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| Swiss fondue with all the accoutrements |
While hitchhiking through Switzerland one summer after college in the '60s, my friend Susan and I found a perfect spot for dinner in a classic Swiss chalet, and we ordered my favorite, Swiss fondue. I probably ordered beer since this was before my wine drinking days. Then to complete the meal and add a bit of green, we ordered salade Niçoise from the menu. We thought that sounded like a perfect meal...
The fondue arrived first and we dunked chunks of bread into the delicious molten mass of emmenthaler and gruyere cheese with our fondue forks. We were having a fine time until the salad arrived. A few patrons stared at our table and snickered and soon the whole restaurant was pointing and laughing at us. We were embarrassed, to say the least and we couldn't figure out what the problem was. Is there a taboo on eating cheese fondue with the classic french composed salad? We could no longer enjoy our meal and we soon left the restaurant confused and humiliated.
In the intervening years I've tried to solve the mystery of the salade niçoise-swiss fondue faux-pas. I've asked around and studied up on the subject but have always come away empty handed. If there are any of you out there who could shed light on this, I would love to hear an explanation. In the meantime, I have never again ordered this combo, which still sounds perfectly matched to me. Who wants to get laughed at during dinner?
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