Swindia???

One aspect of Switzerland that most amused me was, not the mountains or the lakes, but the Indianness. What do I mean? Well as more and more Indians are getting globe trotters, and thanks to DDLJ and many such bolywood flicks shot here, this place is just full of Indian tourists. And as a result, there are many Indian restaurants around. And restaurants that dont serve the European Indian food but the real Indian Indian food. Its a total delight.

In Geneva, we bumped into this restaurant near the Bel-Air area called Nirvana. With the interiors modelled on Devdas theme, beautiful paintings of Aishwarya and Madhuri hanging on the walls, it set an exquisite mood. Most importantly, the food that came was delicious, nothing like what we have got used to in Brussels and Antwerp. A very satisfying dinner.

At Jungfraujoch, the highest point in Europe, there is an Indian restaurant too. Its called Bollywood. Quite unbelievable. It served a buffet, with a couple of vegetables and rice and dal. The food was very tasty and quite homely.

At Interlaken, we actually avoided the Indian Spice restaurant to try out something Swiss. But in Zurich, we found a restaurant on our way which served food from Kerala (http://www.keralarestaurant.ch). And believe me, the food was best I have eaten so far in Europe. And it would easily beat a lot of restaurants back in India. Cochin Chemmin (Fried Prawns with coconut slices and chilli) was a delicious starter, the Kerala Chicken Curry was awesome and the Kerala Fish Curry was simply superb. We ate until we couldnt eat anymore.

However, the best surprise of all came while we were at the base of Mount Titlis. An Indian "tapri" (well a mobile van really) that served wada pav and tea. It also had pav bhaji. Couple of wada pav and tea while going up, pav bhaji and tea after coming down is what we had. It was fairly tasty too.

Titlis seemed especially popular with Indian tourists. There were instructions at the cable car stops written in Hindi :)

Overall, this Indian touch was a pleasant surprise and a nice feeling (leave apart the over crowding of the rhine waterfall boats).