Whenever I travel to a distant land I make sure to experience it to the fullest. Everything is open for exploring. This is especially true for the local cuisine. I’ve been known domestically to be a picky eater but I never shy away from trying things abroad. In Puerto Rico I tried shark kabobs, in Alaska I tried reindeer sausage, and in Australia I tried kangaroo burgers. These were all exotic meals that I would probably never eat again. However, it was in Switzerland where I discovered a meal that would satisfy my hunger on outdoor adventures for decades to come. I dubbed it my Quintessential Alpine Lunch!
I spent the first week taking day-trips and solo hiking through the Alps just south of Lausanne, Switzerland. Early each morning I would see my friend off to work and then head to the train station for my trip to the mountains. On the first morning I stopped in the local grocery store, a Migros, on my way to the station to get some food for lunch. While looking through the isles I quickly became disoriented. Everything seemed French to me (probably because it was). What was I going to eat for lunch?? That’s when I thought to myself “what would a Swiss mountaineer eat” while tramping through the Alps?? The answer was simple: a bar of chocolate, a slab of cheese, some cooked sausage, and a loaf of bread. By some miracle I was able to locate these items in the store and went on my merry way.
At lunchtime, I found myself on a bench in a col just to the East of the 7500ft Tour de Mayen in Leysin. The wind was light, the temperature was cool, and the cloud ceiling had dropped to about 7000ft. I was the only hiker in the col and everything seemed to still. The only thing that broke the silence was the occasion “dong” of a cows bell from the lower slopes. I reached into my “rucksack” and pulled out my lunch. The bread, sausage, and cheese made for a satisfying sandwich but the chocolate really put it over the top! This would turn out to be my lunch for the remainder of the week and something that I could turn to in my future outdoor adventures the world over!
The Quintessential Alpine Lunch: highly recommended for outdoor adventures of all fancies!
-Kayak Dave
