Food at Züri Fäscht, Zürich

One simple goal at the Züri Fäscht – spend as much time as I can on the bumper car ride (Auto scooter). 50 CHF buys you 31 rides and an incessive amount of fun. The more professional aspect of my venture included sampling some of the food. Unfortunately the culinary variety and level of exotic dishes seems to be at an all time low. Selling a spring roll back in the 80ties might have been a thrilling new way of introducing people to diverse foods, but nowadays where you can buy them frozen in any supermarket it’s just slightly boring.

First dish was a fondue bread which was a disappointment. Cheap bread, bland cheese (or cheese like chemical compound) made this a waste of stomach space. The red Thai Curry was good, the dish being freshly cooked on site (as opposed to other vendors which heated pre-cooked versions). The Kenya food stand looked promising and we tried the Kenya skewer. Meat was nicely marinated on the outside and dry on the inside. The biggest turn-off was that the sauce wasn’t neither homemade nor from Kenya, it was squeezed from a supermarket Thai Sweet Chili container.

There was one true highlight under all the food stalls which served homemade Piadina. A ball of dough was pressed into a flat piece, seared on a griddle and fresh strips of parma ham layered on top before being served to you. Simple, good and no frills – my favourite.

Looking back at the Züri Fäscht, considering the slighlty boring food offerings, the crazy amount of people and the dangers of getting crushed, sticking to the bumper cars seems to be my strategy moving forward. With two grown males you tend to have a significant kinetic energy advantage on the floor. However space is relatively tight in the actual car. The trick is to use your left foot to work the gas pedal instead of the right foot and you’ll fit in relatively comfortably. Oh yes and bumping your car into people which get angry at you (typically young males) is just so much fun.