Saturday, January 31, 2009

Tibits in Basel and Hiltl in Zürich



Finally I get around to writing a new post! I have just recently moved to Switzerland to start my first job post-university. The funny thing is that towards the end of my master's program I started wondering: "Hm, should I look for work in the US or in Germany? US or Germany? US or Germany?" And now, as fate would have it, I am in Switzerland! That pretty much took care of the tough decision of choosing one of my home countries over the other (although I had been leaning towards Germany...). Now I have a new home country. Two weeks ago I went to a conference in Frankfurt, Germany, and surprised myself by looking forward to going home--home being Switzerland. 

Before I even moved to Basel I started checking out its restaurants online. I had never been to Basel save the two job interviews I went to for my new job. The first restaurant I looked up was Hiltl, my favorite vegetarian restaurant in Zürich (and one of my favorite restaurants in the world!). I thought maybe they would have a branch here, but they don't. However, they do have a branch of the Hiltl-owned Tibits. Hiltl has a neat concept in that you can choose between a menu and a vast buffet. At Tibits you only have a smaller buffet and other ready-to-eat foods to choose from, such as sandwiches and pastries. Tibits is pretty good, but Hiltl is better. The photo at the top of this post is from a lunch at Tibits. One of my favorite buffet items are the fried breaded jalapeños filled with cream cheese. Mmhmm! My favorite drink is probably the hot chocolate, although the mango lassi dusted with garam masala (see photo above) was also pretty good. 

Below are photos from a dinner at Hiltl in October last year. The first dish is the fall vegetable platter with spelt Spätzle, mushrooms in cream sauce, sauerkraut, brussels sprouts, chestnuts and stewed pears. The second dish is a selection of curries and I can't remember exactly what the third dish is. I think it is also a curry of some sort. For dessert we shared the lovely brownie with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce. Mmmmmm! Hiltl also has a wide selection of freshly squeezed juices that are really tasty. Another good thing about Hiltl is that they also have vegan dishes for those who don't eat any animal protein. I sometimes wish they offered meat because I'm sure they would come up with some really tasty meat dishes, but that is not part of their concept.