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!