Of food and such

Having left off with mean things, I feel a bit obligated to say some nice things first.

+ The kebab here is fan-freakin-tastic. For those who haven't explored this part of Europe before, it's not quite the same as kebab in the U.S. They take a large slab of meat, either chicken or lamb/beef, skewer the whole thing on a stick, and rotate it in front of a hot surface to slowly cook it for several hours. The meat turns out tender and super juicy. They then shave off super thin strips, serve it on a giant fresh roll, and then top it with various delicious toppings and sauces. Also, it's cheap, one of the only foods here that is (more on this later). I could get use to eating it a lot. Perhaps a few weeks from now I'll be posting that I've eaten so much kebab that I'm sick of it and never want to see it again, but I doubt it.

+ One more little thing, this morning on the walk to my bus stop, I turned around and there was snow on the mountains. It was not only a beautiful view, but something that completely caught me off guard considering it's June. I wish I had my camera so I could post a pic, but it was too cloudy to get one when I got back home. I'll be ready for it next time though.


Ok, now back to the angry rants:

-/+ I believe I had started on the cafeteria last time. I have some nice things to say about it, but it certainly has it's flaws. I already mentioned the staff, so now I'll go on about the food. First let me start with the beverages. Usually when I have a beverage with my lunch, I try to go with the healthy option, but I would prefer something with a little more flavor than water. Any sort of fruit juice is perfect. It is important that I have enough though. Usually a ~16 oz bottle or glass will do the trick. At CERN, all the good stuff comes in either juice boxes or bottles the size of juice boxes. Also, they're not refrigerated, so they're luke warm. Even the milk only comes in warm and way too warm. When it's 90 degrees out and I come by for lunch, I need something cold, and a lot of it. They don't have ice readily available either, and if they do there is already so little liquid that it will taste super watery by the time the ice has any effect. This has made me realize that I have taken fountain drinks for granted. Think about it, you can take a glass as big as you want, fill it up as much as you want (with already cold beverage!), add as much ice you want (for even colder beverage!), and to top it all off, you get a free refill (in most places anyway). If I could get a free refill on any of the drinks here, there wouldn't really be much to complain about, but for every 8 oz of liquid you have to drop almost $2.00, and even more for the "finer" drinks. This goes not only for the cafeteria, but pretty much all restaurants around here. When eating out I typically go for water so as to  not burn a whole in my wallet, but whatever you do, MAKE SURE YOU SPECIFY TAP WATER! I made this mistake last year and got stuck paying $6 for a glass of fancy water. It wasn't even sparkling water or anything like that, just extra clean or something. This is about to bring me back to the expensive restaurant issue again, so before I digress, let me get back to the cafeteria.

The actual taste of the drinks though isn't bad. There's this stuff, hohes C (which I'm pretty translates to Hi C, but is actually very different), I could drink it every meal of the day. It's basically a mix of various fruit juices, mostly citrus, forming the perfect fruity combination. It only comes in juice boxes, with a straw that is way too small for some reason, but each drop makes me that much happier. Sometimes I will get one for lunch, and then get two more afterwards from the vending machine for a snack. This does drop me back $5 though, so I try to resist when I can.

I have less to complain about regarding the food in general than the drinks, but it still could improve. The sandwiches in particular are a huge disappointment. Normally cafeterias allow to make your own, or at least customize your order and someone else makes in front of you. Here everything is pre-made and pre-wrapped, and not much is included. The baguette they use for the bread is decent, but the toppings are super scarce. The last sandwich I got there consisted of the bread, a single layer of ham, and a single pickle slice. That cost me about $7. They're also real funny about the pizza. You can't get it by the slice, you have to order the entire thing (probably between small and medium if you go by dominos standards). It tastes ok, but sometimes this is too much for one sitting. They don't really have take-out or to-go options, so you have to either over-stuff yourself or let it go to waste. The toppings also vary from day to day. Sometimes they'll have something normal like pepperoni, but there's an equal chance that the flavor of the day is tunafish, or something equally bizarre. The salad bar is alright. A lot of the stuff is unrecognizable (and probably unpronouncable) European cuisine, but I usually just get typical items. If you get there early enough, they might even have some cold cuts. The hot food varies from day to day. Some of my personal favorites include the kebab and the fish sticks, which are probably the only two things that I will wait in the 20-minute line for. Also, the fries are quite good. Usually I'll go with the simpler (read "recognizable") foods to be safe. Every once in a while you just get totally screwed over. Sometimes the only thing close to decent being served is meat with 90% of the fat still on it. Those are the days I stick to the salad bar, assuming I get there early enough to grab the good items.

Let me note that all my comments regarding the cafeteria thus far have been about lunch. Dinner there is significantly worse, they just serve the leftovers from lunch that day, and I'm pretty sure the leftovers from dinner(s) before that. Most of the food is either near or past its expiration. They will cook some more hot food, but it's the stuff that doesn't get finished at lunch, so usually the 90% fatty meat, or pasta if you're lucky. It also costs just as much as lunch. I wouldn't want to eat dinner there unless I absolutely had to stay late or it was my last resort.

-Now, onto my own kitchen. It certainly nice to even have this, though there is certainly some interesting choices regarding appliances and utensils.

Exhibit A:

 If you can't gauge the size of the fridge from this picture, it is the size of a mini fridge, with an even smaller mini freezer on top. Normally when you think of a mini fridge, you think of a device that college kids use to store beer for their parties. Fortunately, for me and my roommates, my demand for beer has gone down a bit since college. Unfortunately, there is still a bit of a space issue. In my apartment in New Haven, I have 2 roommates and a full sized fridge, and even then fridge space can be tight. With this I have no idea how we're going to get by. I suppose we can change our diets to exclusively party beer, but my body would probably not appreciate that after a while. I guess we'll just have to buy 2 days worth of food at a time and go grocery shopping every other day (Actually, this won't work, more on this later).  The sad thing is, I don't think the small fridge is exclusive to the apartment. Last year, when my adviser invited me over for dinner, even her place had the mini fridge. I guess food that isn't cold is just a common theme in Switzerland.

Exhibit B:

Here is the largest glass available in my kitchen. For size comparison, I have placed it next to my phone. As you can see, the phone is taller. and wider. Basically, the glass is smaller than a cocktail glass. That means that if I want to make myself a cocktail, I have to make about half, finish that half, and then make the rest. Even for everyday uses it gets rather ridiculous. The other day at breakfast I had to refill my glass 3 times before I had enough to wash down my food. It also doesn't make a good beer glass. As some may know, drinking beer out of a glass is better than drinking out of a bottle because you get to experience the aroma in addition to the taste. When you have to refill every two sips, it really just isn't worth it anymore. As I mentioned, this is the LARGEST glass in the kitchen, meaning that there are others. The "coffee" cups are no larger than shot glasses. I personally am not a huge coffee person, but for those who are, I guess doing multiple shots each morning is how they're going to start their day.

Exhibit C:

This is the standard spoon we have. As you can see, it spans nearly the palm of my hand. This is not always a bad thing. For one thing, I can finish my cereal a lot faster than before. It's not very practical in all situations though. With yogurt, for example, the spoon can barely fit in the cup. I have to use the other spoon, the one used for stirring coffee in the shot glass. This makes eating yogurt a laborious chore that takes forever. Hopefully over time I will be able to find the right balance between the two.

Well, if you've read this far, you should now exactly what it's like to eat at CERN, and a little of what it's like to have a kitchen in Switzerland. Next time, I'll get to the points that I left open-ended today, and hopefully some new stuff as well.