so nearly the end of january, and i've not written once. terrible! i've been back in brunswick for a bit over a week, but the craziness of school work has gotten the better of me. i guess that's hardly an excuse compared to jobs of the real world, but its the only excuse i have. :-) gravling, it seems, has also been extremely busy, and sadly our blog has gone by the wayside. i've been meaning to write since break though, because if anything, this past month has been truly eventful in the world of food.

my favorite discovery in zurich: lily's stomach supply

http://www.lilys.ch/index.php?id=13

the name sounds terrifying, and i've never really written about a restaurant before (except for the crazy pho experience in boston), but this place really deserves a comment. my father and i took a train from budapest to zurich as a little expedition. i'd never been before, and he hadn't been in about 30 years. (funny story about this later) the point is, on our arrival we didn't really know where to go. papa chen, being very much like me in the sense that food-related adventures are always a high priority, suggested that we take a look at guidebooks to switzerland to get an idea for the area. before we left budapest, we picked up a lonely planet guide to switzerland. i'm not here to advertise, but without this little book we surely wouldn't have found our way to lily's.

so when this little restaurant is about a 20 minute walk from the train station and is located in a slightly shabby looking building. papa and i found it without much difficulty, a corner building situated next to a turkish magazine shop. so why did we go there... books like the lonely planet guide have several kinds of reviews in them. some reviews are boring and negative - "this place is dingy and the food is gross. the people are mean, too." (ok i never read something that bad). then there is the ambivalent "its ok, but you can find places like this pretty much everywhere in the world." finally there is a review that really catches your eye. the review of lily's was one such review. even now without the book near me (i left it in budapestjulianna *hopefully* gets to zurich w/ivan they can find all the crazy places too!) i remember word for word what they said about lily's. described as "an upscale noodle bar environment," i was immediately attracted to the concept. in fact, gravling can testify that even before reaching switzerland i wrote to tell him that i'd found a very interesting-sounding place.

specializing in thai cuisine, lily's is (apparently) most popular among the hip college/post-college scene. ever too conscious of how i feel in strange places, i am happy to report that even in my travel-weary state i didn't feel at all out of place. in fact, it provided an optimal people-watching spot. as a side note, the food was also amazing. papa had vegetarian pad thai, while i had indian dal and rice. i must say, papa's dish was beautifully presented. as soon as i saw the presentation i began taking crazy notes on a paper napkin with the thought of writing about it here. :-) what follows (and i apologize for this being so long) is a paper napkin account of one of my favorite father/daughter restaurant adventures i've ever had...

"sitting in a moat of fragrant coriander sauce - mini tofu cubes, green onion, peppers next to a fluffy little mountain of white rice. chinese broccoli, bean sprouts... (papa's pad thai) the dal was well cooked and really spicy (a good thing!)... tasty chinese jasmine tea, served in a beautifully designed little metal kettle with red sugar chunks. (side note: i've never seen sugar like this before. i saved a piece of it, intending to bring it back for further geological evaluation but i think i left it at our hotel. eek!) my one big criticism was of the slightly soggy poppadom. i was slightly paranoid of the coriander yogurt sauce next to my dal, but it turned out to be nice and refreshing, much like raita... only a slight hint of the dairy origins." the place itself was also beautiful - "long wooden tables and benches, next to the windows were bar-height tables with stools that suspiciously exuded the aura of IKEA... the customers were all cheery though." i think this was half the fun for me.

anyway, i'm not doing justice to this place. the only way to get a sense is to actually go there. i tried to explain it to julianna but i think i failed pretty miserably. the part i think she would have most enjoyed was the bicycle delivery folk. on their gigantic messenger food-bags was written "lily's home delivery... take us away. wherever." the delivery girl looked a lot like my sister, so maybe that's why i thought it was so wonderful. a sprightly pig-tailed courier with yellow knee socks and a big smile. if you can picture this image, you've got a picture of the whole restaurant... if you ever end up in zurich, find your way to lily's. especially if you are traveling with your dad, it really makes the adventure that much more fun!

well, it is a new year. and, of course, that means all of those usual proclamations to do whatever not to make one a better person. blah blah, etc. i'll just lay out some facts:

i still love to cook.
flavi still loves to cook-
so those interests will coincide.

i constantly recruit new people (usually unintentionally) who want to cook with me,
so that means more fun evenings.

i have new cooking-type stuff- supplied by mon mere, of course,
so those will help me on my way to making tasty goodings for all.

i will say i'd like to improve my baking skills over the year, but that probably won't happen- i prefer to find those "i-love-to-bake-but-cannot-cook" types who will join up with me. the truly best dishes are created in the presence of friends, and the worst ones are made passable- like the infamous mish-mash flavi and i attempted to make before the decemberists concert- undoubtedly a disastrous dinner that was made OK (capital letters, even!) by the presence of the not so near, but dear. so, with this national changing-of-the-calendar week, i say lets off and make some food! flavi is hopping about somewhere in eastern europe for a while, and i am going to take this oppurtunity to get ahead on some quality blogging action.