Charbonnade

Switzerland is known for fondue but we decided to try something different. When Lori was here a few years ago, she took her clients to a really interesting restaurant and I was keen to try it myself. The restaurant is called La Taverne du Valais and they claim to have invented Charbonnade in 1967. It is similar to fondue in the sense that you cook your own food at your table, but instead of cooking in a pot of boiling oil, you cook it on a grill over hot coals.

Every order comes with a selection of sauces and condiments. There is a curry sauce, a type of tartar sauce for the seafood and something that tastes remarkably similar to Heinz Ketchup. It was good with the fries at least.

We ordered the meat plate with beef, lamb, pork, chicken and turkey. We also ordered the seafood plate with shrimp, scallops, tuna and squid.

It was a lot of fun and a great evening. It is hard to imagine that something like this would be allowed in North America. I'm sure every customer would be required to wear flame retardant clothing and a fire extinguisher would be at every table.

db