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Trippiest Dinner EVER!
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Author:  marygott [ Tue Feb 05, 2013 4:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Trippiest Dinner EVER!

Last Friday, we went to a couple friends to this place:
http://www.stefanwiesner.ch/
Watch the video and then go to the English site. He has one Michelin star and 17 Gault-Millau points. He does a modernist approach to local cuisine in this tiny village between Luzern and Bern, the back woods of Switzerland. It is about an hour drive from our house so did an arrangement where we would be driven to a farm house to spend the night.
The meal was all based on the theme "Cow on the Edge of the Woods". The chef, Stefan, came out to describe each course and his philosophy behind each course in flowery terms. Luckily we got a double sided paper with a description of what we ate at the end of he evening. I won't put everything down but to give you an idea:

The first course was served in a cow horn on a slab of juniper wood. It also came with a sieve full of hay. You were instructed to hold the sieve over a glass and they poured a beef and snow water broth over it. On that same tiny branch was a cream cheese with seeds, skim milk foam, snow flavored with juniper extract, juniper needles and salt, a chip made of blood sausage and cinnamon, wheat grass, caramelized milk, juniper molasses and pulverized milk.

Other highlights was the apple themed course, served on a piece of apple wood that had a metal tree on it with all sorts of little bits on the tree including an apple blossom sprout. Chopped beef heart on a potato-wild mushroom puree stuck all over with things like potato skins with sumac, potatoes cooked in red pine broth and some kind of fried stuff that grows on red pine all served in a hollowed out piece of red pine. In the middle of it they served a tiny chocolate cake with Jerusalem artichoke "noodles" that tasted oddly sauerkraut-like and then jumped into a course that featured veal filet that had been smoked in fermented grass then poached and glazed with bee pollen, honey and beeswax. There were also sweetbreads and veal tail filled choux pastry in that course. Dessert was an ice cream made of orange juice, orange liquor and butter on a blood orange sauce. There were also some other things made of milk and sugar beets. This was all served on a piece of slate from the old roof of the local church. And then came an amazing little cake made of white chocolate, fleur de sel and dried and ground cow milk.

After this, we were driven by one Fr. Wickey high into the mountains, up skinny windy roads to her farm house. This family has 10 milk cows, some rabbits and turkeys. They supplement their income by renting rooms. Breakfast was homemade bread, local cheese and home made jellies (which she also sells, I bought the very delicious pumpkin apple cider butter). We also woke to about a foot of fresh snow which made the trip down rather exciting. For us, Fr. Wickey was fine. We also found out that her brother-in-law is my cheese guy, which really drew us all together.

Not the best tasting food I ever had but an amazing experience. For me anyway. My husband was less enthusiastic, especially after he saw the bill (ouch).

Mary

Author:  auntcy1 [ Tue Feb 05, 2013 5:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trippiest Dinner EVER!

Sounds like a fantastic and memorable adventure Mary!!!

Author:  BeckyH [ Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trippiest Dinner EVER!

See, I want to be more amazed by how good all of the food was than by the thought processes of the chef as s/he conceived it. When they add just one more thing, to make it cleave more closely to the concept I get tired. And with the labor involved it has to cost an arm and a leg. But I am glad you enjoyed your adventure.

Author:  marygott [ Wed Feb 06, 2013 11:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Trippiest Dinner EVER!

The food was very good but it you had to be into the concept/artsy aspect too. It is a once in a blue moon kind of thing though (even if I had all that extra money sitting around). I think I was even more fascinated by the farmers than the restaurant though.

Author:  Amy [ Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trippiest Dinner EVER!

Way cool...when I come, we must go.

Amy

Author:  marygott [ Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trippiest Dinner EVER!

That would be great. Save your pennies.

Mary

Author:  TheFuzzy [ Wed Feb 06, 2013 11:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trippiest Dinner EVER!

Mary,

Thanks for posting that, it was fun to read about. More fun, I suspect, than it was to eat ...

Author:  ivy [ Sun Feb 10, 2013 4:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trippiest Dinner EVER!

Seems like you ate during the most appetizing season, given the youtube video. At times I thought I was watching an episode of Survivor Man. Oh boy, what an experience. If it's not too gauche to ask, how much did it set you back?

Author:  marygott [ Sun Feb 10, 2013 6:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trippiest Dinner EVER!

I was pretty glad it was not ant season but I found out they only collected some gas from the ant hill to tenderize meat. Boeuf a la Ant Fart. You may ask, but sit down first. Dinner for 4 with 2 bottles of wine, coffee and schnapps... about 1,000 bucks. Hot dogs and noodles for the rest of the month.

Mary

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