Switzerland has been keeping a little secret from us: they grow spaghetti. On trees. During the spring of 1957, the crop was especially fertile. The pasta strands hung there like any apple or pear would, and farmers reaped the noodly harvest. Now, if only they could get their act together on a meatball bush. We linked to this back in April of 2007, but the BBC investigative report on spaghetti farming was a little difficult to navigate. Here it is, easy peasy, after the jump....
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Photograph by voodooangel on Flickr Probably not what you wanted to hear while pouring the skim milk over the Raisin Bran this morning, but Hans Locher of the Storchen restaurant in Switzerland was requesting breast milk for a special menu—until he got banned. Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, a traditional Swiss dish with meat hunks in a creamy sauce, for example, could have been flavored with someone else's mom! Locher was first inspired 35 years ago when his wife had surplus milk lying around after his daughter's birth. Cows, goats, humans: one of these things is not like the other....
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Photograph of a longitudinal conche at the Felchlin factory in Schywz, Swtizerland. As an invited guest and featured speaker at the 100th anniversary celebration for major chocolate company Max Felchlin AG in Switzerland last week, I was reminded that chocolate didn't possess the smooth, creamy texture we take for granted today until Rudolphe Lindt invented the conche in 1879. The Swiss are famous for producing chocolates with a very fine "mouth feel," achieved through a number of manufacturing secrets, last of which is "conching." Perhaps apocryphal, the creation story of the conche says that Lindt, well known for his chocolate manufacturing techniques, left his lab one Friday afternoon to go hunting for the weekend, but forgot to turn off...
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If police stopped you while driving in Fribourg, Switzerland last Wednesday, you had something to look forward to (assuming you had a clean driving record). Safe drivers were rewarded with 100-gram chocolate bars embossed with the police force coat of arms during a 24-hour "Thank You" campaign to encourage safe driving. Switzerland is well known for chocolate, so free chocolate from the local police isn't too unexpected, although probably not common practice. Would it hurt adapt the practice of giving free chocolate for good driving behavior here as well? Chocolate would certainly make me feel happier about driving....
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Rooted in the Japanese tradition of chindogu is the Swiss art of Umdenken. Whereas chindogus self-identify as the deliberate invention of the useless, the Swiss are actually quite resourceful. As is their wont. I especially like the Schweizerstäbli, the Ölfinger, the T-Fresh and the Sommerpedale. Thanks Paul for the link!...
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