While the winter season in the United States is welcomed by trick-or-treating and family gatherings around roast turkey, my memories growing up in Switzerland are defined by delicious broiled cheese, where winter’s arrival is commemorated by raclette and fondue – think Heidi and her grandfather’s old chalet high in the snow covered Swiss Alps. Restaurants like The Melting Pot have popularized fondue, however raclette remains relatively unknown outside of France and Switzerland. Wanting to share this fun seasonal tradition, we began hosting raclette parties several years back, to rave reviews from our US friends. If like us, you love spending an evening laughing with…
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Continue ReadingHaving lived in Boston for over a decade, we make a point of returning to the historic city every other year. During these visits, most of our time is spent in the suburbs. However, this year we chose to end the trip with a day in the city, sharing its beauty and history with our two young boys. With only a day to explore, we had to pick and choose from all that the city has to offer. Thankfully, knowing that we’ll be back helped temper our fear of missing out. Following is how we chose to spend the day.…
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Continue ReadingNew York — the big apple, the great American melting pot, the city that never sleeps. Spending three days in a place as large and diverse as New York City can feel overwhelming. How do you choose where to eat, what to do? In an effort to tackle this conundrum for our recent weekend stay, we chose to limit our activities to a small area of Manhattan — Midtown, the Theater District, and Central Park (map). This meant postponing our visits to Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn, the Comedy Cellar in the Village, or the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan. The…
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Continue ReadingIn the early dawns of the 1920s, the boy sat watching attentively as his father skillfully butchered a whole beef. Year after year he handled the knife, running it smoothly between the muscles, along the bone, and through the sinew. It was an art, one that the boy, my grandfather, would later credit as his inspiration for becoming a surgeon. The role of town butcher was preserved for generations until the 1980’s, when Elliott’s Grocery and its butcher closed shop, succumbing to the industrialization of the American food system. What happened to Elliott’s has been repeated time and again across…