August 2016

A quartet of young Zurich restaurateurs consisting of Beni Ott, Simon Leuzinger, Markus Ott and Basil Nufer run the new restaurant in the National Museum.

They simply call their restaurant “Spitz”, a reference to the nearby Platzspitz. Consisting of a bistro (Musuems-Cafe), a bar (with a large exquisite whisky collection) and a restaurant.

The Spitz’s kitchen concept is based on the slow food concept, but takes a broader view. The focus is always on a first-class, sustainably produced product – preferably from Switzerland. Without much frippery, Basil Nufer explained to the Tagesanzeiger on 18.3.2016
here
.

Incidentally, the main supplier is Pico Bio, from whom we (vegan kitchen) also obtain all the vegetables for our catering.

The prices in the new Landesmuseum restaurant are somewhere between the lower and upper mid-range.

But quality comes at a high price:

As an appetizer (CHF 16.-) I got a hearty salad of fresh cherries and herbs, I’ve never had anything like it and it was indescribably good!

For my main course, a vegetable arrangement (pictured) with edible capuchin flowers and cress, dried fennel and beans, I paid CHF 38. But it was also really excellent.

My main course also (unconsciously?) referred to the
biological value
was taken into account: In addition to my beans (protein in the vegetable arrangement), mashed potatoes (starchy side dish) in the form of white mousse- points served. What I found particularly refreshing about the choice of dishes is that they were both made without any
meat analogs
at all.

For dessert, we topped off the pure plant-based meal with a sorbet of two kinds of passion fruit and wild berries decorated with various fresh berries on a lavender sauce: despite the bad summer, the berries were not sour (but not too sweet either) and the whole dessert was simply perfectly balanced.

This finish was too good to remember the price. Anyway, I can highly recommend the Spitz – just ask for vegan options, they are not on the menu! It’s not a vegan restaurant, but open to your wishes (Basil, the chef himself, tells me).

You can also do as I did: simply order a “vegan three-course meal” when you make your reservation and be surprised.

restaurantspitz.ch

Against dreary rainy days, it helps to set up a cozy reading corner to survive the weather with a good vegan cookbook and various fresh summer berries.

You don’t have to turn your living room into a library, there is room for your own book corner even in a small apartment.

Small niches and corners are usually ideal for creating a cozy corner. However, it is important to ensure that there is sufficient light. Ideally, there should be a window nearby that lets in enough sunlight.

I own at least fifty vegan cookbooks

There are also another dozen vegetarian cookbooks.

I have also read other standard vegan books such as the
book by Jonathan Safran Foer “Eating Animals
” or T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell’s “China Study” at home.

But I also have books on“Cooking and Art“,“Cooking and Activism“,“Cooking and Women“and “Cooking and Celebration“.

But unfortunately my beautiful books had been lying dishonorably on the floor for some time after our move.

It was time to give them a noble place to read:

A place near a window is particularly suitable for a reading corner. Many reading researchers have apparently already discovered that a good book and the sweeping view from the window simply belong together, so that the imagination can be stimulated even better. That’s why I chose our most beautiful window, as we have a bay window in our apartment! By the way, the seating area should be arranged so that you’re not sitting facing the window, otherwise the book will be in the shade.

Here you can see the result by clicking on the pictures in large: