The Herbal Mystery

As mentioned earlier, I'm on my sidequest to gather some herbs. So last night, I went to this nature pharmacy to ask for them. For some unknown reasons I ended up talking about dry skin and walked out with some skin oil. Talking about ADD...


Nevermind, I managed to get the information I needed. The friendly sales assistant reminded me of a place I've known for ages but had totally forgotten about for some reason. There is, luckily, still a place in Zurich that knows all about herbs, teas, tinctures and potions. The Berg-Apotheke at Stauffacher runs a selection of over 2'000 diffrerent herbs and spices from all over the world, for example Indian Ayurveda (haha, I spelt it right without peeking) herbs or Chinese ... uh ... Everything herbs. And spices. I guess in China they don't really make a difference between food and medicine. At least in ancient China. But that's ok, because the Berg-Apotheke seems to be an ancient place, too. So i figured that if there was a place to find gentian root, sarsaparilla and horehound, that would be it. 

Stepping into the store, i had to rub my eyes.
(D'oh...those %&$#?@ chilies!) 

To give you an idea about the Berg-Apotheke:

And amazingly, they got literally every single one of the ingredients I needed!

Now I guess this weekend once again I will discover new flavors and be part of a pretty impressive creation :). Rhubarb Bitter. How cool's that! Well, it's Friday, so I guess the only thing left to do after completing my little side quest, is to go out! I'll keep you posted about the processes here.

Chutneys, Bitters and Mystical Fruits Part 2

After the successful fabrication of my first chutney, i felt as if I was becoming a witch. 


Actually, there's nothing magical about the feeling but if I think about it, I guess if I would continue making chutney, I'd get a hump on my back from beding over the pot and savouring the complementing scents. And there's the stirring. When making chutney, at a certain point it's all about stirring, or you will burn it. Guilty of killing your own chutney by neglect. 


You don't want that to happen. Really.


Anyway. So leaving the chutney part aside for a moment, as I mentioned previously, there are other people getting involved in kitchen magic in spring. (What is it about magic here? No magic involved!)


Almost simultaneously to my newly discovered hobbyhorse, my better half Christian suddenly discovered his 2012 exploring area. Being a cocktail fanatic, there is always the issue of cocktail bitters. Don't frown, they are important for good cocktails. I mean, there has to be a reason to those recipes that ask for sarsaparilla, horehound or grains of paradise. Being non-native english speaking, I had of course to look them up. 


Here's what I found:
sarsaparilla - Sarsaparille
horehound - Andorn
grains of paradise - Paradieskorn


aha.


Well, but I take pride in my abilities to find things. So after some more things I had a rough idea about how those things are also called in german, which didn't make it any easier for me to figure out where to get them. Some of them are (or were) even used as drugs. Thus, I guess it can't do any harm if I ask in a drug-store ... 


... to be continued ...

Chutneys, Bitters and Mystical Fruits Part 1

I don't know what it is about spring, but apart from people falling in love, I also notice a rising enthusiasm in me and my surroundings to conquer the battlefields of the kitchen again.


This year, my exploring area was set when I went to get lunch in a vegetarian restaurant and indulged myself in a bite of mango chutney. Sweet, spicy, slightly warm, and a jam-like texture with mango chunks...yum!


Just like that, my aim was set. Chutney it is, then.


While looking for interesting chutneys to start with, I stumbled over all sorts of funny ingredients. Which meant for me that my quest of making chutney just became a treasure hunt. And it made me think of my gamer's past, when playing Zelda and having to decide whether to go for the side quests in order to complete the game to perfection or leave it and finish with whatever I got.


I take pride in my cooking skills. (much more so than in the game, I still haven't solved those riddles. Which makes me think of this ...)


And, well, the first chutney I was going to make, a strawberry-chili-chutney, included tasmanian pepper and honey vinegar. (Unwillingly, a picture of Taz and Winnie the Pooh dancing through a strawberry field flashes through my mind...) True story: the pepper was easier to find than the vinegar! (I found it in the food factory of Jelmoli, while apparently Coop has it in their fine food section, too.)


As for the honey vinegar, I'm still trying to find a practical solution, since it is part of many an interesting chutney. Meanwhile, I got a condiment from Coop (probs only available in bigger stores) and my better half found some of the precious (pricy) fluid in Globus downstairs. Hooray, and I made it!