Beer pong. Seriously:
And here we have the site of my first (and probably last) jello shot:
But this weekend was also the last weekend of something called OLMA, which apparently is some kind of food and agriculture fair. I say "apparently" because, well, my German is still not that great. Despite a somewhat vague idea of what this fair was I got up early on Saturday and took the train to St. Gallen. The scenery in Switzerland is amazing and, so far, for train trips outside the city the journey really is its own reward...Unlike, say, rail travel via New Jersey Transit.
Anyway, there was agriculture and there was food. Let's face it: Any kind of celebration of Swiss food is, at heart, an homage to the Cow. I started out with some cheese toast (And you know the Swiss do cheese toast right):
It was delicious. Then I followed it up with a ton of cheese samples, some yogurt samples, a sample of butter, and then a large chocolate milk. Full of dairy, I decided to seek out a baked good for a change of pace. So I got this thing... filled with pastry cream.
I think this might have been the best thing I've ever eaten. And it just reinforces the point that those giant sugar crystals make everything better. Then there was this stand:
At first I couldn't quite figure out what they were promoting. They had giant bottles that seemed to contain fresh pressed artichoke concentrate. I pointed and asked, in German, "For...drinks?" The guy looked at me knowingly and said "No... For tummy". I drank some and maybe it worked -But I think I'm going to leave the artichoke juice alone from now on. At this point I started to think maybe I shouldn't have had so much dairy. Seeking an alternative to food I went to the animal barn. It's a good thing I didn't look at the cows first or I wouldn't have been able to eat so much... Everyone knows it, but let me just say again that the idea of drinking milk is really weird when you stop to consider the source.
This cow was, for some reason, better than all the other cows. I think she won some kind of prize:
You could buy little containers of mozzarella that had been fresh made from the milk of these very cows. Again, a little weird. I just like to keep some mental distance between my food and its animal sources, ok? My brother would say this means I should join him in veganism, but that's not happening. I'd raise a cow myself before I'd give up cheese.
The fair was nice, but would have been much better if I'd gone with a group. It seemed like the primary activity was buying a bottle of wine from one of the many wine sellers and drinking it at the tables. Well, I guess I could have done that by myself, but it wouldn't have been the same.
