What do people in Switzerland eat in a day?
The Swiss eat bread, jam and Birchermüesli for breakfast, a warm lunch around noon and a simple dinner at about 18:30, with snacks at 9:00 and 16:00 in between. Fondue and raclette are for winter evenings.
Typical dishes and their calories
Breakfast
Zmorge on a weekday is quick, between 6:30 and 7:30: bread with butter and jam, a croissant or Birchermüesli, the mix of oats, yoghurt and grated apple a Swiss doctor created around 1900, at about 180 kcal a bowl. At the weekend breakfast starts around 9:00 with Zopf, a braided butter bread baked for Saturday and Sunday, plus cheese, eggs and coffee.
Lunch
Zmittag is warm and usually eaten between 12:00 and 13:00, in a canteen, a restaurant or from a takeaway. Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, thin strips of veal in a cream and mushroom sauce served with rösti, is the classic, at about 400 kcal before the rösti. Many restaurants offer a set lunch menu with soup or salad.
Dinner
Znacht is eaten early, around 18:00 to 19:00 at home, and is often cold: bread, cheese, cold cuts, butter and tea. In winter friends share cheese fondue, bread dipped into melted Gruyère and Vacherin with white wine, about 980 kcal per person, or raclette, cheese scraped from a heated wheel onto potatoes and pickles.
Starters
A green salad with a creamy French dressing opens many meals. In the mountains a plate of Bündnerfleisch, thin slices of air dried beef from Graubünden, comes with bread before fondue or raclette. Bündner Gerstensuppe, a thick barley soup with vegetables and smoked meat, is the warming starter of the Alps.
Desserts
Chocolate is the dessert, the snack and the souvenir: the Swiss eat over 11 kg per person a year, more than anyone else. In the Gruyère region meringues are served with thick double cream, Zug is known for Zuger Kirschtorte, a cake soaked in cherry brandy, and Engadiner Nusstorte is a caramel and walnut pie that keeps for weeks.
Drinks
Coffee is everywhere, most often as a café crème. Rivella, a soft drink made with milk whey, has been sold since 1952, and children grow up on Ovomaltine, a malted chocolate drink. Switzerland grows about 250 grape varieties, Chasselas is the white most people drink, and most Swiss wine is drunk at home rather than exported.
Street food
The cervelat is the national sausage, about 160 million are made every year, and people grill it over a fire with the ends cut crosswise so they curl open. In St. Gallen the Bratwurst comes with a bread roll and, by tradition, no mustard. In winter stalls sell Marroni, hot roasted chestnuts, in paper bags.
Normal there, odd elsewhere
The day has five meals, with Znüni at 9:00 and Zvieri at 16:00, and schools often hand out an apple for Znüni. With fondue people drink white wine or black tea, and whoever loses their bread in the pot may owe the table a round. The lunch hour and Sundays are kept quiet, so nobody mows the lawn then.