Friday, February 13, 2015

What You Never Thought You'd Miss about Switzerland

Here’s something The Frau thought she’d never miss about Switzerland: mold.

And yet there it is, yodelers. About four months into her American Experiment, The Frau misses mold.

Will those strawberries go bad before you can eat them?
That depends. Which country did you buy them in?
Mainly, she misses it in her refrigerator. Does this make any sense? The Frau doesn’t know. But somehow she finds herself nostalgic for those Swiss strawberries that used to go bad five minutes after she bought them. Well, ok maybe not those. More like the ones that molded after 24 hours. Mold was like proof that they were the real deal fruit product, oder?

The Frau also misses bread that hardens in a day. Even freshly made bread in America doesn’t get stale in a day. This perplexes The Frau.

The Frau also misses being able to buy a ripe banana. (And also being able to weigh this ripe banana and put a price sticker on it BEFORE purchasing it so that when Toddler M is begging for a banana while still being held hostage in the shopping cart she can eat it without this whole process being considered stealing later.)

But in general, here’s the thing that scares The Frau about America. The food here doesn’t go bad. She buys a nice batch of fresh cilantro on Sunday and it’s fine to use the following Saturday. It’s also usually still good the following Saturday after that. This kind of concept just does not exist in Switzerland.

Now. On one hand, it’s great. The Frau only needs to shop for food once a week in America and she saves a lot of money not having to rebuy produce that has molded before she intended to use it. In Switzerland, she went to the grocery store at least every other day and only bought for meals about one or two days in advance.

But on the other hand, it’s frightening. What the heck do they do to American food that they don’t do to Swiss food? Buy normal food or buy organic, no matter which version you choose, it still lasts longer in the U.S.

So. The Frau may not last long in the U.S. for fear of the consequences.

Anyone else love their Swiss mold?


SnacksGiving said...

Oh yes, I did miss this mold when I was away from Switzerland for a few years. Blueberries would last for 3 weeks, no problem! But here I need to eat it the same day, or maximum the following day, else it will go to the bin.
What do they do to the food in the US? Let the Food babe tell you.

Charlotte said...

The organic stuff from the local Farmer's Market has a pretty good lifespan in the frig - at least half a week - in California.

Chantal said...

Food Babe, merci vielmal.

Charlotte, you are right, the stuff from the farmer's market does seem to go bad faster than the rest. But it still lasts half a week longer than The Frau is used to!

Mohrenkopf said...

Just a few keywords: loads and loads of preservatives, antibiotics, megatons of pesticides since decades, growth hormones as a standard, thousands of and often undeclared food additives, genetically modified food, organic does equal to organic, lack of law on food labeling requirements (!), the industrialized food of animals, extremely powerful food lobby, too weak consumers, to badly educated consumers/citizen, lack of a critical attitude since it seemingly contradicts the strongly rooted so-called american culture (a term like 'politically correctness‘ being misused to keep the riffraff shut up), a streamlined media (especially TV shows and movies) and misused as a propaganda machinery, illusion of an independent press, a public who believes almost everything if the subject is just accordingly "funnily" enough broadcasted, focused on money instead on quality, cheap is x times higher valued than healthy, quality is only wrapping/marketing, illiteracy and silence is the magic wand of a very small, but extremely rich ruling party, an artificially frightened public, an initially very strong concept from past periods that has gone terminally ill: democracy ...

a „translation“ is not a translation! Read and understand(!) the german part (as hard as it can be)!

Help us! ... and you.

woollythinker said...

I do love food that behaves like food! It's actually the Migros XL sandwich loaf that freaks me out – we accidentally left half a loaf in the cupboard before going on holiday for 3.5 weeks, and when we came back, it was *just the same*.

Regarding the banana problem: will nothing but a banana do? In London I used to give my toddler grapes (from a single-price punnet, not a weighed bag) or torn ends of baguette.

Jennifer @ This Off Script Life said...

It's true. After I had been living in Switzerland for about a year, I stopped asking "Why does the food spoil so quickly here?" and started asking "Why doesn't the food spoil as quickly in the U.S.?" I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that second question.

Chantal said...

Mohrenkopf, your terms scare The Frau. Agree with almost all of them.

woollythinker, Migros XL sandwich sounds frightfully American. And no, sadly nothing but a banana will do. Toddler M is Toddler M in that way. But grapes are a good idea. Except…hmmm if they are unwashed…

Jennifer, what can we do besides not eat?

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Sarah Saad said...

شركة تنظيف خزانات بجدة
شركة مكافحة حشرات بالدمام
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good days said...

افضل شركة تنظيف منازل بالمدينة المنورة شركة تنظيف منازل بالمدينة المنورة
شركة غسيل خزانات بالمدينة المنورة شركة تنظيف خزانات بالمدينة المنورة
بمكة شركة غسيل خزانات بمكة
افضل شركة رش مبيدات بالمدينة المنورة

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ahmed said...

مؤسسة مكافحة حشرات بالجبيل تقدم خدماتها المتكاملة والمتميزة في ميدان القضاء علي الحشرات وابادة جميع انواعها نهائيا ، فالشركة تحاول إلى القضاء على جميع أشكال الحشرات الزاحفة والطائرة كليهما خاصة النمل الابيض نشتهر بأننا افضل مؤسسة مكافحة النمل الابيض بالجبيل.
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