Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Can you Fondue?

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Have you had wonderful fondue? Where was it?

Hotel Kaubad Appenzell Switzerland It was great!

One thing that surprised me is that fondue is mostly a fall and winter offering. Not that you can't find it at all "out of season". It's just a little bit like trying to find turkey. dressing and pumpkin pie in the spring and summer months in America. Best wishes, Rex

Rex, it makes perfect sense to me: fondue is hot melted cheese (of the type that contains at least 50 % fat) with sweet wine. A concoction of fat, alcohol and sugar, that contains enough calories to warm up the human body for 24 hours. Thus perfect food for cold Swiss winters, but hardly appropriate for summer. Now that we are so spoiled that we can get any type of food almost anywhere at almost at any time of the year, we tend to forget that every region produces certain foods and prepares certain dishes for a reason, taste buds not being the only one.

Here's a little place in Paris that is kind of fun for fondue or raclette: Le Chalet d'Avron 108 rue de Montreuil Telephone: 01.43.71.18.62 This small restaurant is just a couple of blocks off the Place de la Nation circle between Boulevard de Charonne and Avenue Philippe Auguste. It specializes in fondue and raclette dining, with heating elements for this purpose built right into the tables. There are various menu options as to what you will be preparing for your dinner. Most people in the U.S. may understand fondue as molten cheese (or hot oil) in which morsels of foods are dipped (or cooked) in a fondue pot. A raclette involves using a small pan in which cheese can melted or meats cooked with a heating element. When the meal is served, you are issued a supply of boiled, thin-skin potatoes -- (given to my own devices, I wouldn't bother to peel them myself, but the French often see fit to do that) -- and a cutting board stocked with cheese slices and your choice of various different types of meat. You cut up a potato and place it on your plate as a base, while melting cheese in your little pan to top it, along with whatever meat you will be adding. It's a very social thing, since you are preparing your food in small increments while conversing with your dining partners, having wine, etc. It can easily take a couple of hours to enjoy your meal this way and it is really an outstanding choice if you want to do something very casual and different. Likewise, putzing with a fondue pot offers the very same ambiance and that is another option at Le Chalet d'Avron. The friendly staff will keep you stocked up with things to prepare and eat, along with drinks as you move along. I don't know enough about these things to say if it qualifies as "wonderful fondue" in the eyes of the poster, but it's a very entertaining and different type of meal.

If the weather remains as cold as it is right now, I might consider a fondue or a raclette these days. Even if it's not the season! LOL No problem here to find places that serve those dishes also in summer, mainly for tourists though. My favourite place in Zuerich: Fribourger Fondue-Stuebli Rotwandstrasse 38 8004 Zuerich Closed during summer months. Reservation, when open, an absolute must. Jim, definitely enjoyed your post. :o) Sounds like you are an expert.

Hi Don't forget the alternative fondue, which has hot oil in the pan and is used for deep frying meat fillet at the table. Another mountain type dish is the hot stone on the table used for cooking fish, meat and veg. Hmm, time to eat bye Peter http://tlp.netfirms.com

When I said I was surprised, I didn't mean that it doesn't make sense - - just that I had never thought about it as something seasonal.

In an urban restaurant? Café Hissoud in Geneva - where they serve only fondue, raclette, and salad. That's the kind of place where you'll get the best (urban) cheese fondue. Frankly, though, the best fondue you'll get is in any true chalet-restaurant at about 1'500 - 2'000 meters altitude, in the Swiss Alps, preferably in the winter, when after a hike, snowshoe trek or the morning ski-runs you walk in to a warm, noisy environment, the smell of melted cheese hanging heavy in the air, people sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, cheeks all red and deep-down thankful for such a paradise...

Question for yodel: Do you know what FIGUGEL stands for? ;) Here, everybody knows!

Ursula: That's FIGUGEGL!! Shame on you :-D). Another very good fondue restaurant at Geneva is "Chez Angelo - restaurant des antiquaires" at Grand-rue 35 in the very centre of the old town: They feature an assortment of different cheese and meat fondues. BTW Monet at Beyeler has been extended by two weeks.

Phil, you're right. SO sorry. Shame on me. Glad weekend is here. Seems I need a break. Enjoy your weekend, with or without a fondue. PS: Saw the Monet. Loved it. Thanks

Sorry Ursula, I'm like a Martian in Biloxi trying to figure out what FIGUGEGL means. Am I basically dumb if I don't? Is it something we Swiss-German/Americans say when we order a fondue in a Swiss restaurant and can't get the pronounciation quite right? Please let me in on this inside stuff.

FIGUGEGL = "Fondue Isch Guet Und Git E Gueti Luune!" (Fondue is good and puts you into good humour). A very old but still often used ad and written expression.

A memorable Fondue evening was in the Golden Adler Hotel in the old city in Innsbruck. Very wonderful old historic wine stube. Took our kids when they were teenagers. The atmosphere was wonderful and the music was provided by a man playing the Zither.

My sister and I went to Annecy a couple of years ago, and there are a couple of fondue places there (sorry, I can't remember the name, but it's a small town). That was my very first fondue. My pot had cheese that was flavored with garlic, and my sister had a smoother tasting cheese. We ate till we were sick! ha ha No, it was wonderful, but you should have a nice big appetite. There were two guys behind us who were "mm, mmm"ing and plowing through baskets of potatoes with their cheese like it was nothing.

Vicki Two best fondue experiences I have had were in Chamonix. La Poele in the town of Chamonix. At our hotel, "Aiguille du Midi" outside of Chamonix in Les Bossons.

We've had several experiences with fondue (yum!), but my favorite was in the little town of Zinal where two locals adopted us for the evening and took us to their favorite fondue spot. We had a tomato fondue that was red and much soupier than those we had in other places. No bread, just a basket of potatoes which you mashed on your plate and then ladled the fondue over them like gravy. My husband started to eat it like most of the fondue we had had...to stick the fork in the little potato and dip it in the cheese mixture. That brought hoots of laughter from everyone! By the way, Zinal is fabulous for hiking and kind of off the beaten path. (so far)

For Ursula: Es git au choeschtliche chaes-chuechli im chuechi-chaestli...