Bern is the capital of Switzerland and is roughly half way between Zurich (money!) and Geneva (self-important, overpaid bureaucrats…). Since I’m on my way to Lake Geneva, I thought I’d stop over and check out this UNESCO World heritage city.
The figures on top of the Parliament building
The building looks like a concert hall, not a hall of politicians!
BTW, “rathaus” means “town hall”. If they only knew how easily that would apply to San Francisco City Hall!
The famous clock…
With the guy that rings the bell on the top
The old part of town has remained pretty much the same since it was rebuilt in sandstone during the middle ages. Most of the buildings have shops and boutiques and lots of fast food inside, just like the buildings of the middle ages did. It gives it a Disneyland vibe, especially when the tram rumbles by.
Here’s the postcard shot of the old city
And the Disney-feeling main street
complete with leftover Carnival musicians!
The Old Town had a neat feel for the first 30 minutes but there’s only so many times you can see a kabob place or a McD’s. This part of the city is the big draw here. Once you get outside of the old town, it looks like a very expensive, well kept city.
I like corner houses!
BTW, Bern means “bear” in German and they have five of them as mascots near the tourist center.
Don’t interrupt while he’s drinking
Speaking of drinking, the legal age for beer and wine is 16 and for liquor it’s 18.
There’s not much here and instead of staying overnight, you can visit here on a day trip.
Zurich 中環
Well, it’s not really “中環” but just plain “Central”. Except here it’s just a stop where 6 tram lines collide. Not a station, just a sign and a spot on the map.
Zurich Essentials
Some things you should know if you ever decide to visit here.
•Food is HELLA expensive. Booze is too. Think of the Redwood Room as your regular hangout with their prices. It’s like that.
•Beverages (as in comes in a bottle) costs CH3.50. For a bottle of water or a bottle of Diet Coke (500ml). Anywhere except the grocery stores, where it’s a bit more like it should be (cheaper)
•Did I mention that all the stores are closed on Sunday except for the stores connected to an airport or railway station? They’re open and since they’re the only game in town, that becomes the hottest place to be! On Sunday. That’s not just a Zurich thing, it’s a Swiss thing.
•Lodging is hella expensive also. It’s Manhattan level prices here. The friggin’ hostel is CHF30+ a night for a bunk. Again, like Manhattan…
•The Swiss Federal Railways. Almost JR like efficiency and density. They don’t play silly tunes on the platform though. This IS Switzerland!
•Canton (county) Public transit is a mix of buses and trams. Strangely enough, the fleet here is clean, safe and punctual. They run on something called a “schedule”. Now for those of us who live in San Francisco, this is a foreign concept (or something of fantasy that doesn’t involve purging the entire second floor of Silly Hall). This is what a “schedule” means outside San Francisco when the word is applied to transit:
schedule |ˈskejoōl; -jəl|
noun
a plan for carrying out a process or procedure, giving lists of intended events and times : we have drawn up an engineering schedule.
• (usu. one’s schedule) one’s day-to-day plans or timetable : take a moment out of your busy schedule.
• a timetable : information on airline schedules.
•Best of all, good Cuban cigars are hella cheap! A Ramon Allones Specially Selected sells at the La Casa del Habano for CHF10! Convert it yourself and you’ll see that’s half the price they are in Hong Kong, the other source for good quality Habanos.
Almost makes a CHF14.00 Big Mac Value Meal worth it! BTW, you get 30 minutes free Wi-Fi with that…
Zürich Hauptbahnhof
AKA Zurich HB
When you come in from ZRH, it takes all of ten minutes! All the trams and trains collide here so this is a building you will become very familiar with. It’s the largest train station in Switzerland and its major hub.
Traveler’s Tip: Free Wi-Fi?? What is this thing you call “free”? Even at the Hostel, they charge! The only place I’ve found so far with free Wi-Fi is McDonald’s which offers 30 minutes per day with purchase. And boy are these prices NUTS!! CH3.90 for a medium Coke?? And don’t even ask how much REAL food is elsewhere…
On the other hand, it’s very pretty here…and clean and safe!
ANA Yamato commercial
“Hello old friend” Santa Ramen in new digs
It’s a good thing (at least here in the States) that a restaurant has to move to bigger quarters because they’re just “that” busy. Santa moved over the Thanksgiving break last year.
Yes, it’s bigger! But where’s the soul?
The old Santa Ramen was on B Street where parking was a serious pain. The new Santa Ramen is now in a mini mall on El Camino just south of the 92. Easier to get to but requires a commitment because it’s 30 miles away from San Francisco. On the plus side, there’s a Nijiya Market directly across the lot from Santa so you can go grocery shopping. Remember the 29th is “Meat Day”!
In a mini-mall! Next to the Shoe Pavillion…
The big fear when a restaurant moves to new digs is that the food will not be up to par as the old place was. Although these new digs lacks the character of the old place, I’m happy to say that the basics of Santa (tonkotsu ramen) is still its old decadent rich self.
The old standby when there’s no stewed pork. Still good!
The menu has been enlarged with a greater selection of appetizers than before. My bud and I had karaage and fried squid. But the big draw is the ramen with the milky, rich, indulgent tonkotsu broth! I mean look at the broth and the oil floating on top!
OK, so it’s “fat” floating on top. That’s what makes it taste good!
Santa has brought much of the old shop with them. The broth is still good. The food is still good. The noodles are still the thick kind and you have to special order 玉子 to go with your ramen. You don’t have to sign the waiting list anymore on non-peak days; it’s first come first serve now. But one constant still remains, to remind you that you ARE at Santa Ramen…
AAAAAAUUGGGGHHHHH! NOTFAIRNOTFAIRNOTFAIR!
You still need to get here early for stewed pork. I missed it this visit by 10 bloody minutes!!! *pout pout pout*
But I shall return!!!
Santa Ramen
1944 El Camino Real
San Mateo CA 94403
650-344-5918
New cool Japanese places in NYC
Why is it at the END of my trip, THAT’s when I find new cool Japanese places to hang out at? One of them, I nearly lost track of time and almost missed my train that went to my plane…
There’s a new place called Soba Totto on E 43rd, near Grand Central Station. Their soba was OK but their yakitori kicked ass! Great stuff. Great decor and a young and hip 日本人 staff. They’re open late too. I’ll blog and report next visit.
On this trip, I stayed at the Pod Hotel again. It has a great Midtown location and is an “affordable” place to stay on the Island. Because US$89/night during off season is a good deal!
On my way to JFK on Monday via the 6 to the S to the 1-2-3 to Penn Station to the LIRR to Jamaica to the AirTrain (sounds harder than it is), I found myself pulled into a new tea shop called Tafu. And it was open!
Actually, I first noticed this place on Sunday, as you have to walk by it going to or from the 51st Street station. They’re closed on Sundays so I had to wait until today to get my fill of sencha before embarking on my long journey across three time zones and the continent back to SFO. Pix next visit since it was kind of busy during the lunchtime rush to take pix..
Soba Totto
211 East 43rd Street (between 2nd Ave & 3rd Ave)
New York NY 10017
(212) 557-8200
Tafu
Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel (on 51st between Lex & 3rd)
New York NY 10022
http://www.tafuny.com
Get up early! Eat brekkie!
One of the great things about NYC is that there’s always a reason to get up early. And of cors, it’s always food related.
NYC seems to have no end of new “good” brekkie places to check out. Why is that? Is this a side effect of New York being such a fast paced, go go kind of town that its denizens insist on waking up early to squeeze every last bit of life out of the 1440 minutes allotted each day? Maybe that’s the reason why New York is one of those rare places where people here get up hella early but also stay out VERY late.
Each time I visit, I mysteriously morph into one of these early risers, so I can try out a new brekkie place before the hordes hit and a 5 minute wait becomes a 1 hour wait. Maybe that’s why people get up early here. To eat brekkie!
If you get here before 1030, you can just walk up to the counter and seat yrself…
Despite the dubious sounding name, Community Restaurant is a pleasant, well lit place with nice big tables in the front and smaller tables hidden in the back for some privacy. And unlike many of the restaurants in San Fran, Community also has a counter where you can seat yourself if you’re eating solo. Following my modus operandi when it comes to trying new places, I wind up ordering one of the simpler dishes on the menu, blueberry pancakes with a side of bacon.
Not really artsy because I was more interested in eating it than styling it…
In the greasy spoons I usually haunt, pancakes usually have a spongy feel to them, both when you cut into the stack with your fork AND when you actually chew and swallow. You can also experience the sponginess when your plate is dry after drowning the stack in syrup 5 minutes earlier. That’s because many restaurants use a mix where you add water instead of making the batter fresh. Fresh batter usually does not have the sponginess. Community’s blueberry pancakes does not have the sponginess. And because of the quality of the ingredients that the pancakes are made with, they provide a small tin of maple butter instead of syrup. You can enjoy the yumminess of the pancakes without having to drown them in syrup.
Did I just type “yumminess”? Hmm I guess I did. The orange juice (order the large) was fresh squeezed and the coffee was from a pot (as opposed to the french press you get at Norma’s). It was cold outside so it wasn’t too bad having coffee from the pot. Warms ya up, it does…
Community Restaurant
2893 Broadway (between 112th & 113th)
New York NY 10025
212.665.2800
http://www.communityrestaurant.com
Random tidbits from the Island
Has anyone noticed how yupped out the Lower East Side has become? Between Katz’s Deli and that monster Whole Foods, there’s a lot of juice-box yuppie places now with a lot of juice box yuppies patronizing these places who I’m sure, wouldn’t venture into the Lower East Side a year ago without a posse and a police escort. Now they are all over the place now. Even in Katz’s!
May I present, a pastrami reuben. Before it was devoured!
Inside Katz’s, there are tables along the wall with big signs (written in English) that say “Waiter Service Only”. During my 30 minute “scarf the big sandwich down” session, I saw three different parties who walked over to the empty table, made a point of reading the sign, decided that “they don’t me ME” and sat down with their friends. Only to have the waitress order them out in the most quaint New York way (loud volume with threat of violence. OK, I made up that last part but they moved!). Sigh.
…
A few months ago, I blogged about the news that MUJI has opened a store in SoHo. I made a visit there and was a bit disappointed.
Well, it looks like a MUJI
According to the staff I spoke to, many of the things that the store carries are things that don’t require regulation. To make this easier to understand, here’s some of the things that MUJI sells that can’t be brought to the US because of the need of these things to be regulated.
There’s no MUJI food, appliances, CD player, bicycle, stereo, house and many of the home furnishings that they’re known for.
But there is a good selection of the stationary products, dishes, some clothes and linens that make up the core of MUJI’s product line. It’s a nice sampler into the world of MUJI, but for those of us that have seen the Yurakcho store in Tokyo, it’s a bit of a letdown.
…
According to a local Japanese newspaper, Sapporo USA will be re-importing my favorite favorite beer, Yebisu! At least to New York City. Let’s hope that a nationwide re-launch is in the works! Hit the link and check them out. I’ve had all of them!
Burp.
More Japan Advertising
Have I mentioned how much I luurve Japanese advertising? This was on the walls of the major train/subway stations during my last Japan visit in November. So loooong ago!!
It’s an advert for the Japan Economic Times (日本経済新聞), a publishing group that seems to be the Japanese counterpart to Dow Jones.
But the WSJ dun have advertising like this!!
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