plate 28: switzerland

The lovely G'Baby - AKA Gaby - is one of my oldest friends and, conveniently for the purposes of Destination Degustation, half Swiss. So, this week's journey took me to Switzerland: the land of cheese and chocolate. Oh what a joyous land it is.

When I consulted G'Baby for what I should cook, her immediate answer was raclette. This is a type of Swiss cheese (complete with those cute holes) that melts to bubbling, golden perfection when placed on a mini saucepan and cooked under a raclette - an electric tabletop cooker that shares its name with the cheese.

Normally when I'm having people over for dinner, I'm running around the kitchen like a crazy person, all stress and swearing, but this one was ridiculously easy. I felt like I was cheating, but that's the beauty of hosting a raclette party - you pretty much do nothing! All you have to do is slice the raclette cheese (which G'Baby's mum Vero kindly ordered for me from her favourite raclette supplier), boil some baby potatoes and put them on a plate with cornichons (baby cucumbers) and deliciously sweet, vinegary cocktail onions, then bring the raclette to the table and cook it right there.

We used Vero's retro raclette (which featured a rather disturbing silhouette image of a man in a wheelchair), but I've found this site where you can order a raclette cooker so you can have happy fun raclette times whenever you fancy. Our party almost didn't happen though as the power plug was European. Thankfully guest Nick is a sparky and was successfully able to transform it to fit the Australian powerpoint. Phew. Here he is in all his Mr Fix-It glory.

If my description of how the raclette works isn't totally clear, we videoed the wonderfully presentable G'Baby to give us a little demonstration. Take it away G'Baby.

After consuming 1.2kg of cheese, we needed a (slight) break before desserting, head on into a bowl of warm, smooth, delectable chocolate. The Lindt tasting at the supermarket confirmed the best to use for the vanilla chocolate fondue was their 50% cocoa - a superb mix of milk and dark chocolate. What better way to end a cheese feast than by smothering strawberries into chocolate. Hail Switzerland.