Cheese Flaked Alps: Memories of Swiss Landscape and Food

 It is through pictures and videos that I fell in love with many of the European countries. Even though the old adage about the grass being greener on the other side holds true mostly, in this case, however, I believe the grass is indeed greener!

Fresh air to breathe, green expanses brimming with positive vibes, abundance of fruits and veggies, the profusion of colourful flowers – Life seems much more greener on the other side of the world!  What is it that favours and adorns  nature in such spectacular ways, I have asked myself many a time.  The spell of nature that entices you in ways unimaginable is hidden in every nook and corner in some of these places. No wonder Wordsworth, Keats and Coleridge were driven to pen such eternal lines.
 The landscape looks magical to my eyes. These are the 'lands' which I thought existed only in those fairy tales I was read to and which I read as a little girl.  It was much later that I realised that in fact, such places do exist!

 As a student, I have wracked my brains over how someone could be captivated by 'ten thousand' daffodils or the 'too excitable' / 'too red' tulips. Simply because I couldn't picturise those enchanting images as 'real' and existing.
 Fortunately today, all it takes is just a little tap and there you are on a visual luxury to travel across the fairy tale lands of your choice!

As small girls, me and my sister were glued to a cartoon that was set in the locales of the stunning Alps in Switzerland. Named after the little, bubbly girl Heidy, each episode was looked forward to with great anticipation and interest.
Life seemed so simple for Heidi and that made us want to live like her.
Heidi's life revolved around playing in the Alps with her friend Peter and the goats, and helping her grandfather who was always preoccupied with the woods or the cheese.
That's how we developed a cheese fetish.
And that's the reason why we relish cheese with so much fondness even after a decade!
Those cartoon memories are clear and fresh. Memories created against the backdrop of food don't necessarily fade. The snow capped mountains and the pristine, beautiful lake were always juxtaposed with cheese making, hot buns and fresh goat milk! Such memories are boiled,stirred and bottled for a lifetime. 

The other day while I was passing by the cheese section at the Lulu hypermarket, my footsteps slowed down and my eyes scanned all the varieties that were laid out. Fascinations developed in childhood sometimes remain, like some curry stain on an old dress that adamantly sticks on. Even though we could never go to Switzerland to enjoy the mountains the way Heidi did and buy cheese that was sold like big buns in stores, we always created a small space to recreate our childhood longing for these things. Amul Cheese spreads and packet of cheese slices that sit in our fridge are a testimony to the cheese love that Heidi had sown in us at a young, impressionable age.

And what made me think of a long forgotten cartoon and why am I kindling our love for cheese?
To answer that question I would just say "Cheese!!!" I made some pasta the other day and the very sight of hot cheese swimming its way through the pasta took me down memory lane.

So here's for our love of Heidi, the Alps and the Cheese!

My version of the pasta, made with tomatoes, cheese and pepper.  Lip smacking! 

(Pasta doesn't have its origin in Switzerland, but because of the fair amount of cheese being used in its preparation, I feel Switzerland deserves some praise here.
P.S. Italians, please excuse!)