Gourmesse is the anual gourmet food expo in Zurich held at the Kongreshaus next Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday afternoons and evenings.

Entry price is 20 chufs but you do get to see plenty of good cooking demonstrations from some top chefs, and taste lots of good food and drinks mostly from Switzerland but also this year, from Italy.

This year, the Swiss cheese industry is going to be up in arms, because (an obviously) deranged English chap is daring to offer up to 40 different British and Irish cheeses to the unsuspecting Swiss punters.

I know there will be many Swiss who will be writing letters to the newspapers to complain about this outrageous state of affairs, some may even call the police on the day to have him share a sell with a French/Polish film maker.

But he is nothing if not brave and he would love to welcome any Cheese Shooters to shoot some real cheese with him and share a glass or 2 of some fermented grape juice. Sunday afternoon he will also be hosting a British Cheese seminar and would welcome some volunteer body guards.

See you there

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I ain't grumpy at all.

Would have gladly been there to give you support (and drink your grog).... but sadly can't make it.

Good luck teaching the punters about the splendour of British cheese.

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Bring on Summer!

What time is kick off for the Cheese (Please Louise!) seminar?

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October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. Other dangerous months are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.
-Mark Twain-

1.30 - 2.30 Sunday afternoon

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I ain't grumpy at all.

Day one gone, day two about to start. There are some pretty good stalls, free beer and a cigar bar. I'm sandwiched between a free champagne bar and a chap selling real Canadian maple syrup. It's open tonight (Saturday) until 10pm and Sunday and Monday from 11 - 9. Last night there was quite a crowd on a sort of indoor bar/tapas bar crawl.

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I ain't grumpy at all.

Gourmessa seemed the olivel oil and pesto invasion.... In my ignorance, I was far to imagine there is a highly competitive pesto industry from most mediterranean countries. I have seen olive oil, but... there is no place like home.

Anyway, had great sashimi, great smoked salmon, and tasted a cheeses that tastes like a cabrales, mas much softer (it seems all Spanish customers had the same thought. No discount for none of them, though.) Jolly was as his best, handling several customers at the same time. Really busy - he is getting very popular these days...

Mr Lucy was very happy tasting local beer. Striker and Ittenger got his favors. We were both happy with tasting wines - like a very light red that would go di-vi-ne with chocolate and possible sea fish. It was a real shame that I never made to the caipirinhas because they looked really yummie and were done properly).

And this is the chronicle possible. Diet all day for me.

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My blogs: about food and Zurich 1200 fountains

just came back, mr retto and I enjoyed the cheese talk - nice to see the little elves helping too (joke)
anyone who has time - do go down tommorow - lot's of things to taste + drink

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Aha, the power of marketing. Striker isn't even brewed in Switzerland let alone a local beer .

I also thought the Ittenger was pretty good, even though it's been taken over by the usual crowd.

Actually, the lady who served us the beer explained that slowly they were bringing in the production from Germany here. They had a problem with volumes, that seemed to be sorted out. The winter Striker that soon will be distributed will be already done in CH.

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My blogs: about food and Zurich 1200 fountains

In their new brewery? Investment required = several million. Investment achieved (according to the website) = 125,000 bottles * 0.1 CHF = 12500 CHF. I think it will be some time yet .

Good luck to them though - I wish I had their marketing skills.