Some facts and figures about Swiss national day

Switzerland or the Swiss Confederation celebrates its National Day every August 1 and my good friend, Marco Polo Cebu Plaza GM Hans Hauri, a Swiss national, began an annual tradition to celebrate this momentous occasion with fellow Swiss citizens and friends of Switzerland.

Highlights of the festivities would be the traditional ringing of the bells, displays of the Swiss flag, bonfires, fireworks, greetings from the Swiss Federal Council (President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf for 2012), yodeling and dining on Swiss cuisine.

Two years from now, 2014, your favorite food columnist has already made plans to celebrate Swiss National Day at the Marco Polo Ortigas Hotel located along Meralco Avenue, Pasig City. The joint venture agreement was signed recently by Steve Kleinschmidt, president of Marco Polo Hotels and Samuel Po, president of the Xin Tian Ti Development Corp. (XTT) to build a 32-storey five-star hotel, with an investment of P3 billion and it will open in 2014.

The main attraction of the Swiss National Day would be its cuisine and the best way to be acquainted with Swiss cuisine is to visit Switzerland itself though that would be a pricey option. In a recent article from The Wall Street Journal, two cities in Switzerland is included in the list of the 10 most expensive cities in the world, "Geneva is the fifth costliest city, according to Mercer's survey, while its neighbor to the north, Zurich, is No. 6".

My beloved readers already know of my adventure in a Euro train ride between Paris and Florence. There was a 10 minute stop and I was surprised when the conductor told me that beyond the yellow international line, it was Switzerland. And I could not resist that temptation to cross that line but stayed only for a minute or two since I do not want to be part of the estimated 10,000 Filipinos now living there.

Participation in the celebration of the Swiss National Day and the Marco Polo Plaza Culinary Journeys to Switzerland is the next best opportunity to taste Swiss cuisine. For the media, there were two events to attend: the opening of the Culinary Journeys and the celebration of the Swiss National Day. In the last six years, it has been an honor and privilege, excuse me, to be invited to both these events.

For the 2012 version, I had the same good old appetizers like the Bündnerfleisch (air-dried Grisons beef), Salsiz and the St. Galler Kalbsbratwurst (veal sausage of Saint Gall) with the Cervelat (Switzerland's National Sausage) served with Sauerkraut. The traditional cheese fondue (bread is dipped into a mixture of Emmentaler and Gruyère) is must, followed by the Raclette (melted with Electric Table-Top Grill) with potatoes.

This time, I tried the Liver Dumpling Soup (last year it was Bündner Gersten Suppe [barley soup]) followed by a sampling of the main courses; Poached Fish in Dill Sauce (my favorite dish!), Sliced Pork in Mushroom Sauce, Rippli and Boiled Beef, Spätzle, John Dory with White Wine Sauce and a tiny portion of that Roast Pork.

For desserts, my original plan was to sustain my diet with the consumption of fresh fruits only but the Apfelstrudel with Vanilla Sauce and the Zuger-Kirsch Torte were simply irresistible.