Fondue Night

We had Fondue tonight. The cheese-maker in town gave the Chalet 75 portions of fondue cheese for it's 75th birthday. On Monday, we decided that it would be nice to have some sort of party to commemorate the volunteers big move across the road to the Stockli, staff house. We decided that fondue would be nice, and plus, it was free.

I had this delusional vision that we'd sit around a small pot of cheese late at night and have fondue as sort of a snack. I had a dinner planned and a few loaves of bread out of the freezer to use. I was so wrong. Fondue is an institution, it's a production. There would be no other dinner, and there would certainly be no dipping of vegetables into the cheese.

Luckily, Ben is very familiar with swiss customs and culture. He took over the fondue making while I decorated. I put out swiss flags, tiny forks with long wooden handles, and every red and white thing I could find.

Then we ate. There were 22 people all jammed into a table that really should have seated about 15. I ended up sitting between (or half way on top of) a staff member's father and the center manager's husband. It was pretty awkward, but when you think about it, fondue is an awkward food. Everyone is sticking their bread into a pot of bubbling liquid cheese and then eating it off their fork, which will return to the pot. Not only were we close, but we were sharing more than I normally share with strangers. I guess that allows the 'hey we're sitting in a hut on top of a mountain and all we have to eat is cheese anyway so lets make a meal out of it' feeling that is unique to fondue. I suppose the only reason that the swiss can get away with eating cheese and bread in such large quantities is that they climb mountains much more regularly than anyone else--at least the mountain cow people who began the fondue tradition.

About half way through fondue night someone asked Ben to please look at their fondue apparatus, specifically "should it be flaming like this". No, fondue pots should not become engulfed in flames and threaten to also set the table on fire. Burning down the 75 year old chalet while enjoying the 75th birthday present would be quite scandalous. Since we were in such tight quarters, Ben scooted around the fondue-partakers, who were in a state of semi-panic, and grabbed the flaming bits and took them outside. They're full of alcohol based gel, so they have to just burn out. Luckily the weather has been awfully crummy and it was cold and rainy out. That was the only major mishap--besides the horrible feeling in my stomach when all the partially full pots kept getting passed to the end of the table where I had was sitting.

So here's the quick summary:
Fondue--a meal of only cheese. It's good, but watch your consumption or you'll regret it, probably.

You can never take fire safety too seriously.