Being in a foreign culture (Switzerland)

The Gentle Giant and I took turns visiting each other every six weeks.  

On one of my visits to Switzerland, he took me hiking in the mountains, as usual.  We stopped for lunch somewhere.  I chose a clear soup for the first course, which was absolutely delicious.  It was given as “bouillon” in the menu.  I made a note of it, and when I came across it in a supermarket in Zürich, in a compressed cube (the size of a standard stock cube: approx. 1”x0.5”), I decided to repeat the yummy experience at home (in the Gentle Giant’s flat).  

While he was at work, I prepared the soup course for dinner.  One cube should be enough for two people.  Put the bouillon into boiling water, stirred, and tasted it.  It was incredibly, incredibly strong and salty.  Added some water to dilute it.  Still too strong.  Added some more water.

I ended up having to transfer the stuff to another, much bigger pot, because I had to thin it down something like 20 times, if not more.

When the Gentle Giant got home, I was close to tears.  He explained that bouillon means “soup” but also “stock” (as soup is usually made from stock).  The paste I’d bought was a stock cube: to add to soups (or stews) for extra flavouring, so one just uses a little bit as it’s a flavour enhancer, not the actual thing.  So I was trying to make a soup purely from a stock cube.

He later told the story to his Swiss friends and colleagues, who all had a good laugh.

(See also my blog Sopa Minuta).

Dictionary definition for bouillon: soup or stock.  French, literally ‘liquid in which something has boiled’, from bouillir ‘to boil’.

(Switzerland, 1987/8)