make them new and exciting. I'd go back to Uto Kulm without hesitation.

The Alps!

We took a boat ride in the lake of Zurich. The view of the Alps was amazing! Enjoy...

Zurich knows us well

When we arrived at the Crowne Plaza in Zurich today we were met with a surprise. A nice welcome note from the GM and a box of Swiss chocolate! I knew there was a reason I liked Zurich.

Lichterfest

Today was Lichterfest in Stuttgart - a yearly celebration of light. The festival was in a park just outside the center of the city. The brochure was in German, so we really had no idea what the festival was about. We bought tickets anyway - the brochure had a 'Essen und Trinken' advertisement so we figured you could eat and drink well.

The festival had half a dozen different sections, each with a music stage and themed refreshments - international, organic, gastronomy and so on. We ate our way around the park, which included Nurnberger sausages, Currywurst with fries, and Flammkuchen (all very healthy). And, of course a bottle of local wine.

We had had our full of music and food after two hours. As we walked to the train we stopped to hear a couple songs from a young band called Lieber Anders. They covered a bunch of US songs and a few German songs that most of the audience knew (except for us). The light and firework show was scheduled for 10 minutes after the band was done, so we decided to stick around for it.

The show featured lights and pyrotechnics synced to music by Adele, Metallica, Celine Dion and Lady GaGa. It was actually done quite well and I'm glad we stuck around for it. Now it's back to the hotel for a good nights sleep since we're off to Switzerland in the morning.

All access tour of German winery

It's incredibly hard to find information on wine tastings and vineyard visits in Stuttgart even though the town is surrounded by hills of vineyards. The tourist office gave us a brochure in German for a walkable wine route east of the city, so we boarded the S-Bahn and set out with a map neither of us could read.

We got off in the quaint town of Untertürkheim. Just at the foot of a hill with large vineyard was a red-brick building of the Weinmanufaktur Untertürkheim. Celebrating its 125 anniversary the wine making company operates like a co-op. Local families harvest their grapes (by hand) and bring them to the 'weingut', the wine making factory as it was translated by the tourist office.

The wine tasting room was gorgeous - later we found out it had just been renovated in honor of the 125th anniversary. We waited in the check-out line to see how the tasting worked. The cashier told us to help ourselves - yes, we were told to taste, at will, any of the over 40 bottles opened. Most of the wines were foreign to us - Trollinger, Lemberger, Spätburgunder, Rivaner - which made the experience more exciting.

We started with the whites, which were quite nice. And as we began tasting the reds we were joined by Sara, an employee of the winery and daughter of a local vineyard owner. She began explaining the difference in the wines and the history of the company.

After a few more samples she offered to take us on a tour of the winery - something they don't normally do. We saw the wine cave (the building used to be owned by Mercedes-Benz and the cave was where financial paperwork was processed) and the pressing room. In the wine cave was their library with a barrel from each year the winery has been open. She told us people will call up and order bottles from the year someone was born or married. This tour could have easily cost $20 in Napa, but it was free and impromptu. Sara said she loved walking us around because she doesn't "get excited helping the local grandpa pick up his wine every weekend." I asked her if many tourists visit the winery and she said no. Stuttgart has no idea the asset they have just a 10 minute ride from the city center.

We purchased two bottles from Sara. They were reasonably priced at €15, but taste like €50 bottles. This excursion was quite unexpected and we'll remember it for a while!

P.S. A four year old child may have been drinking a glass of red wine. Oh, those Europeans.

Partying in Stuttgart

We left dinner ready to turn in early when we stumbled across the Stuttgarter Sommerfest. It's a few day long summer festival featuring international bands and a ton of international food. A turkish group was performing when we joined the festivities. The smells emanating from the various food stalks was overwhelming. So much so we had to get something to snack on with our .5L of beer for €3. The falafel sandwich was quite good.

Drinking in the clouds

The Fernsehturm Stuttgart is the world's first TV tower made from concrete. It opened in 1956 and measures 711 feet tall. For only €3 we were able to ride to the top for a breathtaking view of Stuttgart, the suburbs and the distant alps.

One level down from the observation deck was a cafe serving wine, beer and cakes. For €10 we had two afternoon drinks and an apple cake while overlooking the entire city.

Mercedes-Benz museum

Stuttgart is the Detroit of Germany - it's home to Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Needless to say, our first stop was the Mercedes-Benz museum. Although it was a long S-Bahn ride from the center of town, it was well worth it. Spread across nine floors was the history of the company intertwined with world events. The cars on display were quite awesome, even for a non-car-enthusiast. Highlights included the first cumbustion engine for a car and the newest fuel cell cars.

The museum was well worth the four Euro entrance fee. Definitely a must see for visitors to Stuttgart.