My claim to fame

Today was a very short day at work; I had to attend a Summit. Yes, I attend Summits now. I'm very U.N. like that. It was actually a Business Analyst Summit organized by my company for internal employees, and believe it or not, it was extremely informative and interesting. There was a camera crew, paparazzi, and celebrities. Ok there were no celebrities, but there was a guy with a video camera and a regular camera. Since I knew the organizers of the Summit, I was promptly nominated to be interviewed on camera to talk about my experience, etc. I demanded that someone do my hair and make up, that I get a big trailer with rose flavored water, ostrich feathered hand towels, gold plated door knobs, and a bouquet of red roses. I threatened not to do any interviews or sign autographs until these demands were met.

My demands were ignored. Instead, I was given a prepackaged carrot cake and a glass of water. That's ok. I know I'm not famous enough to be a Diva yet. So I had that carrot cake (and it was delish!), applied some lip gloss, and off I went to be interviewed. Because I know that this is just the beginning. Before you know it, Ryan Seacrest will be interviewing me on the Red Carpet for E!. I'm going to go practice my Oscar acceptance speech now.

Anyway, as promised yesterday, I have a restaurant review for you. Actually, it's more of a Pastry shop review. I did go to an actual restaurant for lunch today, but hunger levels were insurmountable by the time I got there, so no pictures were taken. In fact, I just ordered the first thing I saw on the display, in order to prevent death by starvation. I'll go back to this place again and do a review some other time.

Also, if you are expecting me to say things like "delectable to the palate" or "heightened state of decadence" then you are doomed to be disappointed. I will at best say "it was excellent", but mostly will tell you whether something was good or whether it sucked. So, without further ado, here goes my first ever restaurant review:

I decided to celebrate the fact that I finally have a cell phone by paying heed to my true love, food. Since this was a special occasion, I wanted to give it the proper attention it deserved. So, after much discussion and deliberation, I decided to make acquaintance with Sprungli. It’s a fancy pasty shop in Paradeplatz, which is basically the Times Square of Zurich. It’s right across from the Paradeplatz tram stop, which is where I need to get off and change trams. So yesterday, instead of just getting off and on the tram, I decided to venture into Sprungli.




The interior is very inviting; you are welcomed with sights of elegant Luxemburgerli (we’ll get into it later), bookended by chocolate based desserts. I basically wanted to buy out the entire store the minute I walked in. But as tempting as doing that is, I was on a mission. I had been told by everyone that I just had to try Luxembergerli – which is very similar to a macaroon. The key difference is that macaroons are heavier and more sweet, whereas Lux…are lighter and therefore less likely to induce emotional guilt. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of being introduced to macaroons, I’m sorry to inform you that you have not truly lived. If you are ever in New York, I highly recommend Madeline Patisarie. Better yet, come to Switzerland, we can go to Sprungli and have the better version of macarons!


After I stopped salivating at the sights of heavenly delights that I was witnessing all around, I walked around and checked out the store for a bit.
One of the most popular items after the Lux…were truffles. And really, after looking at this picture, you can see why. One look and I wanted to break through the glass display separating me and my true love. But sanity prevailed and I continued my exploration of the store. There were beautiful, prepackaged boxes of chocolate that were artfully arranged all over the store. I felt a little bit like a kid in a toy store – everything was just too pretty. The pastry shop sold mainly various kinds of chocolate, cakes, bread, and some premade lunch.



I made my way back to that what first caught my attention: Luxembergerli. There were over thirty or forty different kinds that I could choose from. I battled my natural instinct to buy one of each kind and settled for four of my favorites: cappuccino, hazelnut, champagne, and pistachio. I wanted to buy four more, but that would have required transferring everything in a bigger box, and there was just too much thinking involved in the decision making process. I also reasoned that since the store isn’t going anywhere, and I’m certainly not going anywhere anytime soon, I could always come back for round two, three, four…

I also did something that will make you proud; I exercised restraint! Contrary to popular expectations, I did not open my box and gobble up the Lux on the tram on the way back. Rather, I waited. Not only did I wait until I got back to the apartment, I also took pictures, just for you! So without further ado, this is the box. And inside this box, kids, is heaven. A heaven that you may have heard of, but never seen.




And this, this is why we were born. This is why we are on Earth. To consume this.
Each one melted in my mouth faster than the previous one. The cappuccino had a distinct flavor of coffee, hazelnut tasted hazelnutty, you could definitely taste the pistachio in the pistachio, and alcohol could be tasted in the champagne flavored one (I told you that this ain't no New York Times restaurant critique!). My favorite was a tie between cappuccino and hazelnut. It was light enough that I felt I could eat eight more, but filling enough to put my gluttony at ease.

By the way the little white piece of paper on top of the box reads, “To be consumed as soon as possible.” I took that to mean, “Eat it within the next hour.” So I did. Only later did I learn that it actually meant, “To be consumed now, or can be refrigerated and eaten upto three days after date of purchase.” But let’s be honest – do we really think THIS could have survived in my fridge, uneaten, for three days?