The Cosmopolitan Blog

i guess u have to have been to Switzerland to appreciate Swiss food (yes, there’s more to it than fondue!), but for those in the know, this is the best type of comfort food there is!! On the other hand, if you’re someone that thinks vegetables are an essential part of an everyday diet, then you might want to give this one a miss…
Swiss food is mainly about the cheese (well, DUH!), and yes, generally, it’s melted, whether it’s in a pot for fondue, or in a puddle on a plate for raclette (see my post on the Raclette War).

So i went to Alpenhaus, on the corner of Ste Catherine and St Marc. From the outside, there is a feeble attempt at having the side of the building look like a Swiss chalet, but seeing that they’re right next to a scruffy-looking depaneur, there’s not much of hope of that being successful. Having said that, back in 1967, when the restaurant opened, this was probably a lot more noticeable.

But then, you walk in, and all thoughts of Montreal disappear. The decor is all wood logs, cute curtains, doilies, fireplaces, different little rooms, low ceilings, nooks and corners, hanging cowbells, men wearing funny looking pants and women wearing traditional Dirndls, their national dress. It sets the tone right away. And i liked it, it was a little over the top, but i had been missing the Swiss culture for so long without realizing it, that i felt like i was coming home! I was so excited to see the menu, it was a good 4-5 pages of traditional dish after dish, and i was trying to figure out a way i could order all of them. They have the Viande des Grisons: typical slices of dried beef with spices, they have palm hearts and artichoke hearts, they have Rösti potatoes (grated and fried potatoes, sometimes with cheese or onions), they have Wiener schnitzel (breaded veal escalope) and Geschnetzlets(veal in cream sauce), they have various sausages, lots of dishes with gruyere cheese or emmental cheese, and of course, all the various fondues. A note about raclette: they don’t have any, preferring not to serve it, rather than serving it wrong. Instead, they have a Croute au Fromage, which, i suppose, is a large plate of melted cheese. Apparently, when it’s the season, they even have a fish called “Goujon-Perche” (ruffle, in English).

I was so happy i was there with 5 other people, because i got to tell everyone what to order, and we all tried each others’ dishes. Maybe it was because i had been craving the food so badly, but every single dish was delicious. Swiss cuisine could never be described as fine and delicate, but again, it’s sooooo good.

The wine menu was extensive and expensive, but because they were some really good wines from the Swiss, French, Austrian and Italian regions. The have a great menu of imported beers as well. The deserts are highly recommended too, yep, they even have the apple strudel, and once you’ve done all of that, the only thing really left to do is curl up by the fire somewhere and fall asleep!!!

I’ve never seen Alpenhaus full, but i definitely think it’s one of the undiscovered wonders of Montreal, i highly recommend it, and I encourage you to try it, you won’t be disappointed.

You can find their menu and pictures on their website: http://www.restaurantalpenhaus.com/

I’ve lived in Switzerland for many years, and I truly believe that if there is a heaven, that’s what it looks like (ok, minus the city of Zurich, there’s nothing heavenly about it), but the rest, the mountains, the lakes, the snow, the quaint little villages and chalets, the trains, the chocolates, the watches (actually, i don’t think there’s watches in heaven…)

Two of the most famous dishes in Switzerland are Fondue and Raclette, the first is the most popular, but i’ve always preferred the latter.

So now here i am in Montreal, a city with some of the most amazing restaurants, and i am pleasantly surprised to find that there are a lot of restaurants that serve Fondue, and they’re pretty close to those found in Switzerland, there’s the cheese ones, the Chinese one where you cook your own meat, the chocolate ones… So, after a few years of innocently enjoying swiss fondues in montreal in a couple of great restaurants, one day, I suddenly decided to actually read the menu, and to my amazement, i find that they serve raclette too!

Side note, at this point, I have to explain what my expectations were, by telling you what a swiss raclette is. So, imagine this really, really big round cheese that you cut in half, and the “open” side, you stick under a special raclette grill. The inside part starts melting and bubbling, and then, the chef (well, this is the swiss version of a barbecue, so in switzerland, it would just be the dad of the house probably) scrapes off the melting part that falls like a little puddle into your plate. You put a few little boiled new potatoes on the plate, as well as a few of those tiny little green pickles and tiny round white pickled onions, and you eat it by drapping your cheese over your potatoes. The puddle of cheese that had landed on your plate was little, because, just like a barbecue, the point is that you are supposed to keep going back for more, i’ve seen people go back 15+ times. Also, no good swiss host would go without telling you that you should only eat this while accompanied with a good swiss or german white wine, and to never, never gulp down large amounts of iced water, because with all the melted cheese in your tummy, it probably won’t be pretty sight later on…
So raclette is a very social thing in Switzerland, and even if it’s served in a restaurant, usually, they have the raclette machine, it always upholds the tradition of getting up and being served the next “puddle”, and it always comes with potatoes, pickles and onions…

So, back in Canada, here I am, waiting for my raclette, wondering where it is i have to go to get my next portion… and then this HUGE plate is brought in front of me… And it’s completely covered from edge to edge with thick melted cheese that seems to be drapped over something, and after investigation, i find that it’s creamy sliced potatoes, meat, mushrooms and a lot of other stuff, i think there may even have been a vegetable or two… and there’s definitely no puddle, it’s more like one entire industrial-size cheese on a plate! The problem you ask? Well, after 5 minutes of slowly working through this mass of cheese, it’s really no longer light and melted… and with all the meat and cream, i’m feeling sick and i’m not even 1/4 of the way through…

I thought maybe it was someone in the kitchen getting creative, but when i asked a work colleague the next day, he said, yes, that’s what raclette is… *sigh* So it appears that raclette means different things to different people… Raclette “à la Suisse” is definitely one of my guilty pleasures, the Canadian version on the other hand, hmmm… well… ’nuff said!

My mom is french, so French is my mother tongue. But I grew up in London, so by the age of 4, i knew both languages, my parents had made sure of it. For many years after that, I was told how lucky I was to fluently speak 2 languages, and how it’s an advantage because it helps in a child’s development and in her abiliity to learn more languages more quickly later on in life. So do Montrealers know how lucky they are? By its very history and location, Montreal is a fully bilingual city.

For those of you who don’t know, Canada has 2 official languages, English and French. English is predominent in most of the provinces in the West, all the way to East to Ontario. Quebec province is mainly french, but, Montreal, even though it’s in Quebec, is also a few kms away from Ontario, so both languages are common.

Sure, the city has a french side and an english side, but you can speak either language in either side and you will be understood. What’s amazing (my friends in the States and in Toronto still don’t believe me on this one), is that you can live in Montreal very comfortably even if you only know one of the 2 languages. All shopowners, taxi and bus drivers, business owners, everyone is bilingual. All products, restaurant menus, official paperwork, everything is written in both languages. There are parts of NDG and Westmount (areas of Montreal), where you have to search to find the french speaker, and there are still areas in Old Montreal and in the East where a shop owner will answer you in french even if you spoke to him in English, for sure, but that’s not the norm.

So, seriously, do they know how lucky they are? I don’t think so. The fact that my friends who live 3 states away in Massachussets or even those who live in the same country (in Toronto, in the neighboring province!) don’t know this, to me, means that Montreal, in it’s advertising, reputation and history does not count this as an advantage, or something to brag about. Unfortunately, I feel that language is this city is always used as a political argument or weapon (long story, i won’t get into the politics in this post), it’s always like a competition, it’s always a cause for controversy (such as deciding which school you can go to depending on the main language of your parents or where you were born).

Somehow, in Montreal, you’re constantly having to pick sides, you’re either an Anglophone or a Francophone… WHY??? I mean, sure, assert your identity and claim your preferred method of communication. Absolutely. But once you’re done with that, be proud of living in a city where there is a 2nd important language, embrace your differences!

Did no one every explain to you that 1+1=2 (and even sometimes 3: the concept of synergy, that together 2 things can have a greater effect that if they were separate, i.e. where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts)?

I don’t care how separatist you feel, surely no one can deny that having 2 languages (and thus 2 cultures) is a benefit. No, it doesn’t not mean that one will swallow the other, if you play it smart, if you value each other, your differences and your similarities. It was a benefit to me to learn 2 languages as a child, it’s a benefit today still to have Montrealer kids learn both languages, it’s a skill that will help them in their lives later on. Learning to live with someone who doesn’t speak the same language, that doesn’t have the same culture, learning this without having to leave your own city, that is priceless.

So, Montrealers, do you know how good you have it????

My closest and dearest friends are those that challenge me and challenge my beliefs… I find that by having to justify with people who are in the know and who can play devil’s advocate, is actually the best way to find out what you truly believe in.

I don’t even know how we got on the topic, but a friend of mine, this morning, challenged my pacifism… It was a great discussion… I’m a pragmatic pacifist, that means I don’t believe in violence, i don’t think it will ever be the answer… but, and yes, there’s a but, there are situations where you can’t avoid it… so is being a pragmatic pacifist, a cop-out? no, it’s just realistic.

I believe that war is never the answer, EVER! but i also believe that once a war has started, you have the right to defend yourself and stop those who, otherwise, would continue to do harm. Concrete example, I believe that the only way to deal with Hitler was to kill him and I believe that each country invaded by the Germans and Russians had a right to defend themselves and get their country back. I don’t believe that peace negotiations would have worked at that point, and if we are unfortunate to have psychopaths like Hitler and Saddam Hussein at the head of a country, force is the only way to get rid of them… And yes, that might be violence, but compared to the violence that would continue if they weren’t removed from their position, it’s the solution with the least amount of casualties.

The problem, of course, is where is the line? When is it ok to use violence and when isn’t it? I mean, it’s a slippery slope, right? Technically, then, Islamists would be right to use terrorism in order to send the message that the USA should stop causing casualties in countries like Iraq, right? Wrong. Wrong, because we all know that no matter how many western civilians die in terrorist attacks, no matter how many US troups and Iraqi civilians die, the government will not get out of Iraq, because now, it’s about prooving something, it’s about prooving that our way is the better way and that a democracy MUST be set up in Iraq… pppfff… but that’s another topic altogher…

So, no, I don’t think that my version (well, it’s not just mine, i mean, it’s in Wikipedia, so it’s gotta be real, right ?) of pacifism is a cop-out, i think it’s a realistic version of an ideal concept.
But that’s just me. What do you think?

shallow moment no1: i have to say this… Madonna RAWKS! She just performed at Wembley Stadium for the Live Earth concert… the woman is insanely hot, seriously! She is sooo fit, and she danced and sang better and with more energy than the young teenagers out there, i mean this lady is 50 years old and she is sooo healthy, you know, it’s not the skinny type, but just the cardio-fit, toned type…

ok, i’ll stop commenting on women’s bodies now before i freak myself out, but seriously, Madonna? THAT’S HOT!

ok, so I’m a pretty deep emotional person… but sometimes, i can be completely and utterly shallow… I think shallow is good for the soul sometimes. I love gossip, fashion mags and celeb news, and this blog wouldn’t be true it it didn’t reflect all aspects of who i was… so here’s me, shallow…

i’m thinking the posts in this category will probably be relatively short

…Story found on digg.com…

The “old power” is in for a rough ride in these days, just like when Mahatma Gandhi started with non-cooperation and peaceful resistance some 60 years ago. I believe that if Mahatma Gandhi was alive today he’d be running a small startup focusing on Open Source Ajax and he’d be going WORLD WIDE!

read more | digg story

I’ve lived in many places in my life, as I will surely discuss as I develop this blog… But I was so impressed when I arrived in Canada. On the global awareness scale, Canada is way up there. They recycle like it’s 2nd nature…

I haven’t lived in london in a looong time, but I was in New York until 2004, and I can tell you, neither of these cities came close.

At work, you should see the kitchen. We have all the different recycling containers, and there’s a rotation as to who takes them to be recycled. Yes, it’s true, even the high-powered execs of my office can be seen, in turn, leaving the office with trash bags filled with stuff for recycling and they take it to the nearest center. Everyone prints double-sided like there’s no other way to do it, people don’t waste water, take their own mugs down to the coffee shop to avoid being served in styrofoam cups, all our computer monitors are LCD with automatic switch-off…

Whether it’s the clubs I’m part of, or the friends’ houses I go to, lights are switched off everything a room is left. Everyone has the different recycling boxes (or makeshift piles).

Montreal is one of the largest biking cities… Everyone bikes here. For fun, to commute… People walk (like in New York), from one end of the city to the other.

Maybe it’s really true… maybe we can shift mindsets in one generation…

“Be the change you wish to see in this world”
- Mahatma Gandhi (who?)

Today is the LiveEarth concert. And I was doubtful what benefits could really come out of it… So I started watching, and was pleasantly surprised to see what was being done, even at the concerts themselves: all drinking cups were made from corn (not sure the name of these), the stage was decorated with only recycled materials (tires in NY, barrels in London) and a lot more… And then the commercials, 90% of which (at least here in Canada) were related to global warming, including easy to do useful tips…

At the beginning, I was annoyed by the fact that each singer / celeb would keep repeating “every little thing helps”, because, well, I felt like it was just empty worlds. So I went to liveearth.msn.com and read up and was amazed by how easy it was to make a difference. I mean, yes, I knew of most of the tips (you know, don’t run the dishwasher until it’s full, switch the lights off when you leave the room), but what I didn’t know was the numbers. How much I’m actually helping. By committing to changing 10 bulbs to energy-saving ones, I would be avoiding 3,608 kgs of carbon gas from polluting my world, which is like planting 92 trees. 92 trees!!! that’s huge!

So here’s what I think is the minimum anyone can do:

• when you only buy 1-2 items from the store, when the clerk asks you if you want a bag, say no! but it in your purse.
• When going grocery shopping, demand paper bags, or better yet, bring your own clothes bags
• At home, if you have a computer, chances are, you have all the different power wires plugged into a power bar. Well, when you’re done with your PC, don’t just turn off the monitor (which is the bare minimum), don’t just turn off your PC, actually bend down and switch off the power bar. This is what i did. I have a PC and a laptop at home. And so I switched the PC off (cuz I’m using the laptop) and then turned the power bar off. Of course, then, my wireless rounter turned off, hehehe, I forgot i need it for my latop. So I took the trouble to reorganize my cables, so that the network router was in a wall plug and was the only appliance left on.
• Don’t leave the TV on when you;re not in the room (my biggest fault)
• It’s summer, it’s hot sometimes, I know, but go easy on the AC if you have it. Turn it off as soon as it cools down in the evenings, or even better, in the morning, close your blinds and curtains to keep the room cool… Unless you’re currently experiencing a heat wave in your city/country, there is NO reason why your AC should be on during the night.
• At work, I’m lucky I work in a tech firm, so everything is top of line, energy-saving, but you can also contribute: print double-sided, and if you’re like me and need little pads of paper to write notes down, go to the recycled bin and pick up sheets that were only printed on one side, and use the other side for notes (or even cut it up in 4 squares, do a lot of them and staple together, and you have a makeshift notepad).
• Everytime you take the subway or the bus instead of your car, you’re saving the planet. Seriously, think about it, it’s summer, go out and walk or bike.

Go to liveearth.msn.com and pick your country. There are a ton of things you can do to make a difference, right here and now, in your own house, it won’t cost you a cent more (chances are it will save you quite a few too). Take the pledge, commit to change, take it seriously. You live in this world too, make it better for other, for you kids, your nieces and nephews, for your grandkids… why would you leave them with the consequences of what you DIDN’T do???

If you happen to be reading this post, leave me a comment and tell me 1 thing you did today that was environmentally-friendly. If you can’t think of one, then write me a comment and commit to 1, right here, right now!

ok, I’ll stop preaching now! Enjoy yourself! Go out and take a walk… Or watch the Life Earth Concert!

ok, so i’m usually really good at understanding the latest technology concepts, why is is that i don’t get the concept of a trackback in a blog???? so here’s me testing this live.

STEP 1: I’m surfing around, and I find something really interesting on someone’s website, and I want to write about it in my own blog.

STEP 2: I go to my own blog right here and write something like I’m doing now:

“hey! you guys should read this great post called “Numbers Declining” on my friend’s blog: http://www.derekandsonja.ca/blog/?p=32“.

Note: The URL I’m giving here is the post’s unique link, also known as a permalink.

STEP 3: Before I submit this post (I leave the window open), in a separate window, I go back to my friend’s site, find that post, and click on the “Trackback” link that resides right under each individual post. The Trackback URL is different from the post’s permalink URL listed above, generally, it includes the world “trackback”. I copy this trackback URL into my clipboard (Ctrl+C).

STEP 4: I go back to my post that I’m writing, and in the field called “URLs to Ping” or “Send Trackbacks to”, I paste the trackback URL.

STEP 5: I publish my post.

STEP 6: If I go back to the post in question (http://www.derekandsonja.ca/blog/?p=32), I will see (depending on the blog software), that there is a (1) next to the word Trackback now (meaning there is 1 trackback to this site), in addition, there is now an extra comment on that post, with an excerpt of my post here on The Cosmopolitan Blog. To read the full comment, readers would click on the “more” and end up right here, on this blog. It’s magic!!!

Still confused? Did I confuse you even more? Illustrations help Check out this site: http://cruftbox.com/cruft/docs/trackback.html