You know those bio-degradeable packaging chips made of corn starch that electronic equipment is sometimes packed with?

Sprinkle them with a bit of paprika, salt and some finely grated cheese.
They make a tasty snack.

We've found that squash is the way to go at the minute.
A vaguely-remembered recipe from What To Eat Now has been used with just about every kind of squash I can get my hands on, and is pretty cheap. you can buy a huge squash from Coop for about 9CHF and it lasts for DAYS.

This is the recipe. Cut the squash into inch thick slices (two to three per person) and arrange on a baking tray. Cover the squash with lots of thinly sliced red onion and a good glug of olive oil and chuck in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180. Take the squash out, turn it over, sprinkle some chopped garlic and parmesan (though any hard cheese would work) and shove it back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes or so, or until the squash is soft all the way through. It's really good served with crusty bread, especially the gooey caramelised onion, and it's really filling. Okay, the initial squash purchase isn't cheap, but you can always make soup or risotto when you get tired of it just baked. Enjoy!

For meat eaters, veal foot soup is my tip.

Sounds a bit gruesome, tastes delicious.

Ask a butcher for Kalbsfussknochen (veal foot bones - usually free or a couple of CHFs),as the various sinewy parts of a foot are extra-tasty when gently simmered. Ideally get some shin-bone (haxen) as it contains oh-so-yummy bone marrow.

Add an onion, some celery and a carrot, seasoning etc. to about 1.5 litres of water and leave it for two hours.

Strain the soup, discard the ingredients and chill overnight.

Next day, skim the fat off the surface and reheat.

Serve as it is with bread. Better than chicken soup and costs half of nuppence. It'll feed four people.

That's a blerry good idea. Ta for that.

Yay for bone marrow!

Cheese Spätzli for 4!
This youtube vid shows (in terrible lighting) roughly how it's done. I do it a lot slower than that though. You can get special boards and spatula things to do it but it seems a good flat board and the back of a bread knife do the trick too.

4 eggs (2 CHF tops for free range jobbies)
4 Tblsp (heaped with as much on each one as poss) wheat flour (20 Rappen?)
salt and pepper
good fist full of fine chopped parsley

Beat this with a wooden spoon very well until bubbles form as you beat.

Gently bubbling salted (as much salt as you'd use for pasta) water filled to 1cm from top of a large (4 quart) saucepan.

place a dollop of batter on a moistened board and shave it fine (but not too fine) into the boiling water. Let bubble for a minute or so gently immersing the spätzlis so they cook evenly. Lift out with a straining spoon and leave siiting in a seive to drain.

Do in batches until all batter is done.

Dice an onion and sautee in butter and rappsöl or other low flavoured oil. Add spätzli and fry on med high heat til golden. mix in gorgonzola or appenzella etc as you like to taste.

Not only is this cheap, but making it has great entertainment value



Viel Spaß!

Puddy

This thread is fantastic! I definately think we need a food and drink section in EF

For a very quick and cheap meal (usually when we get home late and tired after being out all day) I like to make fried rice.

Ingredients:

Rice
1 clove of garlic (chopped)
Frozen vegies (corn, peas and carrot mix from Coop or Migros are both great)
Soy sauce
Fried rice or nasi goreng spices (if you have it - available from the asian stores)

Method:

Cook the rice in the rice cooker (or absorption method which I can NEVER get to work!)

Fry the garlic in a wok or frying pan. Throw in some frozen vegies (corn, peas and carrot) to thaw and warm them up. When the rice is finished add it to the wok with a splash of soy and fried rice spices and fry for 5 mins and you have a very quick and cheap meal.

For some extra protein: beforehand you can fry an egg into a plain omelette, chop it into strips and add it in to the rice at the very end.

Making your own (non-microwave) popcorn in a pan at home is also cheap and quite fun to make as a snack.
Simple to make if you can find the bags of maize (esp cheap in an ethnic store), and you can find/make some different flavoured oils to spice it up.


I read somewhere recently that tap water here in Switzerland is better for you than bottled. Furthermore, "Zürich has 1,200 fountains, more than almost any other city in the world." So you can take your own bottle with you and refill around town.


To keep a loaf of bread last for several days, wrap it up tightly in the carrrier bag you brought it home in to keep it airtight. Although crusty bread will go a bit softer, it will certainly last a lot longer.


I think the Nelson pub near Zurich HB on a Monday do an all you can eat buffet in the eveining and before 7pm is afterwork happy hour. I haven't tried it myself but it's worth a punt (though it will be more than 5chf, it is all you can eat).
I don't like chicken wings but I heard Hooters do them for 1CHF each some nights.


If you do find yourself on hard times before payday, some religious organisations provide food pantries where you can get dry goods.


Also try only eating when you're hungry.


HB

We were quite impressed how thin everyone was, maybe that's because people can't afford to buy food at those prices and pay the rents in Zurich?

No, seriously, we probably will be looking towards ALDI, LIDL and any other low budget shop for food. Or go round to the local farmer and buy apples and potatoes from there for a bit of ecological conscientious action.

Don't really know where to put this, but if you're buying Suzi-Wan products at Coop this week, make sure they give you the 20 percent off at the cashier's.

"Ganze Sortiment" means everything, but the cashier (and the one who took over at shift break) insisted the "20 percent off" was only applicable to the sauces. I checked with a supervisor, he agreed with me and he went with me to ensure I got back the money.

A good tip that most of the western world would do well to heed

A slightly different method is to fry the rice (after the veggies, etc) and then stir beaten egg into it quickly, making sure you coat all the rice. Then you get fried rice like you get from the takeaway back in Blighty.
If you don't mind feeling like an extra from Ice Cold In Alex, corned beef is comparatively cheap and goes well in baked potatoes, etc. Vegetable noodles made in the same way as Kadie says for the rice above are also very cheap for a large quantity.

I am wondering if there are any kinds of meat markets in zurich where you can buy whole lamp or goat and get it chopped for really cheap like the ones in london. Are there any other ways of buying cheap meat than buying it from germany or waiting till <1 hour before store closes?

Thanks

I find my local butcher is cheaper than the supermarket. He gives me discounts for bulk purchases as well.

I agree with this too. When I go shopping on Tuesdays to COOP I come back home with more discounted products than say Saturdays. The discounts are significant on pricey products e.g. Fish, Natura Beef, Oranges etc. I also find more discounts in COOP Letzipark than COOP Sihlcity ... I can't prove it statistically but I've got larger discounts on COOP Letzipark on Tuesdays.

On Saturdays in fact you find almost nothing discounted, I guess this is because most people shop on Saturdays.

regards,
Tapiro

You could also look for 25% or even 50% reduction stickers: if you are prepared to eat what is available at reduced prices and don't worry about the "sell by date" being too rigid..... you can keep stuff in the fridge for a couple of days.

Cheap lunch in Zürich at Musicclub Abart from

http://www.milchbar-zh.ch/

Monday - Friday
Salad
1 dish with meat or vegetarian
Lemon Water

CHF 10.-

they have a mobile kitchen in the club, changing teams every day.
Made by people who like to cook.

Alpen Magronen is cheap to make and delicious to eat (especially with applesauce). Make a lot to pack the rest into plastic boxes for the fridge, so you have something to bring to work for a few days (if your workplace has a microwave oven).

Splurge by adding some pan-fried bacon bits or caramelized onion.

Simple recipe here:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/alpine...ni/Detail.aspx

What I do is add a homemade bechamel sauce instead of using cream - tastier and fewer calories.

If you made enough friends at University struggling on a budget. Take one night a week and cook for each other. Make simple cheap meals such as spaghetti, salad, garlic bread. You can change up the pasta sauce for example so its not exactly the same each week. Also, get the lettuce that you have to wash yourself, almost always cheaper than the pre-bagged stuff. Rotate so each person has a night. If someone has a night class, have them save a portion leftover for the person in class. You can have different nights like Asian night, etc. I buy a big thing of different curries, green, red, etc from the Asian markets that lasts like 15 meals and buy cocnut milk when its on sale, add veggies and rice/noodles a great meal! Also, you can't just do a one stop shop here like at home. I prefer Aldi, Lidl, Migros Outlet, Denner first and get things I know I like from Migros or Coop after, like yogurts, fruit, etc. I always go to Coop Tuesday nights for reduced items if I want meats to make a sandwich for lunch, etc. And I always check the discount meat items in Migros too. Plus, I love the Migros budget cheese...yum. Ottos has cheap pastas, sauces & canned items. Its so much more expensive usually here, but now that I know how to shop, I find many items cheaper than the states. And when you and your friends go out, stick to dururms! And don't buy softdrinks here when you go out to eat, that costs you an extra $4 CHF, I always have a bottle of water with me and most of the restaurants will give you tap water now if you ask

And if you really want to spoil yourself and go out for dinner, there is a little red book that you can buy in bookshops that is basically a "2 for 1" discount book. All the restaurants in the book provide two meals for the price of one on presentation of the voucher.